Legislative details important, major changes hard

With so many issues out there, what should the State Legislature focus on during the 2015 session? What will it?

Alabamians tend to be against big government, or at least we say so. Further, we tend to have pretty low expectations for what government we do have. After all, if you set the bar low enough, you won’t be disappointed.

To that end, I haven’t spoken to a single individual who anticipates anything substantial coming out of this legislative session. By that, I mean something that will fundamentally change how we live our lives and conduct business in this state. I would imagine you haven’t either.

Some time ago, I had a friend who told me the only times he had failed in life was when he didn’t know what success looked like. That struck me as pretty wise, particularly from this guy. So, let me ask you this question: what does success look like for the 2015 legislative session?

For me, I sincerely hope the legislature doesn’t do anything stupid. Other than that, I am mostly good with whatever comes down the pike. Of course, my definition of stupid might be different than yours, so let’s agree to broadly define success as: a legislative agenda which a reasonably prudent individual wouldn’t consider head-scratching daft, or beyond the pale.

Other than that, I just hope we can make what little government we have as efficient and productive as is possible. That goes for everything from major education initiatives to cleaning the rest areas on the highways.

Many moons ago, during freshman orientation at college, I had a girl from New Jersey tell me: “Oh, you are from Alabama. My sister did a cross country bike trip this past summer, and said Alabama had the nastiest rest areas in the country.” I came back with: “Well, we don’t care to spend a lot of time and taxpayer money to provide plush accommodations for Northerners to go to the bathroom. We would rather you stop off somewhere and buy something.”

That got a lot of laughs from the others in the group, but I am now much older and a little wiser. While little things like maintaining rest areas, right of ways, and side roads might seem like so much of an annoyance, they are important. They project how we view ourselves, and that is the impression we leave behind.

Sometimes that first impression is the only one you get to make when attracting new residents and new businesses. As such, it is imperative our state and local governments focus as much on the boring minutiae, as they do on the grand pronouncements and big headlines.

Trust me, this is nowhere as easy as I make it sound, as, believe it or not, someone must be benefiting from how things are, or else they wouldn’t be that way. So, it will take a lot of initiative and political fortitude to say: “let’s hold onto everything until we can figure out a way to do what we are currently doing better.”

I mean that from stem to stern.

You know, we elect a lot of people who promise they are “going to go to Montgomery and change the ways things are done.” While that sounds great, come on, what are the real chances? So, why don’t we more narrowly define success for the 2015 legislative session as making sure we start doing the little things right?

John Norris is a Managing Director, and the Head of Wealth Management at Oakworth Capital Bank in Birmingham. He can be reached at john.norris@oakworth capital.com.