MONTGOMERY — Yellowhammer News on Wednesday sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Alabama Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston) and Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro).
The interview will be broken down in two separate articles.
In this first part, we will focus on the potential for at least one special session later this year, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and relevant issues the legislature may tackle in the near future pertaining to the civil unrest across the United States following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The second part of this series will center on what Marsh and Singleton stressed is their top priority now and moving forward: broadband expansion.
Special session(s)?
The prospect of Governor Kay Ivey calling a special session — or multiple special sessions — later this year has been the talk of Montgomery since before the 2020 regular session even ended last month, however one being called no longer seems so certain.
Ivey last week told legislators on a weekly conference call that a special session will not be called before August, giving the State time to assess revenues following Alabama’s income tax deadline, which was extended to July 15 this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“The governor told members of the Legislature that there is no reason to call them back before July 15, which is when the state will have a full financial picture,” Gina Maiola, Ivey’s press secretary, added in a statement. “She has also stressed that she will continue working closely with bipartisan leadership to determine if there is a need to convene on items that cannot wait until the (2021) Regular Session.”
Yellowhammer News asked Marsh and Singleton on Wednesday if they believe a special session is needed.
“My thoughts are, ‘On what?'” Marsh responded, with Singleton adding, “Right.”
“I mean, right now, you’ve basically taken the COVID money — which we thought we’d have a special session to determine how to spend those dollars — well that’s been somewhat allocated and a process is in place to move dollars if need be,” Marsh continued, referring to the federal CARES Act money available to Ivey’s finance department to spend.
“On the prison side, the governor’s office has kind of taken that one under control there. And we’re still concerned, because we want to know what the price tag is, and as the legislature we have to determine the cost and how we allocate funds for that. But I guess my question would be, I’ve got no objection to coming back and doing the work for the people, but, ‘What’s the work?'” Marsh added, with Singleton again affirming by adding, “Right.”
Singleton then remarked, “I don’t see ‘the work,’ either. Unless it’s prisons. I think that’s the biggest thing on this. They need something from us on that. I don’t see another reason to come.”
Yellowhammer News then asked Marsh and Singleton if they felt comfortable with how the governor’s administration is proceeding with the issue of prisons.
The question drew chuckles from both senators.
“I don’t even know about [how they’re proceeding],” Singleton first said.
Marsh added, “The problem is there’s not a lot of communication. I can’t honestly tell you how they are proceeding on prisons.”
The pro tem advised that he would be meeting with Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Chairman Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) on Wednesday to discuss the topic.
“I’m having a meeting later today with Senator Albritton, the General Fund chair, and that’s going to be a question I have for him: ‘What are you hearing and what’s going on?’ But I’ve had no communication from the executive branch on prisons,” Marsh explained.
Marsh subsequently said that renewing the Alabama Jobs Act and codifying liability protections related to COVID-19 for businesses and health care providers could wait until the 2021 regular session. The Jobs Act was enacted originally in 2015 and is set to expire on December 31, 2020.
“One concern I have — as of yesterday, 560,000 Alabamians had applied for unemployment compensation,” Marsh noted. “I’ve asked to get an update every week [on what that number is]. Because the day those funds run out, or rather not necessarily the funds but the weeks of eligibility …”
Singleton commented, “… which would be July [for applicants from the beginning of the pandemic].”
“… I mean, you’re going to have a lot of folks out there [left without eligibility] and what do you do?” Marsh continued. “Obviously the [pandemic related] decisions that have been made — and I’m not saying they’re the wrong decisions — but the policies we’ve adopted have put a lot of people out of work. We’ve got to get them back to work. And at the same time, we’ve got to move in that direction and be very careful that we don’t create a second wave… So it’s a balancing act. I think if there’s anything you’ve got to talk about [in a special session], is what do you do with the people in Alabama who have been unemployed over this and to make sure they have some benefits.”
“Yeah, we have to balance it,” Singleton then commented. “I know that there are a lot of people that are out there hurting and a lot of people that are dying from this. But at the end of the day, people are [also] hurting because they’re not able to work. And we’ve got to get them back to work, and we have to balance it out.”
The pandemic continues — ‘We need the leadership from the governor’
Singleton stressed reopening schools safely, as well as businesses following best practices in sanitization, distancing and mask utilization so that workers can stay on the job.
“I think we’re committed to doing all of that and making sure that that happens,” he said. “But we’ve got to have some stern leadership from the executive branch on that to make sure that we are moving in the right direction — and making sure that we can both balance the health side and the job opportunity side.”
Later in the interview, Yellowhammer News asked about the status of the pandemic in Alabama and the State’s ongoing response to it.
Singleton was dismissive of the prospect of seeing any “rollback” of reopening the economy.
Mentioning some current hospitalization and case count spikes in certain areas of the state, Singleton added, “I think that when we opened it up, we just didn’t give a lot of direction.”
He advised that in his rural district located in the Black Belt, his constituents largely did not have access to the proper information on how to safely reopen and go about their lives.
“When [the State] said, ‘Open back up,’ they just went back to doing things that were normal and not following social distancing guidelines,” Singleton said. “And we’re starting to see numbers spike. I’m starting to see a lot of deaths.”
Singleton emphasized the continued need to protect vulnerable populations, especially nursing home residents.
Marsh subsequently built on Singleton’s remarks, saying, “And we have enough information now to balance [the economy and health concerns], as the senator said. We know who the vulnerable populations are. We know who needs to be protected.”
