Illustration by Sarah FaulknerMark Linn - Copy Editorcopy@insideuab.com
Nov. 8 is election day. Issues of national importance like the election of the president and other national offices will be decided, but Alabama voters will also have the opportunity to decide many state offices as well as 14 amendments to the state constitution, several of which have potential implications for UAB.
Here’s a short guide on all the amendments relevant to Jefferson County and the state as a whole. Of the other amendments, Amendment 1 would add two additional seats to the Auburn Board of Trustees. Amendments 7, 9, 10 and 12 are specific to issues in Etowah, Pickens, Calhoun and Baldwin counties, respectively.
Amendment 2
Since 2012, more than $15 million has been taken from the state park budget for the state general fund. Last year, five state parks were closed for public use. Three of the parks have since reopened, but two have lost their state park status and are now operated by local municipalities and the third, Paul Grist Park, has been leased by the state to Dallas County.
“The Alabama State Park System is unique. It’s one of the few in the country that’s completely self-funded, so there is no money appropriated by the state to run the state parks,” said Mickie Lynn Powell, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, who’s been involved in pro-Amendment 2 efforts. Powell and other proponents point out that state parks are virtually self-sufficient, and bring in tens of millions of revenue to the state yearly.
The amendment would further allow the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to hire and maintain park facilities such as concessions and golf courses. Private vendors are already used at some park facilities but are not allowed at others due to a previous state amendment which requires the DCNR to be the sole operator of any park benefiting from bond issue funds.
Opponents of the amendment are concerned that the language concerning private vendors would allow for the effective privatization of the state parks. Charley Grimsley, former commissioner of DCNR, wrote an editorial to al.com opposing the amendment.
“Amendment 2 on State Parks has been advertised as a way to protect state park revenues. If that were all it did, it would be good,” Grimsley wrote. “But like a Trojan horse, hidden inside is something you probably didn’t know. Amendment 2 would allow state park privatization, and turning our state parks over to private corporations is something we should never do.”
Proponents of the amendment like Powell dismiss such concerns, arguing that any bond issues to facilities that would bring in private contractors would come before the public forum anyway, and the amendment solely deals with protecting park funding.
An issue arose with early printings of the ballot, including some that were mailed to absentee voters, where a printing error caused the first two paragraphs of the amendment to be omitted, leaving only the paragraph concerning private vendors, according to the Alabama Secretary of State’s office. The mistake was attributed to human error and has forced approximately 2.7 million ballots to be reprinted for the election.
Amendment 3
This amendment would change how constitutional amendments affecting only one county are put up for a vote. It would institute a new procedure to decide whether amendments would go on a statewide ballot or only in the county affected, as determined by lawmakers.
Amendment 4
This amendment would allow counties to adopt certain policies and programs without the approval of the state legislature. This would not include new taxes or fees.
Amendment 5
This amendment would consolidate the language in the constitution that deals with the separation of powers in the legislative, executive and judicial branches. It would combine two previously separate sections and remove the antiquated language, but make no substantive changes to the law, according to an analysis by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.
Amendment 6
This amendment would repeal and replace Article VII of the state constitution, which deals with impeachment of the governor and other elected officials. The new amendment would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate to remove an official from office. The current version does not specify a vote requirement. The amendment would also add members of the Board of Education to the list of officials who can be impeached, as well as remove the state superintendent of education from the list.
Amendment 8
This amendment would put Alabama’s current so-called “right-to-work” law in the constitution. The law forbids making union membership a condition of employment, and forbid requiring employees to pay union dues.
Amendment 10
This amendment deals with the Major 21st Century Manufacturing Zone Act, which allows cities and counties to create special zones to incentivize industrial development and reclaim areas of blight, according to the PARCA analysis. Passing the amendment would allow cities and counties to sell these properties at below market value to attract economic development.
Amendment 13
This amendment would repeal age restrictions for elections or appointments of public officials, with the exception of age 70 for judges. This change would mostly apply to school boards such as the University of Alabama Board of Trustees, which currently also has an age restriction of 70. The amendment would also prohibit lawmakers from enacting an age limit on any office.
“Our state has never lacked for qualified individuals to serve as judges nor on certain boards,” said state Rep. Jack Williams (R-Vestavia), who sponsored several bills related to the reinstatement of UAB football last year. “When this was debated in Montgomery I was not convinced there is a shortage of able individuals.”
Williams said that the age limit helps set de facto term limits for members of the UA Board of Trustees.
“Remember, this is a self-perpetuating board. In theory, an individual could be appointed in their 30’s or 40’s and serve for 50 or 60 years,” Williams said. “I don’t think that is healthy for our system. I don’t generally favor term limits because it denies voters the right to choose. But there is no right to choose when the issue is a self-perpetuating board.”
Amendment 14
This amendment would validate hundreds of local laws related to the budget that is already in place.
The problem comes from a rule by the state House, which considers a ‘budget resolution amendment’ to require the approval of three-fifths of those voting, which is a lower than the 1984 requirement, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
Traditionally, state lawmakers do not vote on local bills that do not affect their district, so hundreds of bills have been passed under the House BIR rule but failed to meet the standard of the 1984 requirement. These conflicting requirements took center stage last year when a Jefferson County judge ruled a sales tax unconstitutional because it did not adhere to the 1984 rule.
This would clear the issue of budget matters passed under BIR which allows the suspension of a rule that requires legislators to pass budgets before other bills.
This requires a simple vote of “not less than three-fifths of a quorum present,” and has been done on a regular basis since 1984 when the requirement was first passed.
This issue is particularly relevant for UAB, since public funding for the BJCC, which includes the proposed football stadium that would house the Blazer football team was passed under the House BIR rules. Proponents of Amendment 14 worry that should it fail to pass, hundreds of funding bills including the one for the stadium would be open for lawsuits.
“It’s a real risk. And the way we avoid that risk as a community of people who want this infrastructure is that we got to go vote,” said Raymond Thompson, Ph.D., president of the National Alumni Society. “We’ve got to go vote yes on Amendment 14.”
On Oct. 13, UAB released a statement in support of Amendment 14.
“Amendment 14 on Alabama’s Nov. 8 ballot is good for UAB, Birmingham, Jefferson County and Alabama,” the statement read. “For UAB, passage of Amendment 14 protects the proposed stadium at the BJCC that will be home to UAB Football and other events. This venue will accelerate UAB Football’s ascension and - like Regions Field - is important to continued downtown revitalization and momentum.”
