From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to Capitol Journal's week in review.

And a specia welcome to all those joining us from the high school basketball championships we've been watching here in the studio, and it's been fun to see all the competition from there in Birmingham.

We start our coverage in the nation's capital, where the state's congressional delegation was busy.

This week, Senator Katie Britt announced that the US Coast Guard will acquire the campus of Birmingham Southern College, which closed in 2024.

Britt chair the appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Department of Homeland Security which includes the Coast Guard.

Of course, there was more news on that front this week, as President Donald Trump removed Kristi Noem as the leader of that agency.

APTs Ale Angle reports from Capitol Hill.

Bipartisan members of Alabama's congressional delegation are praising the Coast Guard' announcement that it will house its new training facilitie at Birmingham Southern College, which closed in 2020 for the 192 acre campus in Birmingham, will soon be transformed for the Coast Guard's growing number of recruits.

Training missions are expected to start later this year.

I'm really proud that the Coast Guard is going to call Birmingham home, so this is a win win all the way around.

Senator Katie Britt says she led the way in advocating for Birmingham Southern to be chosen as the site.

It was actually an idea that I came up with alongside my team, knowing as the subcommittee chair for Homeland Security, appropriations, knowing the needs of the Coast Guard, and then uniquely being situated to know the assets and opportunities that we have in the state of Alabama.

We thought, you know what?

This may be a great match.

And as the process continued, we supported that.

Senato Tommy Tuberville says the center will provide 1 to 2000 jobs for Birmingham.

He also says the construction company has already been selected to retrofit the campus, establishing Birmingham Southern as a new training facility is going to support continued recruitment and ensure the next generation of heroes receive the state of the art training they deserve.

On Thursday, the day after the Coast Guard announcement, President Donald Trum fired Secretary Nome and tapped Oklahoma's Senator Mark Wayne Mullen to lead DHS.

Tuberville and Britt thanked known for her servic and applauded Trump's new pick.

DHS is also in the middle of a shutdown headed into its fourth week.

Senate Democrats blocked an effort to fund the department on Thursday, and they say Nome's firing isn't enough for them to end the shutdown as they continu to push for immigration reform.

Reporting on Capitol Hill Alex Angle, Capitol Journal.

Thank you Alex.

That news of the Coast Guard and Birmingham Southern was met with jubilation here at the state House, where lawmakers gathere for the ninth, the 18th and 19th days of this 2026 regular session.

Randy Scott report on that reaction and legislation moving through the House of Representatives.

Big government news from Birmingham about a new venture with th Department of Homeland Security.

Developing a new Coast Guard training center on the former site of Birmingham Southern College.

I rise today to simply say thank you to Senator Katie Britt and to Senator Tuberville, as well as those in the Trump administration.

On yesterday, the United State Department of Homeland Security announced that the Birmingham Southern site campus, which has sat dormant now for almost two years, will become the home for a 1000 plus person, 400 plus staff.

Agency under the United States Coast Guard here in the state of Alabama.

The education budget is du to hit the House in a few days.

Lawmakers are working on items such as House Bill 380, which seeks to streamline operations for Rural County Board of Education because some folks may feel like if we do this, that it' going to cut our property tax.

But this is not a way an issue of folk having to reduce property tax.

Know this is nothing about that.

This has in effect, your taxes at all.

This would just simply say that you might combine some of your administrative help and put more money back in the classroom.

House Bill 380 is approved in the House Judiciary Committee members debate.

House Bill 481.

This proposal seeks to make new guidelines concerning how victims of court cases receive restitution.

So what this bill would do would put the victim in the front of that line.

So when the defendant makes payments to the court, court costs that money goes to restitution first for treating like a civil judgment.

I'm saying would you allow i to where it could be recorded?

And so then if that person's ever trying to get use property or anything as collateral, it would show up in a title search and they'd say, well, you got to pay that before you can even get a mortgage.

HB 481 is approved.

Visitors came to the state House to talk to lawmakers about affordability issues.

Southern Poverty Law Cente staff gathered to urge lawmakers to look at an issue which affects all citizens.

Affordability, to me, just means basic quality of life.

Human dignity, the ability to, afford groceries for yourself and your family, the ability to afford, healt care that's actually meaningful, where you can go and get a checkup and, not worry about whether you're able to pay the rest of the bills, between then and the next paycheck.

