It has been three weeks since a deadline has come and gone for Alabama to close on the lease-build option initially proposed by Gov. Kay Ivey. Given an inability for the private contractors behind the deal to secure funding, Ivey and leadership from both chambers of the Alabama Legislature have been exploring new options.
Among those new options is a discussion of maintaining some elements of the public-private partnership, including the construction and even some elements of a lease that appeared to have been abandoned with the before mentioned deadline.
Monday, during an appearance on Mobile radio’s FM Talk 106.5, State Rep. Steve Clouse (R-Ozark), the chairman of the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee, said he was confident the plans developed for Ivey’s initial lease proposal could be done on existing state land, an idea endorsed by State Sen. Clyde Chambliss (R-Prattville).
“I think so,” Clouse said of the hybrid option. “I’m not sure we can get the hybrid with the lease proposal even though there’s still some folks wanting to keep it alive for the next few weeks. I think the legislature — the vast majority of the legislators want to build the prisons and own them after we get through with that 30-year period. But I certainly think we can do like Senator Chambliss is talking about, and put them on existing property that we already own, particularly in Elmore County and Escambia County. We certainly have the properties there.”
“I’m not as familiar with the Bibb County part,” he continued. “That sort of came out of left field when it was proposed, and of course, it has caused a firestorm up there with the residents in that area where that proposed land was going to be bought and put a lease facility there. I think that we could probably put a prison, a new prison, in that area in Bibb where we do have some property. I’m just not as familiar with that as I am with the Escambia and Elmore County properties. We can do that.”
The Dale County lawmaker said he was not sure why there was still a push to keep elements of a lease in place other than it could offer a more efficient outcome.
“I’m really not sure,” he replied when asked about what benefits maintaining the initial lease proposal structure offered. “I’ve been trying to figure it out here for the last few months and doing the due diligence and everything. But I guess maybe from a time factor, it is already in the works. We can move quick to satisfy the courts. But I think the plan is already drawn. We can move pretty quick with the property that we already own. I think we can do it in a timely manner.”
Clouse said he believed the votes would be there in the legislature to seal the deal when the time comes.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
