Not this year

THE ISSUE

A bill that would allow public employees to hold statewide office - a reaction to a state school board rule prohibiting two-year college employees from holding office - has died in the Legislature.

Not all bills that die in the state Senate backwash at the end of the legislative session are good bills. A case in point is one that would have ensured that public employees may hold statewide elected offices.

The bill had the backing of the Alabama Education Association and the state Employees Association. The bill was a response to a decision months ago by the state school board to prohibit employees of two-year colleges from holding statewide elected office. That decision was in response to the ongoing federal and state investigation of corruption within the two-year college system that has yielded guilty pleas on multiple corruption charges from former postsecondary Chancellor Roy Johnson and others.

AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert announced Wednesday that the powerful teachers' lobbying organization has given up on the bill's passage this year. But he also said AEA will pursue a court challenge of the school board's rule.

The contentious bill centers on a long-standing Alabama tradition of teachers and two-year colleges exercising direct influence in the Legislature over education funding, especially teacher pay. Though so-called double-dipping - state employees drawing a second state paycheck through serving in the Legislature - is highly unpopular with the public, all attempts to end the practice have been rebuffed in the deep committee caverns of Goat Hill. The state school board's prohibition on postsecondary employees serving in the Legislature, which takes effect in the 2010 election cycle, sent a minor shock wave through AEA and state employee ranks.

Hubbert and others who oppose the double-dipping ban say it may be unconstitutional, but they fail to recognize the practice is highly unethical at the very least. Should legislators be allowed to vote on bills that affect their employment and pay? Certainly not.