Some House members agree and say changes to items such as tariff usage can help people during difficult times.

If used correctly, tarps can be a limited and effective tool in recreating balanced trade agreements.

There's the place for tariffs, but when the way we're using them today is not it.

At the statehouse, Randy Scott, Capitol Journal.

Thank you Randy.

The House also passed legislation aimed at boosting funding and recruiting instructors for career and technical education.

House Bill 517 from State Representative James Lomax of Huntsville, was the first in a three bill package to be taken up.

Known as the Train Act.

It would create up to $10 million in annual income tax credits to incentivize workforc development and career training.

We've had a package for career tech education that's been extremely important to get across the finish line for a couple of reasons.

You know, here in the state of Alabama, we've gotten over 90,000 job that we've brought to our state, here recently.

It's been over 50 billion in economic development throughout, the past few years.

We want to make sure we have the workforce.

It is going to align with that for the future and making sure we're taking care of the children, and their opportunitie as they come into the workforce.

You know, only about 34% of kids nowadays are graduating and going and finishing their college degree.

So we got 66% of our kids coming through our schools that we got to really focus on.

And with this package that we've passed today is going to do exactly that.

The bill that we passed today was the very first bill on the calendar.

It does really two, two major things, but it allows industry to loan their certified employees to the school systems, public schools, community colleges, tech schools to allow them to bring their expertise into our classrooms to to take care of this career tech, education.

That career tec package now heads to the Senate.

State Representative Matt Simpson was back in the state House this week.

We reported last month that Simpson had to leave a committee meeting abruptly when suffering from appendicitis, for which he spent time in the hospital.

Simpson thanked his colleague for their prayers and support, and said he's feeling much better.

I'm trying to keep my emotions in check so I don't go crazy.

I want to thank each and every one of you for the prayers.

My family, my wife, my children.

We've I've read every one of your texts and every one of your phone calls.

I hadn't had a chance to respond to everything.

It's been great to see a family come through this process.

And it doesn't matter what aisle you're in, what who you group is, what group you stand with.

Thoughts and prayers go a long way through this process and I'm happy to be here today.

I'm happy to be back with you guys.

And, may not be able to throw fireballs and fastballs just yet, but but I'm workin on it, so I appreciate you all.

Thank you so much.

It's good to see him back.

What will the session soon to enter its final third?

It's time to start talking about the budgets.

The one constitutiona requirement of the legislature is to pass the state's general fund and the Education Trust Fund budgets.

It looks like that will be the priorit when lawmakers return next week.

Capitol journal's Jeff Sanders reports back as lawmakers move into the final stretch of the 2026 session, attentio is turning towards the state's General Fund and Education Trust Fund budgets.

This year, the Educatio Trust Fund starts in the house, while the general fund budget begins in the Senate.

And with jus a handful of meeting days left in the session, lawmaker say the timeline will be tight.

If you want to come see me, list those talk.

But don't.

Don't hang out till the wee of passage up here in the Senate when we have it scheduled to hit the committee and hit the floor.

State Senator Arthur Orr of Decatur chairs the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee, he told lawmakers this week the House version of the education budget, led by Representative Danny Garrett, could arrive in the Senate as soon as lawmakers return from spring break.

The House version, Chairman Garrett, while we have our, divides, I won't call them disagreements, but we do.

We're divided in certain areas.

He has the football now and has the final say, but we've worked very well.

At your request, many, I'd say mos all the request of the Senate.

We've discussed and gone over the education trust Fun is the state's largest budget.

It currently provides nearly $10 billion in funding for Alabama' schools and education programs.

The state's current general fund budget totals about $3.7 billion.

State Senator Greg Albritton of Atmore is in charge of framing to gather the general fun budget, and the upper chamber.

I'm waiting for the, Go ahead.

Thumb up, from leadership to proceed.

I think we have, done as best we could with where we are.

Aubert and says the process has been more challenging this year, after several years when Alabama saw unusually strong revenues tied to federal Covid relief funds and interest earnings from those dollars.

Now, he says, lawmakers are working with tighter projections, a little more trying, a little more constraints, and, and a couple of surprises that that came along.

Aubert and says lawmakers could receive copies of the Senate's proposed general fund budget as early as next week.

