It stemmed from an old lawsuit. Alabama had lost the suit years ago, but under Seigelman was given various delays, appeals, deferals, etc.
Governor Riley simply stopped gaming the court ruling; now tax appraisals are more frequent (which sucks).
But it's not like Governor Riley went to the Legislature and said "raise our property taxes every year" and got some new law or some such out of them.
There were other avenues to continue the fight. At this point giving the legislature any more cash is useless. All expenditures are aimed at consolidating power FIRST, then what's best for the state SECOND. Got any idea how much money's being tossed around over gambling issue? How about the state's alchohol monopoly? Bringing it back to the thread's premise, my knock on Riley is that he hasn't had the ability to take the fight to the bad actors. I think he would at least have to make it LOOK like he was trying. As it is, he LOOKS as hamstrung as any other weak governor we've had. He has appointed some noise making AG's though...maybe they should run for higher office.