There is a level of uncertainty as to what Monday’s last day of the 2020 general session has in store regarding the passage of the $7.2 billion education budget and the $2.3 billion general fund budget.
The unknown centers around an executive amendment to the general fund budget proposed by Gov. Kay Ivey dealing with $1.8 billion in CARES Act funding would be spent. Reportedly, the leadership from the House of Representatives and the governor’s office reached a compromise. However, the agreement came without the involvement of the Senate.
State Sen. Tim Melson (R-Florence) was optimistic about the Senate accepting Ivey’s amendment, but added there are uncertainties regarding the CARES Act funding.
“I think we’ll probably agree to the amendment,” Melson said on Friday’s broadcast of Huntsville radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show.” “We, and when I say ‘we,’ I’m talking about the Senate and the caucus in general — but we just want to be able to make sure that those who need it get and that those needs are addressed. Every one of us represents roughly 135,000 people. And I just think it is only fair that each district will be able to meet some of their needs. And I think [Ivey] will work with us. Look, she’s in a unique situation. I don’t know of any governor that’s been in this bad of a situation that did self-inflict themself into it. It’s one of those things where we don’t even know the guidelines on how this money has to be spent. We don’t know the total amount, even though we have an idea. We don’t know what will be reimbursement costs versus new money. So, there’s just a lot. We all need to sit down and work. There’s going to have to be a lot of faith and trust in those that will be working with her, like the pro-tem and the majority leaders and the speaker. There’s going to have to be some reasonable minds sitting down and figuring out how we can address the needs related to this pandemic. And I think we’ll do that. She’s a reasonable person, and I think most of the legislators are, too. I think we can find a solution.”
On the so-called “wish list” controversy, which included a line-item for $200 million for a new State House, Melson said while that was not the way discussions “should work,” he felt his body could move past it.
“[T]here was only a few in that room that made that list out,” he said. “My understanding is they were asked to make the list out on short notice. And this sounds crazy — but it is hard to spend $1.8 billion, all related to this, and make the list out in a hurry to go over. And so I’ve kind of jokingly said it’s kind of like asking your wife what she wants for Christmas. She makes the list out, comes with it and you start calling her a gold-digger. It’s just not the way it should work. We should all sit down, figure out where it needs to go and find out how to spend it appropriately. I think that’s going to happen.”
“I hate it that it all got aired out in public when the majority of the legislature knew nothing about that list,” he continued. “To be honest with you, I don’t even recall what was all on the list. I know the State House was built in the ’60s. It’s full of black mold and other issues. But I never in my wildest dreams thought while I would be down there, there would be a move to build a new State House. I don’t know where that came from. But anyway, I think we’ve moved on past that. We’ll all work this out next week.”
@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.