Reporting from the statehouse in Montgomery.

I'm Jeff Sanders for Capitol Journal.

Thank you, Jeff.

Senator Albritton also commented on the debate over the distribution of Alabama's online sales tax revenue.

As negotiations continue on that issue between cities, counties, schools and state leaders, several cities and school systems argue that the current formula cost their communities millions of dollars in local tax revenue.

All Britain says lawmakers have reached a compromise proposal that would help update the account using the simplified seller's use tax every five years instead of every ten years, he said.

The measure is just the first step in a continuing conversatio to fully resolve the suit issue.

We felt like we neede and had to come forward and show that we're actually seriously doing something.

We came to a consensus this morning that we would change the time, of of counting which to have from ten years to 5%.

And that's what we could agree to.

So we're getting a bill drafted.

We're going to file it today.

We've agreed that this is no a vehicle to make changes and, to make any other attempts to bring about, some other vendettas or anything of that nature.

We're going to get this bill as it passed, we hope, in the spirit of camaraderie, so that we can show the public and each other that we're working together.

We've had, representatives in our meetings, including the AA, includin local school boards, including, the counties, including the cities, and others.

To to discuss what their difficulties were, where we have to go to.

This is complicated.

Everybody has an interest in this, and we've got to make sure that we get this right.

We can't.

This is too valuable for us to screw it up.

Also in the Senate this week, lawmakers debated legislation aimed at addressing ambulance service in rural areas of the state.

Senate Bill 269 sponsore by Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton of Greensboro, would require healt insurance companies to reimburse ambulanc providers at set minimum rates and would prevent patients from being billed more than their normal in network cost sharing.

Supporters say the changes are needed to help ambulance providers stay afloat, especially in rural parts of the state where services can struggle financially.

But during debate on the Senate floor, some lawmakers raised concerns that the proposal could just shift more health care costs onto insurer and ultimately onto customers.

State Senator Larr Stutts of Tuscumbia questioned how the bill would affect who ends up paying for ambulance service in the long run.

With ambulance issues.

We're call shifting more of the cost to a smaller percentage of the people.

And, and we're shifting it to the people that are trying to pay for everybody else.

And I understand ambulance services, operated, lost a lot of times.

I struggled to make ends meet.

And they're needed in rural areas.

I fully understand that, but I'm sayin this bill unduly shifts the cost to a very small percentage of the people.

This is all a part of health care.

Guys.

Understood.

How many need in your bill who all is exempt from nobody exempt in my bill.

No one is exempt.

So I keep hearing you said so when I see the House exempt some of them I didn't.

I put them all back in this bill.

Alpha who don't want to be a hero.

We've been working y'all y'all up and probably working for Alpha right now.

Alpha.

P hip C, hip bluegrass.

Humana.

They all are in this bill.

You not a health care who don't want to be in here.

They all are in her in this in the Senate version.

I'm not leaving out anyone.

That bill passed 26 to 2 and now goes to the House.

The Senate Judiciary Committee this week took up legislation addressing unauthorized drone flights over ticketed outdoor events.

House Bill 429 is sponsored by State Representative Neil Rafferty of Birmingham.

It would make it illega to fly a drone within 400ft of a ticketed concert or sporting event without the permission from that venue.

Violators could face fines, with repeat offenses potentially rising to a misdemeanor charge.

Similar legislation is being pushed in states across the countr by Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which argue that the restrictions are needed for safety and to prevent unauthorized recording of events.

We have an issue with folks flying drones over a concert or sporting event recording that and then selling the content.

We also have issues with drones falling out of the sky.

I was at a at a Kenny Chesney concert about two years ago.

Chesney' team had a big drone up flying, and there are a couple of other small drones flying around.

They stopped the concert to ask the folks flying the small drones to please quit.

There were no one can see you and be close enough to operate it and just be.

That's.

But that's the onus is on the operator of the venue to figure out who that is.

Yes, sir.

There's no real thing that comes to my mind is the Senior Bowl.

This would include that you could not do this at the Senior Bowl was that you could do it.

If you have a permission.

These are people that don't have permission, like in football games.

Both teams have people that fly drones.

And there's this coveted.

Yeah.

All those people are covered under this bill.

They.

That's an exception under this bill.

