Gov. Bob Riley submitted legislation to the Alabama Legislature in March 2008 that would extend the ban on double dipping — already adopted for the state’s two-year college system — to employees of every state agency, four-year university and K-12 school system in Alabama.
The bill would also prohibit legislators and other elected state officials from contracting for work with a state agency or public educational institution. It was sponsored by Rep. Duwayne Bridges and, when introduced, had already picked up 20 bipartisan cosponsors.
What double dipping meant
The term described a practice that had become notorious in Alabama: state legislators drawing a second public paycheck from an institution whose budget they voted on. The most common arrangement involved the two-year college system, where a number of lawmakers held salaried positions as instructors, recruiters or administrators.
The conflict was structural. A legislator employed by a community college voted on the education budget that funded his own salary, and his supervisors knew who signed their appropriations. Riley put it bluntly: “Any time elected officials are allowed to draw two state salaries, they essentially become taxpayer-funded lobbyists for the government agency they work for. That’s wrong. It’s a conflict of interest and it must be stopped.”
He also argued the practice was unfair to rank-and-file state and education employees, who could reasonably suspect that powerful elected officials received special consideration in hiring and promotion, and special treatment when it came to absences and accountability.
Answering the discrimination charge
The State Board of Education had adopted policies prohibiting double dipping in the two-year system the previous year, and those rules took effect only that week, after clearing review by the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Opponents had argued that singling out community college employees was discriminatory. Riley turned the objection into an argument for his bill: “So I call upon these opponents to help me pass this ban in the Legislature so it applies to everyone.”
Where other states stood
The governor’s office marshaled a comparative case. Eleven states had absolute bans on legislators holding state employment. Nineteen others imposed some form of restriction. Louisiana had strengthened its ban just the week before, barring legislators from contracting with the state — bringing to 41 the number of states restricting legislative contracts with state government. Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas and Texas had similar prohibitions.
Existing Alabama law already barred uniformed service members and federal officials from holding state office, and the federal Hatch Act prevented certain federally funded state and local employees from running for state office. Alabama’s legislator-employees were the conspicuous exception.
The grandfather clause
The End to Double Dipping Act, as it was titled, would not remove anyone immediately. Legislators then working for state agencies, schools and colleges could continue in their jobs for the remainder of their current terms. After the 2010 elections, anyone who won re-election would have to choose between the two jobs.
The politics behind it
The fight was the central battle of Riley’s second term, and it was not primarily about ethics in the abstract. It was about power. The Alabama Education Association, led by Paul Hubbert, was the most formidable political organization in the state, and the two-year college system was one of its strongholds. Legislators employed within that system were, in the governor’s view, a bloc that could not be counted on to vote independently of it.
The reform effort proceeded alongside a federal corruption investigation into the two-year college system that eventually produced convictions, including of a former chancellor and sitting legislators. The double-dipping ban did not pass the Legislature that year. A version of it, along with a broader ethics package, was finally enacted in a special session in December 2010 — after Republicans took control of both chambers and made it their first order of business.