Is it a bad sign when budgeting in your state is based on semantics?

Alabama finance director Marquise Davis wants ideas for legislation to reduce steep budget cuts. The easy way to do that would be to raise taxes, but that’s not going to happen because her boss, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, just can’t go for that, no can do. But fees—those are different.

That’s why Davis requested that state agencies provide her with “ideas for legislation which could increase fees either directly earmarked for your agency or for the General Fund” [emphasis mine]. According to the Montgomery Advertiser, no idea is off the table—except for tax increases.

Read much more at the Montgomery Advertiser. And below, just in case you didn’t click on the Hall & Oates reference above, is Hall & Oates singing “I Can’t Go For That”.