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As it is June, the legislatures of our fine Southern states are either done shoving their hands in the taxpayers’ piggy banks or else they are about to call it a sine die (final gavel comin’ down). I might hear from other residents across the South on this, but I do really think that Alabama topped the charts this year in terms of pork barrel spending. In fact, I’d give Alabama lawmakers a trophy.
For those of you who are not familiar with pork, here’s a quick refresher.

Lawmakers draw up a budget for the coming year. State agencies come, hat in hand, to tell the budget committee how much they need for another 365 days. Like, the State Troopers ask for $20 million to keep law and order and to purchase new SUVs for the highway patrol. Other entities, not state agencies, also ask the Legislature for money. Like, various arts and crafts groups or Head Start programs in poorer neighborhoods.

The Governor’s Mansion is always a line item in our budget. Wallpaper, it seems, just peels away in sheets with all that summer dew in Montgomery. We here in Bama have a penchant for buying our po-lice nice cars and giving our First Lady nice chaises.
Anyway, once the House of Representatives gets the budget on the floor for a vote, numerous last-minute needy persons and organizations are brought up in conversation. One House member recalls that the YMCA in his district needs a new roof. Another comes to the well with a line item that would give firefighters in his district Gold’s Gym gym privileges so that his boys will stay in shape.

Let’s say these 107 generous souls agree on a budget. Next, it goes upstairs to the Senate chamber where, likely as not, names will be called and a punch or two thrown. All that testosterone in one small room, who can blame them?
The senators then examine the budget and find that there’s enough spare change in it for each of them to insert a bit of lard here and a bit of fatback there. Some senators are better than others at this game. Lowell Baron, a good Democrat from the town of Fyffe, has long been our Undisputed King of Pork.

But this year, the entire legislature, every man-woman-jack of them, surpassed our wildest pork expectations. Our lawmakers gave themselves a 61 percent pay raise (state employees, by contrast, get about 3 percent a year).
It gets even better: Our elected officials in the Senate passed a resolution to give themselves a $500 a month CUT in their health insurance premiums. Yeppers.
You see, state law currently allows legislators to receive health insurance, but they have to pay the full cost of the coverage. That’s about $690 per month for family coverage. By contrast, state employees pony up about $180 per month for family coverage.
The resolution by Sen. E.B. McClain, D-Midfield, said that senators should get the same deal as state employees. It passed on a voice vote with hardly a ripple or a raised eyebrow.
And Lord love them, they waited until the closing moments of the session, near midnight, just before Lite Gov. Jim Folsom Jr. gaveled the session to a close.
Savoir faire, I tell ya!

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