That bill passed out of committee with bipartisan suppor and now goes to the full Senate, a bill aimed at expanding access to health care in rural Alabama using artifice.

Artificial intelligence was debated this wee in the Senate Health Committee.

Senate Bill 97, sponsored by State Senator Gerald Allen of Tuscaloosa, would establish standards for the use of AI driven medical technology while also putting guardrails in place to ensure it doesn' replace the role of physicians.

Lawmakers adopted several amendments during the committee meeting, including changes offered by committee chairman State Senator Tim Nelson of Florence.

They want to clarify how technology could interact with patients and doctors.

The bill requires the Alabama Healt Command to establish standards.

And, and then as well.

The bill will als exempt rural hospitals and other rural health care provider and state health institutions.

If it does recommend a drug, it does not have prescribing.

The second thing it does is, even though they may establish a physician, patient relationship until the physician.

Well, in this part actually, the second part, make sure that it doesn't direct him to a physician without giving other physicians equal opportunity to have the patient refer to them.

So, so.

And then the third one is that, until the patient, if it is sent to a physician, still, until the physician actuall lays hands on the patient, it's not considered a patient physician relationship.

As I mentioned, the committee approved several amendments to that bill, but it was ultimately carried ove at the request of Senator Allen.

So we will have to wait to come back up.

This week, I sa down with Alabama Port Authority CEO Doug Otto to talk about how recent improvements to the port are making a difference.

He said the recently completed dredging project makes Alabama's port the deepest in the Gulf, and that means more capacity and more business for Alabama.

So the practical implications are mobile.

The port of mobile is now the deepest container port in the Gulf.

Okay.

And so we're deeper than Houston or deeper than Tampa.

And so as vessels transit through the Panama Canal into the Gulf, if they're at 50ft, the only port then come to is mobile.

So we expect so one of the one of the implications are the mobile will now become first port of call for, container vessels coming from Asia.

And so that's a huge economic, advantage for us in the fact that boxes that land her mobile can get to market first.

They can get, you know, to the factory floor quicker than than they could before.

The port also, and this is an interesting story.

I mean, the port moves a lot of Alabama metallurgical coal through the port that those vessels before could have, loaded to 50ft.

But they weren't because we had 45ft.

So the day, I mean, the day we finished the channel, we loaded the culverts.

We were loading a coal vessel at the time.

The captain said, just keep loading it.

So we loaded an additional 5ft to 50ft in sail.

And so every vessel now, virtually every coal vessel is going out at 50ft, which is a huge savings for our customers because less ships they need more cargo for ship.

And so it's a it's a huge good economic impact for the customer.

Representatives fro the Tennessee Valley Authority, we're in the capital city this week visiting with lawmakers here in the state House.

I caught up with Harry Schmidt, economic development field operations manager for TVA, t ask about the company's efforts to recruit and sustain business in booming north Alabama.

TVA has what we call the three E's energy, environment, and Economic development.

It's core fundamental to the whole company.

So making electricity, managing the Tennessee River system, and then the economic development side, which we view is making life better for the people of the valley, that allows us to put a great deal of resources into economic development.

We don't return profit to shareholders because of our corporate structure.

So we reinvest, in the company and in our in our programs.

We're also mandated to provide, the least cost possible power to our region, which is of interest to businesses so reliable and affordabl electricity are key to business.

But we, support economic development in a wide range of ways.

So we work on the, retention side with our existing industries, and then we work on the recruitment side, which are the, the bigger name headlin projects like, like Eli Lilly.

So we'll partner with our, local communities and the state of Alabama.

So we spend a lot of time working with the Alabama Department of Commerce, but we work with our local chambers of commerce, industrial Development Authority, whoever the bigge industrial economic development agency is for each of our counties.

And then we work comprehensively.

We've got a, a prett large department in some ways.

You can view us like, State Development Office overlaid on our service territory.

So our communities in North Alabama are getting the benefit of commerce and, whole additional, organization supporting them.

State lawmakers got a visit from Miss Alabama Symmetry this week.

Fresh off competing in the Miss America pageant, Miss Alabama was in the state House supporting legislatio from Representative Susan DuBose that would designate the position as an official ambassador for the state.

IMA said she's grateful for the opportunities the Miss Alabama program has offered her, and she wants to encourage other young people to become more involved in their community and state.

