Alabama legislators on Tuesday continued a contentious debate over a bill to change the state’s ethics law, advanced the education budget and delayed action on a racial profiling bill.
Lawmakers have just just one more day left before wrapping up the 2018 session.
Here are the highlights from Tuesday:
The big story: The Senate called it a day Tuesday evening without voting on controversial legislation to exempt lobbyists engaged in economic development from regulations mandated under the ethics law, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
Supporters argue that requiring economic developers to follow the same rules that apply to other lobbyists makes it harder to compete with other states for projects that create jobs.
Sen. Phil Williams (R-Rainbow City) said Alabama has been impugned by economic development officials in other states.
“When you’re on the top of the heap, people start sniping at you,” he said, according to the Advertiser.
But opponents maintain that the legislation, despite changes made to the bill, is too broad and would create loopholes.
“The first rule of physicians is, ‘Do no harm,’” Sen. Dick Brewbaker (R-Pike Road) said, according to the newspaper. “One way to ensure we do no harm is to limit this language as we can.”
The Advertiser quoted Sen. Paul Sanford (R-Huntsville) as saying Alabama has enjoyed success in luring business since the Legislature passed the current version of the ethics law.
“It’s not been an issue since 2010,” he said. “The law has brought every economic development package.”
The bill could come up for debate again Wednesday.
Education budget: The fiscal year 2019 education budget sailed through the state House of Representatives, passing 98-0, according to AL.com.
The budget, a $216 million increase over the current year, would spend $6.6 billion on education — the most since 2008 and the second-most ever.
Education employees in schools and community colleges would receive a 2.5 percent cost-of-living raise. AL.com reports the following breakdown:
- $4.56 billion to schools kindergarten through 12th grade, a 3 percent increase.
- $382 million to community colleges, 5 percent increase.
- $1.1 billion to four-year universities, a 4 percent increase.
- $96 million to the state’s highly regarded pre-kindergarten program, a 24 percent increase.
Only Senate passage stands in the way of Gov. Kay Ivey’s signature.
Racial profiling: The state House of Representatives failed to vote on a bill to ban racial profiling by police, giving the proposal one more shot before the session ends, the Associated Press reports.
The bill would prohibit police from making traffic stops based solely on race and would require law enforcement agencies to keep demographic statistics on stops.
House Republicans blocked a vote on the bill last week, prompting some lawmakers to threaten to filibuster other bills in order to force a vote.
“All of this is about identifying bad actors. This is not about being punitive to those wonderful, great police officers that take that oath to protect and serve,” state Rep. Merika Colman (D-Pleasant Grove) told the AP. “This is just about trying to identify those folks who are using race as the only determining factor to make a stop.”
Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham), expressed frustration, noting that it passed 27-0 in the upper chamber.
House Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia), urged lawmakers to negotiate a resolution.
“We’re working through it,” he told the AP.
Tweet of the day:
Really interesting night at the State House. The minority is using its leverage to hold up key bills in the Senate (Education Budget & Economic Development) to get a vote on a racial profiling bill in the House. Both chambers adjourned, so we’ll do it again tomorrow. #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/YihIt4ZrXe
— Todd Stacy (@toddcstacy) March 28, 2018
@BrendanKKirby is a senior political reporter at LifeZette and author of “Wicked Mobile.”
