This is an opinion column.

Alabama is a state known for many things, and with the exception of Crimson Tide football, most of them are bad. For the sake of space and avoiding hurt feelings, I’ll skip the rest for the one that might matter most.

Corruption.

Every year, Alabama is in a fight with Illinois or Louisiana to see who’s first to be worst. Just a year ago, the heads of all three branches of our state government got their jobs through battlefield promotions. Their predecessors had been forced out or convicted of crimes.

Now a handful of Alabama lawmakers have a plan to fix Alabama’s problem — by making corruption legal.

You don’t have to break the law, when you make the law.

A bill introduced by state Sen. Greg Albritton would lift restrictions on gifts to public officials from lobbyists and the people who hire them.

And the bill, SB 230, does so much more. And so much worse.

It would make brother-in-law deals by-the-book.

It would take corruption cases away from the Ethics Commission and the Attorney General, who have the resources to investigate and prosecute public corruption.

And it would give them to local district attorneys, who don’t.

It would make lobbyists accountable to authorities with little or no power to investigate or prosecute them.

And it would make lawmakers accountable only to themselves.

The hubris is so high in Montgomery that if it were water we’d all be dead.

A little more than eight years ago, a new Republican majority took control of the Alabama State House for the first time in more than a century. They promised to clean up corruption.

Gov. Bob Riley called the new lawmakers into a special session where, under the leadership of Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, they passed “toughest-in-the-nation” ethics reforms.

And then Hubbard broke the very laws he helped shepherd through the State House.

No one, it seems, ever believed those laws would be enforced.

But three years ago, a jury in Lee County found Hubbard guilty of felony ethics crimes. And three years later, he has yet to spend a day in prison.

Soon the Alabama Supreme Court will hear his appeal and decide whether the very laws Hubbard helped pass are constitutional.

But for his friends on Goat Hill, that was too much to leave to chance. For Hubbard or for themselves.

Hubbard’s conviction sent a cold message through the State House: This could happen to you, too. You could be next.

But Albrittons’ bill doesn’t just repeal reforms the Legislature put in place in 2010. It actually makes the law weaker than it was before they got there.

Any bribe less than $6,000?

Meh, just a misdemeanor.

Want to steal $5,000 from state or local government?

If you’re a public official or government employee, that would be a misdemeanor, too. (But if you’re just a citizen, that would still be a Class B felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.)

Under the bill, lobbyists will be free to spend on lawmakers and their families as they please, as long as they report those expenditures to what’s left of the Alabama Ethics Commission.

Send the whole State House and their families to Disney World?

Nothing illegal about that, at least if Albritton’s bill passes.

And if a lobbyist fails to report that all-expenses paid to the Happiest Place as required by the new law, what’s a little $5,000 fine?

That’s right, a $5,000 fine — if they get caught. And there’s really no way to catch them if they don’t self-report. See how that works?

For what it’s worth, the Ethics Commission has spoken out against the bill.

“This bill will encourage corruption, not discourage it,” Ethics Commission Director Tom Albritton (no relation to Greg that he knows of) said. “The public is skeptical enough of their public officials, and this bill will likely only add to their skepticism.”

The Attorney General’s office says it opposes the bill, too.

The thing that baffles me is … why?

State Sen. Pro Tem Del Marsh is supposedly running for U.S. Senate next year, or at least considering it.

Yet, he’s a co-sponsor.

Is he just too dumb to realize that he’s giving a layup to Bradley Byrne in the primary? Or Doug Jones in the general election? This is a ready-made attack ad, even if it fails.

The hubris isn’t just high in Montgomery. It’s a little thick, too. They believe they can get away with anything.

And if this bill passes, they probably will.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

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