The County Line
- Convention Issue 2004
Close Examination
of Local Laws Needed It is amazing what you
can find, even in the year 2004.
The phone
call was not that unusual. A county administrator, seeking a copy of one of her
county's local acts, called in for help. She knew the subject, but didn't know
the act number. She didn't have a copy of the Local Laws Index to look up the
act number. And she didn't have access to copies of her local laws, even if she
could find a Local Laws Index to look up the act number. So she picked up the
phone and called for help.
We were thankful
for the call, but took the opportunity to jostle with her a bit before turning
our attention to finding the copy she had requested. You see, Association personnel
have a nightmare about the day when everyone in county government has all the
answers and, consequently, stops calling the Association office. Not there yet,
thankfully again.
The local law in question
was one which authorized that particular county commission to levy a local tobacco
and gasoline tax. Predictably, the local law had been amended a couple of times
to redistribute the tax proceeds. But the proper local act was identified. And
our promise to "fax it right over" might have concluded the call had
it not been for one more question about something that seemed strange.
Right
there in the Local Laws Index was another local law; one providing authority for
the county commission to levy another tax that we had never heard the administrator
discuss. So, we felt the need to ask a couple of questions. This county and this
administrator - like most counties and county administrators today - struggle
each year to put together a budget to finance the operation of county government.
And we knew that it had been a long time since any new revenue had been generated.
So the question came, "How much money did
the county get this year from.…." There was silence on the other end
of the phone. Then came a short, loud, "What?" from a cracking voice.
It was one of those "Whats" that is hard to describe in print - a kind
of mix between "What, are you pulling my leg?" and "What did you
say, I'm about to scratch your eyes out!"
We
offered the act number and a short description of the act's contents, which was
followed by more "Whats" from the other end of the telephone. We then
concluded the call, dispatched a copy of the act and sent it on its way to the
sweaty hands at the courthouse awaiting its arrival.
It
seems, as you might have guessed by now, that the county had not levied the tax
since the local law was passed way back in the 1980's. In fact, no one in the
county seemed to be aware that the local law had even been passed. The county
had struggled each year to make budget; had searched for ways to raise revenue;
and was in the midst of trying to put together another budget that would be "lean
and mean" yet again. So this news was both welcome and confusing.
As
we bang this column out in early September, the county is investigating the possibility
of imposing the tax authorized by the act. Whether or not the tax will be levied
is, certainly, a local decision and will be made soon enough.
But
the point of recounting the story is to point out the need for a very close examination
of the local laws impacting each county in this state. It is a safe bet that if
all counties embarked on such a review, some would find additional authority they
did not know existed or - perhaps more importantly - some additional duty or requirement
that they didn't know they were supposed to be carrying out.
Obtaining
copies of the local laws is rather easy, as well. In addition to the "tried
and true" method of calling the ACCA for copies, there are on-line sources
with copies of most local laws. In fact, a few years back the Public Affairs Research
Council of Alabama received funding from the Alabama Legislature to develop an
on-line resource for reviewing local laws. That resource can be accessed at http://www.parca.samford.edu.
We encourage you to utilize either method,
but to be sensitive to that nightmare about no one calling the office for help.
And, just so you don't think that this kind of
"surprise" can only happen with local laws, here's another story. It
was just the other day that we received a fax from a different administrator asking
why the rates of a certain license had not been raised in her county in several
years. We soon found that the rates of this particular license had not been raised
for several years simply because the county had not acted to raise the rates.
The authority to do so was clear - right there in Alabama law.
The
day-to-day rush of developing budgets, making sure payroll is produced properly,
putting out personnel fires, dealing with courthouse problems and preparing for
the next county commission meeting makes it almost impossible to get time to stop
and "smell the roses" in Alabama's courthouses. There's little time
for planning and quiet reflection (or research and development, as they call it
in the business world).
But this little
experience the other day convinced us -- more than ever -- that such research
is necessary if counties are to survive in these lean times. No one believes that
there is a surprise revenue source awaiting every county. But one can reason that
there is at least one other administrator out there who will be shouting "What?"
if he or she can only get time to investigate that Local Laws Index. | 
