Gambling debate shows a bigger problem with our state government

By Brent Maze (Contact) | Alex City Outlook

Published Thursday, March 4, 2010

If the gambling debate is confusing enough, finding out who has jurisdiction over closing down gambling operations is making my head hurt.

First of all, district attorneys are usually the prosecutors for any lawbreaking in a county, but the attorney general’s office also does prosecute some cases. Now, Gov. Bob Riley is saying he and his task force have jurisdiction to shut down casinos across the state.

Here’s a great example of this. E. Paul Jones, district attorney for Tallapoosa, Macon, Chambers, and Randolph counties, said the electronic bingo machines at the VictoryLand casino are legal after he and the Macon County sheriff watched a demonstration.

However, Riley, although he hasn’t seen the demonstration, still maintains that the machines were illegal and that VictoryLand onwer Milton McGregor tampered with the machines to make them appear legal now.

At this time, Attorney General Troy King hasn’t chimed in on the discussion, but I feel it won’t be too long before he does.

So who’s right – Riley, King or Jones? Or the better question might be “Whose opinion is the one that counts?”

I honestly don’t know, but I blame it all on our state constitution. It makes absolutely no sense that our executive branch is all elected individually. No wonder nothing can get done in our state because the executive branch is divided from the top down.

The governor and the lieutenant governor could be from different parties, thus, not allowing them the chance to work together.

The governor could say that the state’s finances are in disarray, taking a shot at the state treasurer, but the state treasurer’s hands could be tied by the governor. It just makes it easier for everyone to blame someone else for doing a poor job.

And it creates a problem with who enforces state laws in Alabama and who determines the laws that need to be enforced. The executive branch, of course, enforces the law, but is it the governor or the attorney general that determines that?

Riley and King both have their own law enforcement investigators and task forces. They both have a team of lawyers working for them. And I don’t agree with that.

I think our state government should mirror the federal government in this respect. When you elect a governor, he should pick his lieutenant governor and cabinet members. That’s the only way you won’t see this kind of bickering back and forth in the same branch of government.

I know people love to vote for every single office in our state, but why can’t we elect fewer people on our ballot and hold them to a higher standard?

The only offices we vote for in the federal government are one representative, two senators and the president/vice president ticket. Why can’t it be that simple for state government?

When you vote on 15 to 20 offices in each general election, it’s hard to keep up with each and every individual office. If we only follow five or six people each election cycle, I think we can see clearly who’s doing a good job and who isn’t.

And the only way to fix this problem is to rewrite our state constitution. That probably won’t happen this year, but our state really needs to address this problem as soon as possible.

Brent Maze is the Web editor for The Alexander City Outlook. His column appears each Friday.

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