You have no ide just how many incredible people you're going to meet and interact with, and the opportunities and the doors that this will open for you.

So it's a dream come true.

It's an amazing opportunity, and it's an amazing opportunity to give back to my community.

Something that I'm really excited about is the opportunit to emphasize community service and volunteerism in thi official state ambassador role.

So I'm really, really looking forward to it.

And just so, so grateful.

And that's the new from the statehouse this week.

We'll take a short brea and be back with House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter and Majority Leader Paul Lee.

Stay with us.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next are House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter and newly elected House Majority Leader Paul Lee.

Gentlemen, thanks for coming o the show.

It's good to be here.

Thank you for the invite.

Absolutely.

Long week, long couple of weeks, for y'all.

Productive.

Congratulations are in order for you, Mr.

Lee.

Newly elected House majority leader.

I wanted to kind of start there.

Obviously there's been a leadership change with, former Majority Leader Scott starting.

Hagan stepping down.

He wants to run for a GOP chairman.

You're the new majority leader, so congratulations.

Can you talk a little bit about what that role is?

Well, sure.

Sure.

It's been a little change for me because I've been on the health committee for 16 years.

Half of that.

I'm almost half of tha as chairman of health committee.

So the change has bee the change of focusing straight strictly from that to all the problems are all the issues and getting everyone on the same page.

Now where I had 12 or 15 members, now we have 70 plus members.

And so I think communication actually work with the Health committee.

Communication is absolutely key to our, our caucus and trust.

And those things ar what we're working on right now is communication.

Getting that to where it should be.

And not only that, getting ou trust level where it should be.

I want it to be abl to make sure that caucus feels freel and speaking in a group together and have different, just different opinions.

But work it out and walk out of there and understand where our caucus is going.

Yeah I want to get to more of that.

And of course, you appointed Representative Jeff Sorrells to to replace him at the health committee.

Talk about how you make those decisions in term of how important leadership is.

The committee chairman, House leadership, things like that, and everybody being on the same page.

Well, it's is of the utmost importance.

You know, I think Jeff has done a really good job.

He's worked with Paul closely over the last six years, and he knew how the committee operates.

Paul did a great jo in that community as chairman.

He got to learn under him was Paul Boone, his mentor.

So I think he was ready.

He was ready for the challenge.

And that's not easy committee.

But I think with his personality and his demeanor, it fits him very well.

So yeah, we look at thos assignments based on who fits in as far as their expertis and as far as their knowledge.

And, and certainly, you know, does some of it doe wind up geographically as well.

So he really fit all he checked all the boxes.

And I'm excited to have him because I accepted it.

And I think he's going to do a great job.

We all have had a couple of dramatic weeks in the House Republican Caucus.

You know, these are supposed to be internal kind of family discussions and things like that.

But you had a situation wher it seems like a member recorded, a meeting leaked, the audio got leaked in a pretty apparent effort to make you look bad.

Mr.

speaker, can you speak to that?

What happened?

And do you want to clarify anything that was that was leaked?

Yeah, I think the thing about it is it was a private meeting, you know, and it was personal conversation.

And and my thing wa we always support the members.

I mean, our recor pretty much shows that the money we raised for them over the last.

So it's been majority leader and speaker and, and certainly having a super majority, maintaining supermajority, growing on that supermajority, having larger numbers.

And there's a lot of distraction, maybe that the majority leader is going to try to run for that post.

And I had a lot of conversations.

Well, probably 15 or 20 members had been in my office concerned about you can't do both.

The bylaws of the party says you got to be neutral in a Republican primary.

And so that was kind of the discussion.

Nothing in no way.

I mean, w we certainly respect the party.

I apologize if it come out the wrong way for them.

It they had nothing to do with that.

It was just.

And to my members, listen, you know, I'm here for you.

I'm going to be I'm going to have you back.

And I would, you know, it's kind of like a coach talking to his kids in the locker room.

That's kind of what I was trying to do, is just to ensure them, you know, don't worry abou what's going on with the party those people are.

They'll do a good job.

They'll pick who they think they need and and we'll work with them.

But the fact of the matter is, my job is here.

My job is to be speaker and be over the House and to help you get reelected and to make sure you got them available, funds and everything you need for the campaign.

