More on the 9-18-12 Vote

     Opinions continue to flood in about the election a week from Tuesday in which Alabama voters will be asked to approve (yet another) amendment to the Alabama Constitution. 
     It's the only item on the ballot that day. 
     It would allow use of $435-Million ub Trust Fund money to prop up the General Fund Budget over the next three years. Without the extra cash, even more drastic cuts than what has become normal are forecast for some state agencies, like Medicaid and Corrections.

     George Clark of the lobbying group "Manufacture Alabama" argues today---persuasively, I would say---in favor of the amendment in an Op-Ed piece in today's Birmingham News.
     But he does not address the more basic question here. Why are we voting on this in the first place? Why did the legislature not balance the budget without raiding the piggy bank?
     If you believe one South Alabama resident at a luncheon the other day, the few people who go to the polls will say no:

"Everyone in this room supports our state. But if we raid this trust fund, we’re no better than the Democrats..."

     Got it? Let the house burn down rather than "raid" your savings to buy water to put out the fire.
    Read the entire article by The Press-Register's George Talbot here.