Shelby County resident Trudie Hudson has filed a lawsuit against the Hoover city and Shelby County boards of education and the Alabama state school superintendent for not preventing politically active organizations from using taxpayer resources to collect membership dues by payroll deductions in aid of political activity, which is strictly prohibited by state law.
After Republicans passed a law banning the practice in 2010, the Alabama Education Association (AEA) successfully sued to block its implementation. However, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately overturned the lower court’s ruling and put the law into effect in February of this year.
It took the Alabama Department of Education over two months after the 11th Circuit’s ruling to notify school districts around the state that they must comply with the law.
Organizations can continue receiving dues via payroll deduction, but they must first certify that none of the money collected will be used for political purposes. They are also required to provide details on what the money being collected through payroll deductions is being used for.
The AEA sprung into action and wrote a letter to local school districts telling them that AEA dues should continue being collected via payroll deductions until they had more time to show that the money is not being used for political purposes. As a result, the lawsuit filed this week argues that the AEA has received hundreds of thousands of dollars — even millions — in direct violation of state law.
In the nine month period between June 2013 and March 2014, The AEA’s political action committee received over $2 million through taxpayer-funded payroll deductions. They collected almost a quarter-million dollars in April of this year alone and are widely believed to have funneled the money through a series of non-profit organizations and PACs built do disguise the origin of the money.
Hudson’s lawsuit argues that school officials have had years to come into compliance with state law.
“They have had over three years since the Act was signed into law to prepare to implement the Act upon its taking effect,” the suit says. “Therefore, the time has long come and gone for allowing school systems a reasonable opportunity to ‘work in good faith to implement’ the Act.”
Sally Howell, executive director for the Alabama Association of School Boards, said she believes local school boards are trying to implement the law but are being caught up in a political crossfire.
“It is shameful that local school boards are being sued, school employees are being threatened with criminal arrest and more lawsuits are being threatened as a result of a political duel between warring partisan factions,” said Howell. “School boards across this state are making good faith efforts to stop payroll deductions for various membership organizations as required by state law and recent court order. The fact that we are not doing it fast enough to satisfy some interests and too fast for others already has meant that valuable time and energy — not to mention money — has been wasted fending off these attacks.”
State Sen. Bryan Taylor, R-Prattville, who is Mrs. Hudson’s attorney, told Yellowhammer today that Howell’s characterization of their lawsuit could not be further from the truth.
“This isn’t politics. This is anti-politics,” said Taylor. “The taxpayer who filed this lawsuit simply aims to stop the politics of misappropriating taxpayer funds and taxpayer funded personnel, property and time to support the political activities of special interests, whoever they may be. As the complaint states, it’s illegal, it has been illegal for over three years, and there’s no justification for it to still be going on.”
Taylor also dismissed the AEA’s continuing assertion that the law was crafted to single them out.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the liberal AEA or the conservative Tea Party,” Taylor said. “Our claim simply says the law is the law, and public education dollars should not be used in aid of any private organization’s political agenda.”
The Alabama Education Association appears to have successfully defied the law long enough to fund their political operation through this election cycle, but it is only a matter of time before they will have to find a new way to collect their money.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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