Return surplus to taxpayers, Moore urges

By Phillip Rawls
The Associated Press


Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Moore speaks Friday at a news conference in Birmingham. Moore wrote Republican legislators Friday urging them to vote to return a $500 million budget surplus to Alabama taxpayers.
-- Butch Dill

BIRMINGHAM -- Former Chief Justice Roy Moore wrote Republican legislators Friday, urging them to vote to return a $500 million budget surplus to Alabama taxpayers, the latest shift in his position on what to do with the surplus.

The Republican candidate for governor said the money should be returned "to the taxpaying people of this state now" rather than waiting until fiscal 2007, as Gov. Bob Riley has proposed, because Montgomery officials tend to spend any money that is sitting around.

At a news conference at a Birmingham hotel, Moore laid out an agenda he would like to see the Democrat-controlled Legislature accomplish during its session that begins Tuesday. Among his priorities: Bonuses to teachers on merit rather than across-the-board pay raises, ease prison overcrowding with help of private and religious groups, and penalties for businesses that hire illegal aliens.

A Riley spokesman said Moore's list looks familiar. "Virtually each and every issue he outlined, Gov. Riley has proposed or supported over the last three years," spokesman Dax Swatek said.

Riley and Moore face off in the Republican primary for governor June 6. The winner advances to the general election Nov. 7.

In October, after the state ended fiscal 2005 with a budget surplus, Moore called for the state to save the surplus for future needs. In December, Moore urged the Legislature to vote quickly in January to return $200 million to taxpayers and save the rest of the surplus.

On Friday, he called for the full $500 million to be returned to taxpayers. Moore said saving all or some of the surplus would be the practical approach to take, but rainy day funds tend to get spent by Montgomery politicians before a rainy day arrives.

"If you put it in a rainy day fund, it won't be there the next sunshiny day," he said.

Riley has proposed allocating $500 million for education construction projects and then using any surplus beyond to give a tax refund in fiscal 2007.

Swatek said Riley wants to give a tax refund after important needs in public schools and colleges are met, and his recommended funding levels for public education in fiscal 2007 will set state records.

In Moore's recommendations to the Legislature, he called for:

# Ending the annual property tax reappraisals begun by Riley's administration.

# Providing bonuses to teachers and principals whose schools show measurable success rather than providing another across-the-board pay raise like the 6 percent boost teachers got in October.

# Reducing prison overcrowding by involving the private sector and religious organizations in programs to reduce the rate of inmates returning to prison for new crimes.

# Stopping any expansion of gambling in Alabama.

# Enacting substantial penalties for businesses that hire illegal aliens.

Riley's spokesman said the governor's tax force on prison overcrowding has made several recommendations to the Legislature to reduce inmate recidivism, including providing extensive programs to prevent alcohol and drug abuse that are often the cause of crime.

Riley's spokesman said the governor proposed bonuses for teachers in 2004, but the Legislature rejected them. The administration also has cracked down on illegal aliens by signing an agreement with the federal government that makes Alabama one of three states where state troopers can arrest illegal aliens, Swatek said.

Moore's news conference was attended by several supporters, some of whom asked questions about his stand on illegal aliens.

Bill Slappey, owner of Slappey Communications in Birmingham, said he agrees laws about illegal aliens should be enforced, but politicians need to address what businesses should do when they can't find enough legal workers to fill all available jobs.

Moore said the state should make greater use of its technical schools and other public and private programs to teach inmates a trade so that upon their release from prison, they can fill jobs now held by illegal aliens.