The Legislature's bad intentions

THE ISSUE: A state Senate committee threw up a roadblock to a bill that would have taken some of the politics out of paving.

 

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, where does the road paved with bad intentions lead? To the Legislature?

It's easy to wonder that after watching a majority of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday kill a plan to bring some much-needed sanity to roadbuilding in Alabama. Six committee members, five of them from rural areas that often benefit the most from state paving projects, voted against a bill that would take control of the state Department of Transportation away from the governor and give it to an appointed commission.

The way things are now, politics, not road graders, can drive the paving process. Each new administration brings in a new transportation director appointed by the governor. Often, that director changes during administrations. (Joe McInnes, the transportation director for Gov. Bob Riley since 2003, said he has served longer than any other director of the past 30 years.) The Transportation Department's priorities shift with each new governor, making it just about impossible for the state to have firm, realistic, long-range plans.

Worse, governors have dangled road projects in legislative districts in exchange for votes in favor of a governor's proposal. Former state Highway Department Director Ray Bass said it best a few years back about governors playing politics. "It's not a myth," said Bass, who served under George Wallace in the 1970s and 1980s. "It's always been a fact that road decisions tend to favor areas where the support came from."

Too, legislators have done horse-trading of their own. Just last year, the Democratic majority in the Senate tucked into the General Fund $1 million for road projects widely viewed as a reward for Sen. Phil Poole, D-Moundville, joining their ranks to retain control of the Senate.

Riley, to his credit, has resisted the temptation to trade roads for votes, and supported the bill to create a Transportation Commission. Under the bill, the governor would appoint a five-member commission that would control the Transportation Department and hire or fire its director. Obviously, that means a governor could still exert political influence, although because of staggered terms, future governors would have much less influence. That's especially true because those governors could no longer swap road projects for legislative votes.

Yes, as long as there are elected officials, politics will play a role in roadbuilding. But a Transportation Commission would at least reduce that role.

A commission independent of the Legislature would help ensure that roads get built not because of politics, but because of need. Imagine that.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, passed the House last month 95-1. Yet a half-dozen Senate committee members killed it for this session. Those who voted in favor of a commission were: Sens. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale; Linda Coleman, D-Birmingham; Larry Dixon, R-Montgomery; and Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills.

Voting against the bill were: Sens. Kim Benefield,, D-Woodland; Pat Lindsey, D-Butler; Larry Means, D-Attalla; Wendell Mitchell, D-Luverne; Jim Preuitt, D-Talladega; and Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery.

Their bad intentions ensure, for at least one more year, that politics remain as much a part of the formula for road paving as asphalt.