Did Alabama’s leaders fail to explain why Alabama’s ethics law needed to be tweaked?

In the last session of the quadrennium, before an election, the Alabama Legislature passed a law changing the ethics rules for economic developers, which was supported by Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall.  Opinion columnists in Alabama’s political press have declared “Alabama politicians aren’t even trying to hide the corruption anymore“, “The fat cats win. Ethical government loses.”, and stated that “you don’t have to break the law when you’re the one who makes the law”, all of which is untrue.

But, this isn’t about the authors of those opinion pieces, and Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh acknowledged a failure by the authors and supporters of this fix to refute these absurd notions. That failure of messaging on this bill has created a golden opportunity for Alabama Democrats and their media outlets. The real explanation is far less nefarious, as explained by Marsh on the radio this morning:

“There are many times, at the state level, that projects are under consideration that they don’t even disclose to me as the Pro Tem of the Senate. Because they have given agreements to these people looking at the state of Alabama that they will keep extremely quiet until a decision is made.”

Why this matters: To be clear, no developers were registering as lobbyists. This codified into law what was being done in practice. The fear was, the way the ethics law was written, it could have required they do so in the future which would hamper Alabama’s ability to attract manufacturing and retail development, and the jobs that come with those programs. Other states were using this to compete against Alabama. The real world impact of not changing this law would be less economic development in the state, fewer jobs, and a happy liberal media. The ethics bill was fixed by this bill, not broken by it, anyone telling you otherwise has probably been lying to you about other things as well.

 

@TheDaleJackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a conservative talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN in Huntsville.