So that was it was just reassurance to them that you're my focus.

This is it right here.

And, certainly the part people are super smart people.

They'll do a great job and select who they think should be the next leader.

I respect that, but I think, our record speaks for itself.

I mean, you know, since I've been speaker, Alabama has become the most conservativ legislative body in the country.

And so we're proud of that.

We're proud of the accomplishments we had, this quadrennial home.

We've already cut $1.5 billion worth of taxes.

So along with the Cheese Act I mean, the list is so long and, our members have done a great job, and I think they are due t all the respect that they need.

Yeah, I hate that that happened.

It's never happened since I've been here.

And it's a betrayal, the trust.

And it's not me that are betraying.

It's the 76 members of the caucus.

And so, it's one of those things I would if I had it to do.

I'm.

I'm one of those who don't use a lot of that kind of language.

And if I had it to do over, certainly I wouldn't have the end.

But, you know, I think every every one, even the one that recorded i understood what I was doing it.

And, I mean, you can ask any of the members I think they would take or if we don't get into caucus issues, but, they would tell you that he was taken up for us.

And, you know, we're trying to move forward, and that's what we needed to do.

We got a job to do here.

So that's wha the former leader wanted to do.

That was his it was his calling.

But we got a response.

I've got a responsibility here.

And I wanted to assure them that I was going to do that.

It does seem like maybe it's from outside coming, you know, and but it does seem like there was there's been an effort to kind of create factions within the House caucus.

Has some of that quelled now that you've moved on from this drama?

Mr.

leader, I think it has, we've been meeting with our caucus individual groups and let them know the facts of what's been taking place.

Everyon in that group understands that what was league was not the actual verbiage.

It was compresse and there was a motive for that.

And obviously they're not happy with it, because if it's not the speaker now it may be one of them or myself or someone else down the road, and they take that personal.

And so that's key to finding out and making sure that we don' get into this situation again.

It is an election year so maybe some of that's natural to election year.

But I've always talked about how, really when when y'all were coming in about how, you know, washing ington is so full of drama and, and Congress has gotten to itself and to a point wher I can't really do much because it's so balkanized and it's so politicized and like, avoiding that kind of, balkanization in Montgomery.

And because if that happens, then you can't do the productivity that you're talking about.

So talk about that in this election year, avoiding if we can that, you know, Washington DC drama coming to Montgomery.

Yeah.

I mean I think that's that's important.

I mean, yeah, my thing is I' probably not a great politician.

I mean, I'm really probably not because I don't do the political stuff, but I think my strengt probably is in helping govern.

And I think it's to me it's imperative that we do that based on the number of dollars it's taxpayer sent to us.

You know, I think we've got to be responsible stewards of that money.

And I see our body as doing that.

I think, you know, Majority Leader Lee would say the same thing.

I mean, we're always cognizant of the funding and where it goes and make sure that we do what we think is right with it.

And if we can cut taxes, we do every every session, every session, including this one, we will have tax cuts for the people of this state.

Not only that, but the growth of jobs.

The industries have come in in our state we've never seen before.

So I think the being working as a government that tries to be productive and successful, you know, I think our board has done a great job and I have, nothing but respect for the time they spend and the hours I span.

I mean, this, this this is a part time job.

Well, you know, one of my part time digest, last wee and this week, too, I left home.

I got up at 5:00, and this time I got in bed.

It was midnight.

I mean, so that's how these part time jobs go when you're in Montgomery.

And, so, I certainly respect the members, and I think we need to put tha behind, you know, that's over.

We need to go forward.

And I think, Majority Leade Lee's going to do a great job.

I've got respect for him.

The way he run his committee and everything he's done.

So I think we're going in a good direction.

And people that does keep up with it has kept up with it, knows it.

Our caucus just doesn't have any drama.

So this is kind of unusual.

It that exactly I mean that's that' kind of been y'all's reputation which is why it's it's news.

Let's talk about some issues.

I had Senator Gutter on here last week talking about his decision.

Really in the Senate to say, hey, we're not going to move forward with that Public Service Commission reform bill.

He said it, you know, too fast, too quick and and so but he also sai that the issue is still alive in terms of energy affordability, maybe reforms to the PSC.

We've only got 11 more days of session.

So what might we see o on these issues of energy PSC?

