President's Message - Fall 2000

Hard Work Pays Off--Amendment 1 Passes

Like most county officials in Alabama, I've waited out my share of election nights, pacing around the courthouse as the votes are counted. But it was pleasant on Nov. 7, 2000, to avoid all that stress since we knew the outcome nice and early.

The outcome I mean, of course, is the amazing support of Amendment 1 that resounded from almost every voting booth in the state of Alabama. The passage of this amendment was a historic event for county government and testimony to hard work from a host of groups throughout our state, not the least of which is our county governments.

Never before in my experience in Alabama politics have I seen such widespread support for any idea or candidate. Republicans, Democrats, rural voters, urban voters, farmers, businessmen, county officials, city officials and just about everybody in between supported this amendment. The list of those endorsing the amendment read like a who's who of Alabama's political world.

And right in the middle of that list sits Alabama's county commissioners. The huge vote in favor of this amendment was testimony to the power of the most traditional of all political capital -- personal influence. For the last three months county officials have walked the streets, met with civic leaders, given luncheon speeches to community groups and focused the communities' attention on the need to repair the bridges that are causing school buses to detour more than 17,000 miles each day. And it worked -- in a big way.

More than 65 percent of the voters in Alabama approved Amendment 1. You can see the county-by-county totals on the facing page.

Now it would be wrong for us to try to take more than our share of the credit for the passage of this amendment. We were only a part of a very impressive team that was put together by Gov. Don Siegelman and his Alabama Commerce Commission. But we were an important part of that impressive team.

Gov. Siegelman traveled this state, making stops in more than 50 counties to inspect the condition of the county bridges and to rally support for this amendment. In fact, the day after the election, he was presented with a plaque as an honorary bridge inspector from the Alabama Department of Transportation. And others, like Dr. Thomas Meredith from the University of Alabama System and Dr. David Bronner of the Retirement System of Alabama, also logged their share of miles throughout the state in support of Amendment 1.

But it was the public's desire to replace the decaying county brides that rang home to the voters. And it was that issue that ensured the passage of this important amendment.

Many of you remember that cold day in February of 1999 when the Association sponsored the "County Road and Bridge Summit" bringing together a host of groups that depend on rural transportation for their livelihood and safety. The Montgomery Civic Center was alive that day with excitement from loggers, business leaders, education representatives, county officials and state leaders all excited about the possibility of generating revenue for the replacement of county brides in our state.

I remember our then president Sam Jones who stood before that group and opened the session by saying "For the next two days we will focus our sights on what I believe is one of the best-kept secrets in Alabama -- the crumbling condition of our rural transportation system."

Sam's remarks continued, "Many times funding requests of county officials are discounted as being like the little boy crying wolf. However, there are more than 1,600 county-maintained bridges that are in such poor condition that school buses cannot safely cross them. This must change. And we, as county officials, cannot be happy until it does change."

From that day forward, the public support for this bridge replacement program grew on almost a daily basis. In the summer of 1999, the real question was not whether we would have a bridge replacement program in Alabama, but rather how we would fund the program that the public was demanding.

Credit goes to the leaders in the Siegelman administration who found an innovative way to generate the needed revenue for the bridge program as well as many other infrastructure needs in our state -- without raising taxes. The amendment not only provides the funds necessary to make these improvements, it also modernizes the investment approach in the Alabama Trust Fund in such a way that counties will actually see their annual appropriation from the trust fund income grow, rather than decline.

Things are moving very quickly. By the time you read this column, some county bridge replacement projects will have been submitted to the Alabama Department of Transportation for funding. During the next five years there will be little time for reflection -- all our efforts will be focused on replacing bridges and resurfacing roads.

But for just a few minutes back on election night, it was nice to sit back and savor a long-awaited victory that was clear very early in the vote-counting process.