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Working hard for $98,000
Take for example the probe into that cesspool called the two year college system in Alabama- it seems that each week the revelations of what has been going on at some of these institutions become more indefensible. Now comes the report that Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, who receives pay checks totaling $98,000 a year from two of those institutions, has often submitted the same work reports to both schools. Often times this "work" he claimed to do was a brief report on his legislative service, and in one of them he endorsed the candidacy of Don Siegelman for governor. Understand Rep. Guin is no lightweight legislator…in fact he is House Majority leader…a facecard of the Democrat party. Perhaps the most stinging indictment of this triple-dipping by Guin…he also practices law and is being paid $49,000 a year as a legislator… came in a report submitted by a team of investigators who were assigned to find out what he did for his money. Listen to the conclusion of these investigators: "College personnel interviewd by the committee indicated that this person has no office on campus, does not regularly appear on campus and is of limited service to the college." And for that the Honorable Rep. Ken Guin is paid $98,000 a year. **** I will admit that polls fascinate me, and a new one just done by the Capitol Survey Research Center Montgomery is particularly intriguing. The poll was designed to measure the confidence Alabama registered voters have in state and local institutions and organizations. The results in some instances were predictable… others were eye-opening. Leading the list as the institution which is viewed with the greatest confidence were churches…that no surprise…and a close second were doctors and medical professionals. At the bottom of the scale were labor unions (Alabama has never been an organized labor state), the state legislature, the legal profession (what did Shakespeare write about members of the Bar: "First, let's kill all the lawyers…"), and what may come as a surprise, very near the bottom was the Alabama Christian Coalition. Interestingly, local weekly newspapers generated more confidence among those polled than statewide newspapers. Another interesting fact gleaned from this survey….the confidence expressed by the people in both public and private schools has declined considerably in the past few years. In 1999 a similar poll showed public schools with an 87 percent "high confidence" rating…the most recent poll showed this number had dropped to 75 percent. The "confidence rating" of private schools had dropped even more during the same period- from 75 percent to 62 percent. **** With the badly divided State Senate in an ugly brawl it is unlikely that much will be accomplished in the regular session of the Legislature for weeks. The so-called Republican Coalition in the Senate…12 Republicans and four or five Democrats…are still incensed at what they believe was the shortchanging they got in the organizational session in committee assignments and the rules which were adopted. And this group has vowed to lock down the Senate until the Democrat majority makes some concessions. Meanwhile the House of Representatives has moved at a remarkably brisk pace. It has already passed a bill which will prohibit legislators from getting state funds appropriated to a particular agency and then having that money turned over to them for their own projects…the so-called "Pass Through Pork Bill." As commendable as it may be that the House passed the measure, the members had to know that its chances of passage in the Senate are slim and none…and you know where Slim is.
Bob Ingram has been covering Alabama politics for over 50 years.
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