Heifer and Supernumerary off Reservation

“That heifer cost more than most people make in a year." "You can't keep a cow hemmed in."

If your husband is a senator and you are powerful, common folk need understand that privileged owners of blue-blooded heifers have license to trespass and are, using the color of authority, above the law. Hopefully, the issue will be settled by law and not social/economic status.

We are to emulate Jesus Christ, who when asked by the disciples why He spoke in parables, replied that He spoke to them in parables “because they seeing, see not, and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand.” Matthew VIII, verse 11.

“Blowing in the Wind”, poses a different nuanced question: How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just cannot see?

Some cannot see, others pretend.

See the Code of Alabama 40-6-4.1, Election to Participate: http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/alison/codeofalabama/1975/coatoc.htm

Election to participate in the Supernumerary program shall be made in writing to the county governing body (County Commission) within 60 days following April 22, 1994 or 60 days after taking office, whichever occurs last. [Mrs. Price was Tax Assessor in 1996 and became Revenue Commissioner in Oct. 2003] Did she follow this requirement and sign up 60 days after taking office?] Upon election to participate in the program, the official shall immediately pay to the Tax Collector [her now combined departments] for each year of eligible service to which she is entitled credit, that sum as she would have paid. No evidence was offered at the May 24, 2021 County Commission meeting that she had done this, much less the calculation or figure submitted.

See Amendment 641 of the Alabama Constitution that purports to phase out Supernumeraries in Lee County, but the County Commission passed a 5/24/21 resolution to uncap the limit of Mrs. Price’s supernumerary. Puzzled? Know that in counties like Lee, where a local constitutional amendment abolished Supernumeraries, officials in office at the time of the amendment have the right to buy service credit in the retirement system by paying an amount equal to the total contributions they would have made in the relevant time period, plus 8% interest compounded annually from the service date. Ala. Code § 36-27- 6.1 as amended by Ala. Act 2004-362. This section removes the 60 day window to elect to participate in the Supernumerary retirement, thanks Ted Little.

See County Commission Resolution 5242021 re: removal of the cap in the Supernumerary program. Did any one of the commissioners question the date she elected to participate in the Supernumerary, whether she had bought her service credit? Did the County Commission place this information into the public record? If taxpayer money will finance her million-dollar Supernumerary, shouldn't the Commission have confirmed that the process was followed? Clearly this failure to confirm and inform the taxpayer smacks of malfeasance and lack of transparency. Since Stan Martin is not elected, but hired by the County Commission; one cannot depend on him to do aught but what the Commission wants. Judge English calls him "my attorney" and the Commission wants the Prices to be enriched. It's settled.

But be assured, the politburo took care of itself first. All have raises, an increase of insurance benefits, an increase Cost of Living Adjustment, etc. What did the taxpayer get? In spite of the Gas Tax and CARE money, county roads are sorely in need of repair-- except Moores Mill Road, a section of which has been paved twice in less than a decade in spite of the so-called Highway Dept cycle where all county roads are repaved in a much longer rotation than ten years. How long has it been since your road was repaved?

If Mrs. Price collects her retirement 20 years, she will receive a million plus dollars of taxpayer money and you can bet it sure beats her alleged "self-funded retirement". Humbler members of society, the ones who need it most, get nothing. By their admission, the Prices own a heifer costing more than an average man makes in a year. Senator Price receives good money and is in line for an aristocratic/oligarchic retirement. Yet Mrs. Price comes to the county commission (5/24/21) to say that after she almost lost Randy, she now realizes "she has no retirement plan, it’s self-funded (?) and the Legislature 'put a cap on it' "! Huh? She's been in office over 25 years and she's just now pondered retirement plans? This is the woman who handles all the County money and suddenly she has an epiphany? She does not want a self-funded retirement, she wants a taxpayer financed retirement. Clearly the reason the Legislature phased out Supernumeraries and "puts a cap" on them is to stop the Greed. So here comes a corrupt Ted Little that removes the 60 day requirement and a corrupt Commission that passes a resolution to remove the cap. You reckon she knew saying 'she had no retirement plan, that the non-existent retirement plan was self-funded and the Legislature put a cap on it' was misleading? You reckon that was her intention? You wonder why no Commissioner questioned her contradictory statements? See the County Commission Minutes for May 24, 2021 for the official record of what she said; her statement in the Minutes is just as contradictory as reported in this article. I would suggest one watch the video on the County website, but it seems that although all videos are available a year before and after her appeal to increase the cap, just not the one for May 24, 2021. If she had no Supernumerary retirement, the Commission's resolution to remove the cap to the Supernumerary could not help her. I suspect she really has elected to participate in the Supernumerary,we just don't know when or what service she bought. She really does have a retirement, but wants more money. But who can know after witnessing a County Commission meeting where the public is not provided primary documents or the whole story, neither on line or at the meeting. No one questioned how she can say she has no retirement, but it's self-financed, but please pass a resolution to remove the cap on the Supernumerary that I say I don't have, so I can receive a $60,000 per year Supernumerary retirement???? A humbler and more reasonable citizen would consider selling the heifer, buying an IRA with the money, thus escaping any worry about heifer trespass. She should do anything but tax the County General Fund for a Supernumerary retirement when it has not been proven that she is qualified to participate in per Alabama Code 40-6-4.1. Section 36-27-6.1 provides for buying service time by submitting the money to the Secretary-Treasurer of the Employees' Retirement System. Has the County Commission verified her contributions, followed the process, disclosed all the facts? No.

Here are the words of the man responsible for the Trail of Tears. Like many politicians, his words rang true, but too often his behavior demonstrated the opposite. Concerning the privileged class, Andrew Jackson said this:

“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society-the farmers, mechanics, and laborers-who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor......”

The County Commission may have no problem gifting Mrs. Price a million + dollars of taxpayer money, but this taxpayer prefers not to. Protect all members of society, stop the theft by urging your county commissioner not to approve the resolution necessary to allow Mrs. Price to raid the Lee County General Fund. Instead, apply that million to highway improvement where not just the titled Senator and privileged Revenue Commissioner benefit, but all members of the travelling public benefit equally. Two commissioners were unseated by the citizens this year. Let the other commissioners know that you believe in fiscal responsibility and equal protection. Citizens must first be active at meetings, then at the polls if they care to preserve our representative democracy. If you care to see what your elected officials are doing, go to the public meetings and learn how sausage is made. See how wealth is sometimes taken from the taxpayer and redistributed to the politburo and cronies. This is a way the privileged can own heifers worth more than the average person makes in a year. They can finance their million dollar retirement on the back of the taxpayer if the County Commission allows them. Simply apply the law to the facts. You know, the facts that have been carefully omitted from the public record.