We Don't Wanna Pay, We Just Want Stuff

I half-hope that this is true: Ag chief calls cuts payback , insofar as I would find it funny on one level if Riley indeed had the wherewithal to stick to agriculture:

Agriculture Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks said Tuesday that Gov. Bob Riley is trying to punish the farming industry because of its opposition to Amendment One.
Riley proposed cutting the Department of Agriculture Industries budget by 32.85 percent. Sparks said that was unfair because Riley proposed cuts of 18 percent to most other agencies.

However, the real reason is this:

But cuts to Agriculture Industries included $1.8 million in "pass through" spending, which the Riley administration called "pork." The agency's operating budget was cut by 18 percent, like most other agencies, said Riley's finance director Drayton Nabers.

For the non-Bamians, "pass through pork" is basically money that is filtered through a department to a district and is spent on special pet projects by the legislator. It is patronage-based pork-barrel spending at its worst.

Regardless, it takes some cheek for the farmers to demand that they pay barely anything in property taxes (indeed, in taxes in general) and then gripe that they aren't getting enough stuff from the state government. Classic.