“And what we don’t want to happen, and what we’re really keeping a close watch on, is our healthcare system,” Marsh continued. “What you don’t want to happen is people die because they can’t get health care. So we’re watching very closely the ICU usage, hospital capacity. I feel, although we’ve had some rise, we’ve still got a really safe layer there. And we just have to watch that. As long as — what you don’t want to do, as I said, is have people who get the disease and can’t get treatment. So we’re watching that really closely.”
Singleton then said that two weeks ago there was not a single hospital bed available within a 150-mile radius of an area in his district. He stated that two people from his district died because they could not get ventilators. He also advised that a local EMA director in his district was told not to bring patients to Birmingham or Tuscaloosa area hospitals at that time due to the lack of beds.
“We don’t need that kind of stuff happening,” Singleton emphasized.
“That’s right,” Marsh remarked.
Singleton advocated for using some of the CARES Act money to stockpile PPE. He said Alabama must be prepared for a second wave, should one occur, so that the economy can function and people can remain safe.
The Senate minority leader also said a heightened public information campaign, perhaps led by the Alabama Department of Public Health, would be beneficial for areas in the state such as his.
“And then we need the leadership from the governor,” Singleton added. “I think the governor needs to come out every now and then — and just reassure the people that it’s ok and that you should wear your mask and you should [follow recommended practices and guidelines]. I think if she would just say that now and then, just for public information. You know, a lot of times people want to hear from the leader. [State Health Officer] Dr. [Scott] Harris can say it, but we want to hear from the leadership sometimes. And I think that that’s what has to happen [in order for] people to have the confidence in leadership.”
He said that if the state’s leader, Governor Ivey, were to do this, “[a] lot of people will follow.”
“But if we don’t get that message from leadership, then people will feel that leadership doesn’t care and it’s ok to just go back to what we said the norm was,” Singleton concluded.
Confederate monuments, building names and holidays
This past regular session, State Sen. Gerald Allen (R-Tuscaloosa) proposed a bill that would have made the penalty provisions of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act stricter, moving from a onetime $25,000 fine to a $5,000 per day fine for violations. That bill stalled and did not pass.
In the midst of the current civil unrest and racial tension across the country, the Cities of Birmingham and Mobile have relocated Confederate monuments in apparent violation of the act.
Yellowhammer News asked Marsh and Singleton if they believe the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act will be a topic in the next regular session.
“Let me start with this: there’s probably not a better relationship in the legislature than between myself and Senator Singleton, and we’ve taken on some tough issues and tackled them,” Marsh responded. “This issue is another one we have to deal with; we’ll deal with that. He and I both respect history. And I think there’s a balance there.”
He referred to recent reporting about the legislature annually funding the Alabama Confederate Memorial Park. House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) has called on that funding to be discontinued.
Marsh said he would have “no problem” simply getting rid of the legislature’s annual line-item for the park and moving those funds to be spent at the discretion of the Historical Commission, which oversees the park already.
“Let them decide which of these are historical parks and need to be taken care of,” Marsh explained. “They take care of them anyway — it’s a state park.”
“So, we’ll deal with that,” he added.
Marsh then referenced an ongoing push in Alabama to rename certain buildings, structures and roadways.
“What I would encourage, I would hope, that between now and when we come into session is an excellent opportunity for people to really dive in and to get the true, total history of these building names. I don’t know where half these building names came from,” Marsh said. “And if in fact through that study it’s determined that some of these names possibly need — let’s get the information and then we make decisions down the road. But, I’m confident working with my colleague (Singleton) that when the time comes — now, we follow the law, the law’s what it is. And if we need to change the law, we’ll determine that in session. We’ll work those things out.”
“I think they’ll get worked out,” Singleton added succinctly.
Similarly, there have been questions raised over certain existing state holidays in Alabama, including Jefferson Davis’ birthday being recognized. There could also be a debate over adding at least one state holiday, similar to Virginia moving to make Juneteenth a state holiday.
“I think all of that has to be a topic [next regular session],” Singleton told Yellowhammer News. “We ought to have some real conversations about race and systemic racism in this state. And this nation has a scar; Alabama is not exempt from that. I think we could be comfortable in having those conversations, and making sure that there’s equity for everybody.”
“At the end of the day, whether it’s [Martin Luther King, Jr. Day] or [Jefferson Davis’ birthday], we ought to do what’s best for the state of Alabama,” he advised. “We have seen multinational companies like Google come to the state of Alabama and say, ‘Hey, I won’t come unless that Confederate flag is removed.’ If we’re talking about balancing our economy and if we’re trying to recruit folks, we’ve got to think, ‘Is that good for the state? And does it hurt us to remove it?’ So, if that is something that we’re looking at — a balancing act — then let’s do it. But I think we have to have some real conversations about what has been going on.”
Singleton pointed to his district as having suffered from “systemic racism” for a long period of time. Inequities Singleton listed in this regard range from a severe lack of broadband access to a rural health care crisis to a shortage of trained and skilled workers and other economic site selection disparities.
“Those things have to be addressed,” Singleton said. “And at the end of the day, I think we’re qualified to have those conversations. And we will have those conversations. I feel comfortable having those conversations with Del Marsh or any other member of the Senate or legislature. I think we can have those conversations like men and women, and we can walk away with solutions and be able to walk away with what’s best for the state of Alabama.”
Marsh concluded, “I agree with [Senator Singleton]. The key word is ‘balance.’ The importance of the image of the state of Alabama is critical. And we’ve got to show that not only are we working well together, which we do, but that there is a balance. There’s historical significance to a lot of things in the state — some good, some bad. [We’ll] determine how we handle those and move forward as a state. I’m convinced we can do that.”
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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