Looking Ahead in the 2019 Legislative Session
The 2019 legislative session is only less than a month from ending but there is still a lot more to accomplish.
Alabama’s critical prison system is something that lawmakers are required to turn their attention to soon.
“I think that they’re trying to speed up the end of this regular session and end the session during the month of may and start immediately in a special session that will deal exclusively with the prison issue,” says Political Analyst Steve Flowers.
Some people are not happy with the state’s possible plan.
“People who have prisons in their district, don’t want those prisons closed and under the new plan, there may be built not where current prisons are located and you’re going to have a real uproar in legislators in those areas,” says Flowers.
Meanwhile Flowers says Alabama’s lottery bill could get a vote in the house as early as Tuesday.
“This lottery bill is not the most opportune bill for Alabama. It’s a watered down version of the lottery. Probably the least productive lottery you could have. It’s a paper ballot lottery. It’s almost obsolete,” says Flowers.
Flowers believes it could be a close vote.
“There is still some moral opposition maybe out of the 105 house members – 20 of them are still in the right wing republican party where they oppose any type of gambling, any gaming,”says Flowers.
The vote could be another talker, following Alabama’s restrictive abortion law.
“We’ve been the ridicule of every talk show and news show in the country and it does not help our image,” says Flowers.
Monday, Governor Kay Ivey, told reporters that the new law would not impact tourism negatively in Alabama. But flowers says it could still impact the state.
“What I’d be concerned about is if it makes us look really so bad and ridiculous that it would hurt industrial development – that it would hurt bringing new industry to the state,” says Flowers.
Flowers says the education budget is up for debate this week, discussing the $7.1 billion education trust fund, for the fiscal year 2020. A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
