Lawmakers react to Governor Ivey’s State of the State address
Lawmakers had mixed reactions to Governor Kay Ivey’s State of the State address Tuesday night. Governor Ivey spoke about her accomplishments and what she called the “Alabama Momentum,” referring to the 93,000 jobs and 55 billion dollars that has been invested in Alabama since she took office.
Governor Ivey spent about half of her 30 minute speech talking about the strides that have been made in education in the state over the past year. “When I took office, Alabama ranked 49th in reading. Today, we are 34th. And in math, Alabama ranked 52nd. Today…we are 32nd,” said Ivey.
She celebrate the fact that 18,000 students have applied for the CHOOSE program which gives Alabama families money towards choosing their children’s type education. One of the bills she will be backing in the legislature this session, would ban the use of cell phones in schools across the state while letting local school districts decide how to implement the ban. Combatting crime is also on the Governor’s agenda. But some democratic lawmakers voiced concern about the “enhanced legal protections” for law enforcement officers that Governor Ivey said would be part of a package of bills that would back the blue and fight gun violence.
“The ban on Glock switches. There’s common ground there and there’s some other items, but I’m really a little bit concerned about the protections, the legal protections. I want to understand more about when you throw out words about legal protections. I just want to make sure that we’re protecting the people that need to be protected, not those that are creating chaos in the industry. You have bad apples in everything,” said Rep. Anthony Daniels (D) from Madison County.
Republican Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter said, “We’re gonna try if it’s in the scope of duty and that’s what we’re looking at doing, so I know there have been a lot of conversations around that one and rightfully so. So we’ll see how those bills go. We will actually drop them on the house floor tomorrow & plan on having it in committee next week.”
I’m really glad to hear that there is common ground on certain issues. Of course, I’m glad to hear that she called for the ban on Glock switches. Of course I obviously been working really hard on that for several years to build that partisan support to show that it’s not a Democrat or Republican issue. It’s a human issue. Look, there are also things in the speech that I disagree with, things that we’re going to have to stand up to, certain bad bills. That’s part of the legislative process, but I’m really looking forward to working together with them where we can,” said Rep. Phillip Ensler (D) from Montgomery County.
Governor Ivey is also backing a parental leave bill for state workers and teachers, and she is also trying to get a bill passed that would make the Department of Veteran’s Affairs part of the Governor’s Cabinet.
Click here to watch Governor Ivey’s entire State of the State speech.
