Alabama Amendments & Forever Wild Rant
Just my opinions...
How Forever Wild works:
& A real short write up re: my
opinions on Alabama Amendments
from sddrawings.com
YES - Amendment 1 for Forever Wild
YES - Amendment 2 - Bond issues - Amends current Bonds to allow issuance of general obligation bonds to provide funds as job incentives
YES - Amendment 7, allow unions to have secret votes (old union guy here, I'm good with that)
YES - Amendment 8 - Legislatures Provide that the compensation paid to legislators can not be increased during term of office. Repeals last years pay raise
NO - Amendment 9 - Taxes Allows legislature to implement business privilege tax on corporations, and Churches
Yes - Amendment 11 - Prohibit any municipality outside of Lawrence County from imposing any municipal ordinance Keeps Decatur from overpowering Lawrence County.
all others, you guys are on your own
Good thing is, Foreverwild pays for itself through the interest of monies gained from selling our state's natural oil & gas reserves. So essentially we are selling public resources, to acquire land in our state. Forever Wild then makes these lands available for EVERYONE to use. It's hard share raw crude oil and have fun in the tar fields, alot easier to trade that for some pristine wilderness action.
In some places that Foreverwild has purchased lands, the mineral rights and timber rights may have already been sold. Meaning you might see an oil well or a clear cut on public land. Once the lease runs out, that'll be that though. 10% of the sale of our petroleum sales go to a trust fund for Forever Wild, Forever wild can only draw so much at a time from the interest earned, leaving the Lion's share in the fund.
So it buys private land (note: anyone can suggest a purchase) out of the interest earned. It's a great setup. The same funds pay for land upkeep, controlled burning, wildlife control etc etc. Even if the renewal doesn't pass, there's enough income generated from the account to keep up the land in it's possession indefinitely (sunset laws). This keeps the lands from being a burden on the state (read tax payers), then the 10% income Forever Wild would have received is just put back into the general fund.
Like I said, a wonderfully and beautifully enacted piece of legislation.
IF Foreverwild vote does not pass, it ONLY continues in a "sunset act" way. Which is to maintain the lands it currently holds. The organization is absolved, jobs lost and the "funds" you are talking about come from the additional interest accrued from it's current account balance. There's more jobs created out of Forever Wild than would be made by those in power now, don't think those we "intrust" to make our decisions for us wouldn't use that money for something foolish.
The idea some people have is that they REALLY want to put their hands on that money coming in from the selling off of our oil and natural gas reserves. Literally the state is selling the minerals from the ground, it gives Forever Wild 10% of those funds. Those resources are Public domain, they belong to everyone in the state of Alabama.
Certain people want to get all they can for their special little projects, Forever Wild is using public resources no one can go out and enjoy (oil and gas under the Gulf) in such a great way, as to provide Public resources we ALL can enjoy forever. This doesn't COST us anything. We get wonderful places to hike and camp and enjoy in the great outdoors. Plus, it allows us to keep walking around and breathing up all the fresh air and what not.
Happy Trails!
Michael Sherrod
