Lawlessness Continues in the Alabama Senate
By: Blake Deshazo
Updated: March 22, 2013
Montgomery
- Just a couple of weeks after the Republican Supermajority in the
Alabama Senate violated the Alabama
Open Meetings Act by pulling a bait and switch in a back room deal aimed
at harming public schools, Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey closed out the
week before Spring Break by violating the Alabama Constitution.
The Constitution calls for a minimum of 18 members to be present in the Senate to begin conducting business. Despite
having 22 members (a supermajority), the Republicans can't seem to get their act together. On Tuesday, only 16 members answered the roll call (two short of a quorum).
The Lieutenant Governor opened the Senate anyway.
Democrats
have no control over what time the Senate decides to begin conducting
business and Democrats were present and ready to get to work.
"Because
Kay Ivey can't count and Del Marsh and his members don't seem to have
respect for the taxpayers, an entire legislative day was wasted in the
Alabama Senate
this week," said Alabama Democrats Chair, Mark Kennedy. "We have so many difficult issues to tackle, yet the Republican Supermajority and Kay Ivey squandered one of our
only 30 legislative days this session, wasting thousands of dollars of taxpayer's money. The Republican Supermajority needs to stop trying to conduct business behind closed
doors."
