Although it had been trumpeted by Gov. Kay Ivey as a reason to be leery of the legislature’s control of an estimated $1.8 billion allocated to the state of Alabama in the name of coronavirus relief, State Rep. Steve Clouse (R-Ozark), the chairman of the House Ways and Means General Fund committee, insists no amount of that money would be used on the construction of a new Alabama State House.
Thursday, a so-called “wish list” that included proposed expenditures for the use of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds was circulated among the capitol press corps and included a line item of $200 million for the project, among other things.
During an interview with Huntsville radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show” on Friday, Clouse explained how the use of that money for such a project was far-fetched from reality, given the parameters set by Congress in the CARES Act.
“I had seen that list,” Clouse said. “I was in a meeting a couple of weeks ago. I was dealing with the way we were going to go forward as far as the date on the session, you know, when we were originally going to try to come back on April 28. We were having a discussion about whether or not we could, and if we didn’t, what the date would be, and what items would be discussed and the details of the education budget and the general fund budget. That was sort of thrown out there at the last — the list of things that people had heard and might be something that could be utilized. And so, I don’t know who came up with the list, who typed it out or whatever.”
“That’s not going to happen — we’re not going to build a new State House with those funds,” he continued. “I mean, there’s certainly a case to build a new State House if anybody has been there in the last couple of years. It’s an old highway department building that was built in 1960. Obviously, in this situation we’re in right now with this pandemic, it is certainly not conducive. We can’t let the public in. We’re having to scatter out House members up in the gallery and in overflow rooms to socially distance and everything. Be that as it may, that’s not going to happen.”
“I hate for things to come off the rails because of that one little thing that was put on somebody’s list,” Clouse added. “There’s going to be lots of lists. I can assure you that. There are 105 House members. There are probably going to be 105 different lists. There’s no telling what’s going to be on them, you know?”
Clouse indicated Ivey’s office had not offered a proposal of any sort that he was aware for the use of the money. However, he explained why that could be a moot point.
“The big issue right now — with this list or any other list, it may not make any difference,” he said. “We can’t get any guidance from [the U.S. Treasury Department] of what will be accepted. The only thing we’re hearing is hardly anything is going to be accepted except reimbursement costs that are directly related to COVID-19, such as masks, gloves, ventilators, and test kits and that type thing. We’ve got about $50 million we’ve spent already that’s going to be reimbursed with that money that will certainly qualify. But other than that, it’s practically nothing, and that’s why you hear so many complaints all over the country — from governors, legislators, mayors and county commissioners. Congress goes out and passes this big CARES Act, but hardly anything will qualify for it because they definitely said you can’t replace lost revenue, and that’s the biggest issue right now. I don’t know that we’ll ever spend any of it.”
@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 Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.
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