The Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday gaveled out the 2018 legislative session — a session that was “among the most successful in recent years,” according to Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia).
Aided by rising tax revenue from an improving economy, lawmakers passed budgets for education and the rest of government without the knock-down, drag-out fights that have characterized other sessions. They cut taxes modestly for lower and middle-class residents. They delivered pay raises to public employees. And they adopted uniform regulations for ride-sharing companies like Uber.
Legislators also passed a bill allowing education officials to use money from a technology fund to improve school security, expanded the state’s pre-kindergarten program, addressed the opioid addiction epidemic and extended regulations to unlicensed church-run day care centers.
“I am most proud that the partisan discord and floor fighting that has plagued the House over the past several years was largely absent as our members worked cooperatively in the best interests of Alabamians,” McCutechon said in a statement.
House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) said in his own statement that the Legislature has enacted all of the Republican Party’s “Flag, Family, and Country” agenda.
“House Republicans have once again kept our promises and followed up our words with actions,” he stated. “The new laws in our Republican agenda will provide new jobs and opportunities to the military veterans who protected our nation, shield children from the traumas of domestic violence, and begin to address Alabama’s on-going opioid crisis.”
On the other hand, a legislative session that largely had been tranquil turned testy in the final week amid disputes over ethics, guns and what to do about racial profiling.
Here is a roundup of the final day of the 2018 legislative session.
The big story: The most controversial bill of the sessions came down to the very last day, and the outcome was no less controversial.
The House of Representatives voted 55-22 — with 22 abstentions — to approve a measure to amend the state ethics laws to exempt economic developers from certain lobbying regulations. The vote came a day after it cleared the state Senate by a single vote. Gov. Kay Ivey indicated she would sign it.
“Our ability to attract highly sought-after economic development projects is vital to ensure that Alabama continues to experience record-low unemployment,” Ivey said in a statement. “This legislation makes clear that we are committed to attracting world-class jobs for all Alabamians.”
The legislation underwent a number of changes as it moved through the Legislature. Perhaps most significantly, it prohibits legislators from qualifying for the exemption. Former legislators would have to wait two years after leaving office before they could take advantage of the exemption.
Opponents blasted the bill as a shameless effort to weaken the ethics law.
“I believe in its extreme form or use, it could cut us out of the entire process,” said Rep. Phil Williams, (R-Huntsville), according to the Montgomery Advertiser. “I believe this bill could turn the House of Representatives into a rubber stamp, to rubber stamp deals we were not a part of.”
The Advertiser reported that some critics vowed to make the law an issue on the campaign trail in November.
“The horse you rode in on is going to be the same horse you ride out on,” state Rep. Christopher England (D-Tuscaloosa) during the House debate Thursday, according to the newspaper.
Racial profiling ban dies: Despite passing the state Senate without a dissenting vote, a bill to ban racial profiling by police died in the House.
AL.com reported that Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham), who sponsored the legislation in the upper chamber, expressed disappointment when he learned Thursday that a vote he had expected in the House would never take place.
“To ignore the needs of the people in regards to being able to be free to move, free to do what they’ve got to do, free from profiling, from harassment, to want to continue that is a very, very big disappointment to me,” he said.
The bill called for prohibiting police from stopping motorists solely on the basis of race and would have required law enforcement agencies to keep data on traffic stops.
Smitherman recalled his own experiences with police and lamented that his offers of compromise went unmet. For instance, he said, he offered to allow police agencies to develop the record-keeping format.
“That’s what they asked for, allowing that,” he said. “And yet, for the bill to not even get an opportunity to be heard. Whether they voted it up or down, that’s not even the issue.”
AL.com reported that House Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) said he had intended to bring the bill up for a vote but did not because the Senate adjourned Wednesday.
“There was never any orchestrated maneuvering or strategy to not bring that bill up,” he said.
Smitherman said he plans to bring the bill back next year.
Drunken driving: The House voted 78-14 to stiffen penalties for drunken driving and close a loophole that lawmakers inadvertently created four years ago.
Sponsored by Rep. Jim McClendon (R-Springville), the bill requires anyone in pretrial diversion for driving under the influence of alcohol to use an ignition interlock device, which prevents a vehicle from starting if it finds alcohol on a driver’s breath.
A law passed in 2014 did not require the device for offenders entering pretrial diversion.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Mississippi — which has a similar interlock law but does not exempt defendants offered pretrial diversion — prevented twice as many drunken drivers from taking the road as Alabama in 2016.
Having already passed the state Senate, the bill now goes to the governor.
Tweets of the day:
https://twitter.com/theGHobserver/status/979417656800497664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The 2018 Annual House of Representatives Shroud Award goes to Rep. Richie Whorton of Owens Cross Roads for HB333… the sunset to sunrise headlight bill. pic.twitter.com/6pDbml4jbL
— AL House of Reps (@AlHouseInfo) March 29, 2018
@BrendanKKirby is a senior political reporter at LifeZette and author of “Wicked Mobile.”
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