By Jim Cox
SA Publisher

Bees, berries and bourbon...but little else

By the time you read this only two legislative days will likely remain in the Alabama Legislature’s regular session. The session must end by May 17.

In one respect, you can utter a sigh of relief that no great damage has been done this session. But you can utter an even greater sigh that nothing great has been done to benefit our state either.

A general fund budget that state government must have to operate hasn’t been passed and the bickering continues over proposed cuts and funding sources.

A smattering of taxes—tobacco taxes and other increases here and there—have been proposed. Some legislators are eyeing bond issue monies set earmarked by voters for capital improvements as a source of funding. Others have vowed to fight that proposal hard, even to the point of not having a budget if it comes to that.

Our legislators—and all of us—refuse to face the music that we must have complete tax reform in order for state government to operate effectively and efficiently.

Early in the session, Gov. Bob Riley proposed a package of accountability bills that would make government more accountable to the people. All of those have been shot down.

Another "good government" bill was also killed Wednesday, in a backhanded sort of way. The Senate Government Affairs Committee canceled a meeting where a rewrite of Alabama’s open meetings law was to be discussed. The cancellation effectively killed any chance of the bill’s passage this session.

Alabama’s open meetings law has served this state well since early in the 20th Century but a recent ruling by the State Supreme Court so riddled it with holes as to make it all but obsolete.

An updated law is needed to protect the public’s right to know what elected and appointed governmental boards and bodies are doing.

But the session hasn’t been a complete waste, I suppose.

This session has given Alabama an official fruit, an official insect and an official state spirit (the liquid kind, not the supernatural).

Students in a Baldwin County school were delighted that their proposal to designate the common blackberry as the state’s official fruit was ratified.

The blackberry can be found in great abundance in all 67 counties and makes delicious jelly and cobblers.

There was some jockeying by a Chilton County legislator to make the peach (grown in great abundance there) a co-state fruit but it lost out. So did a push by a north Alabama legislator to include the Sand Mountain Potato as the state vegetable.

The backers of the queen honey bee also found favor this session as the queen bee was cloaked with the title of official state insect.

I’ll go along with anything so long as it isn’t a pesky mosquito or red bug, even though you can use the blackberry argument that the mosquito and red bugs can also be found in all 67 counties.

But the toughest fight was a few weeks ago over the designation of "official state spirit."

A sharp promoter from Troy found a distiller in Kentucky to make and bottle his daddy’s old moonshine recipe. He named it "Conecuh Ridge Fine Alabama Whiskey" and then had the great idea of getting Alabama legislators to label it the state’s official brand. He must know them well.

They did, overriding a veto by Gov. Riley who protested that, the whiskey issue aside, the state shouldn’t be in the business of endorsing commercial products.

Riley had about as much luck as he did getting his tax package approved by the voters last year.

So, you can see this session hasn’t been completely unproductive.

We have an official state berry, an official state bee and an official state bourbon.

Now, the crowning finale would be accomplishing some official state business, such as passing a general fund budget.

But I’d bet you a bottle of the state’s official state spirit that we likely won’t see a budget out of this session.