Why we needed a special session

By Staff
Jerry Fancher
Governor Riley has announced a called special session of the Alabama Legislature.
Why is it necessary to call this session?
Governor Riley was forced to call a special session after the Legislature failed to pass the education budget during the regular session, which ended May 19.
The Alabama Constitution requires the Legislature to pass the Education and General Fund Budgets by the tenth legislative day.
The last sentence of the call explains why the taxpayers of Alabama will be burdened with hundreds of thousands of unnecessary expenses because of the Senate's disregard of the Constitution of the state of Alabama.
It reads, "All legislation relating to gambling in any form, at any location, and for any purpose is expressly excluded from this call and shall require a two-thirds vote for consideration during the duration of this extraordinary session of the Alabama Legislature."
"The public comments by many legislators that they expect a very brief, down-to-business session are very reassuring, said Governor Riley.
"It is a shame we have to even have a special session to pass the education budget. Legislators need to understand: failure is not an option. If they don't pass the education budget during this special session, we'll come right back and have another one. It's up to them."
If the Legislature takes the full 30 days to pass the budget, it would cost Alabama taxpayers a staggering $450,000 for this unnecessary special session.
This session resulted from the filibuster of the senators with gambling interest to pass bills favorable to their causes.
If the senators were contractors to thesState of Alabama, they would have to fulfill their duty to pass the education budget at their own expense. The possibility of paying their share of $450,000 would probably get the education budget passed by the tenth day of the regular session. Our legislators cannot understand why the citizens of Alabama are disillusioned with their job performance.
Jerry Fancher is Chairman of the Franklin County Republican Executive Committee. He can be reached via email at jfanchergop@yahoo.com.