Riley, Folsom team up to push incentive plan

By Staff
Bob Ingram, Capitol Scene
If you are a baseball fan you could call it a walk-off home run — a home run to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.
The cantankerous state Senate, after weeks of being tied up in a logjam, finally put politics behind in the shank of the evening last week and passed the critically needed incentive bill which the state hopes will be the final piece in luring the huge ThyssenKrupp steel mill to Alabama.
It didn't come easy. In fact, it came after almost 10 hours of name-calling and negotiating. But, importantly, the measures were passed unanimously. Those on the inside were giving much credit to Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom in working out the compromise.
Folsom had been a huge supporter of the legislation after going to Germany with Gov. Bob Riley to meet with the steel company’s officials some months ago. Riley's decision to invite Folsom and House Speaker Seth Hammett to accompany him on that trip was one of his smarter political moves.
Folsom could not conceal his pleasure at the last minute passage of the bills.
It is an interesting historical sidebar to this story that Folsom was governor and played a key role in luring another German industry — Mercedes-Benz — to Alabama in the early 1990s.
If Alabama does indeed land the steel plant (there is still no guarantee of that) Folsom will have another feather in his cap as he gears up for the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
And to those who think the state offers too much to lure industry to Alabama — that we give away everything but the kitchen sink — I was in your camp when the state was trying to lure Mercedes to Alabama. I was one of those who thought the state had lost its mind. I even wrote a column or two and broadcast a television editorial or two in opposition to the hundreds of millions of dollars the state was offering.
How wrong I was. The landing of Mercedes was the most significant, most historical industrial recruitment in history.
When Mercedes chose Alabama, the world took notice and the rest is history.
It happened again last week. Rep. Demetrius Newton, D-Birmingham, sponsored the bill this year and when he sought to bring it up for debate in the House it didn't take him long to realize he didn't have anywhere near the votes to get it up for discussion.
He carried it over, which is a gentle way of saying it is dead for this session.
Few can argue that Alabama needs a new Constitution but the underlying fear is that if there is a statewide election of delegates they will be a mirror image of the Legislature — that is, totally dominated by the AEA. That scares the wits out of a lot of people and not without reason.
But do not feel sorry for Dr. Gogue. The contract has incentives that will provide substantially more in the years ahead. If he remains on the job for five years he will receive deferred compensation of $250,000 a year which would make him by far the highest paid university president in the state.
For the record, University of Alabama System Chancellor Malcolm Porter is paid $500,000 a year.
His reply: “I could run through Hades with my under shorts soaked in gasoline and get out of there alive before this bill passes.”
Bob Ingram's syndicated weekly political column appears in dozens of newspapers across Alabama. He is a native of Cherokee County.