MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Should Alabama lawmakers be able to collect multiple taxpayer-funded state paychecks? That is the question that will soon be answered by a Montgomery County Circuit judge.
When Republicans took the majority in the Alabama House and Senate in 2010, one of the first laws they passed prohibited legislators from holding two state jobs, a practice commonly referred to as “double dipping.” The law finally went into effect Nov. 5 of this year, the day after the General Election.
But one Democratic legislator has now filed a lawsuit claiming the double dipping ban is “illegal, unconstitutional and without force of the law.”
Dexter Grimsley (D-Newville) has been a Henry County probation officer for almost 20 years. He was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 2010, giving him two government jobs.
As a result of the new law, he would have to choose which job he would keep, but he is now asking for a judge to block the state from enforcing the law pending a decision on whether or not it is constitutional.
Grimsley’s lawsuit claims the double-dipping ban is unconstitutional because, in part, it places unreasonable restrictions on state employees who want to participate in politics; prohibits some of them from being gainfully employed; and makes exceptions for some state jobs while not others.
The exceptions to the law include part-time workers, some court appointed employees, members of the National Guard, and contract labor.
Republicans also passed a law that changed the way legislators are paid. Under the Alabama Constitution, legislators previously received a salary of $10 a day. But to get around that, the Democratic-controlled legislature had passed a large expense allowance, totaling over $50,000 per year for each legislator.
Once Republicans took over the majority, they passed a law tying legislative pay to Alabama’s median household income, which is just north of about $40,000 per year. Legislators are also now required to turn in signed vouchers to be reimbursed for actual expenses.
Those changes made it more difficult for double-dipping legislators, like Rep. John Rogers (D-Birmingham), who said they were going to get around the new law by simply not taking their $10 per day salary.
Last year, Grimsley seemed to have come to terms with having to make a decision on which taxpayer-funded job he would keep.
“If I run, I will step down as a state employee,” he told The Birmingham News.
But it now seems that he’s had a change of heart.
The law appears to impact roughly a dozen lawmakers.
A hearing on Grimsley’s suit is scheduled for Wednesday.
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