I mean, again something happened this session.

I think that, this bill that came forward opened the eyes and the conversation, I think it wa a good conversation to be had, because you will probably see some ideas come forward to try to address some of the issues.

Because we are hot, we are too hot and we're going to work on that.

And it would not have happene had that bill not been dropped.

I think our caucus will turn it into a very positive thing and that this our goal is is for our constituents to pay as little as possible for the least they can for their electrical bill.

If there are there are hard working families out here every day.

A lot of single mothers that have 1 or 2 children and they can't and can't always make their electricity bill, that's priority to them.

And when they can't do that after feeding their kids we have a problem and we're hot.

We're have.

But the beauty about this entire bill brought out idea that we can address and work on that haven't had a rate study since the 80s.

I didn't know that.

Nor did anyone in our caucus know that.

So there are things that we can reques and put into law to make happen.

Yeah, we're all anticipating the budgets, right?

We're getting again, 11 days to go, getting late in the session with, I know Chairman Garrett i working on his education budget.

When might we see that on the floor?

We'll probably see it next week.

I mean, they've been working on it.

As you know, it takes more than just a few weeks.

I've been working on it the entire year.

When we get down to the budget this year, they'll start working on next year.

But, I think we'll see it next week.

We'll see the process start in the house with ATF and probably same thing in the Senate with the general fund.

So it'll that they've done a really good job.

I mean, you got to really brag on the chairman in both education trust fund and general fund.

In the conversation I've had with both of and I don't know that we'll even have to go to conference.

I mean, they've worked that closely together, and that's a rarity.

If we can get both of them out, that going to conference.

I don't know that I've seen that before, but, maybe, maybe we can.

Maybe that'll be something that we can accomplish.

I don't know that but that sounds very positive.

Yeah.

And I talked with, chairman o in the Senate about his history, because this is the last year of Governor Ivey's term and working those budgets, right.

It used to be almost, almost an adversarial relationship.

Right?

When the when the governor sends over a budget, the legislature would sometimes throw out the trash, get it started.

So it's not been that way, with you all.

And so talk about that working relationship.

It is Governor Ivey's last session.

And I hopefully I will talk to you all before, she leaves office, but talk about that working relationship because it seems like with the budgets and other things, you'll have a closer working relationship than, you know, maybe traditionally happens between executive and legislative.

I'd like to put a plug in for director Paul.

I mean, he came from the legislature, was the chairman of the education budget.

So he's been on that side before.

He's he knows what works an he understands the flow of it.

So I give a shout out to him because he has been a major part of this process.

It makes it smoothe for our people to work with him.

He understands it.

Yeah.

Knowing those pitfalls is important.

Okay.

Last part of session, really the last third of the session is ahead of us.

What might we expect?

How are we going to close things out?

What are some issues we can anticipate?

Well, we're getting you know, we're finished up with some of the key bills today.

We'll get the rest of it in the budget.

We did $100 million to expand career tech facilities and to build new ones.

Last year.

We'll do $150 million this year.

Got some of the bills passed and we need to get passed to try to get more teachers in those classrooms.

So that's important.

And I think we'll see, tax credit, on our workers.

I mean, you know, last year we talked about that, you know, the fiscal not we got was probably $40 million.

It turned out to be almost 500 million.

It was something we couldn't afford.

It went back this time, and certainly our staff did a great job and worked on that.

We'll have tax credits for overtime.

Probably will be on the calendar pretty quick.

So we're excited about that.

Certainl something that I've been talking to, Coach Travel which seems to be the designee for the next governor coming in.

But something we've talked to him about is closed primaries.

And, I think we got a couple of bills looking at those and certainly, he's interested in that.

And we've had those conversations and we'll continue to do that.

Yeah.

And that's a touchy subject because it's you got to you got to do it.

Right.

I mean, the idea of closed primaries, I think most people most party people appreciate it.

But like, you got to do it right like where are the independents where they allowed to do and things like that.

So that's that's going to be interesting legislation moving forward.

On the career tax, I found it really interesting because you talk about it as not just investment, but policy changes to, you know, kind of do on the career tech side, what y'all have done with the literacy, the the numeracy act, things like that on on K through 12, focusing more on that career tech side, understanding that there are plenty of kids that need that those opportunities and maybe a quicker start to those opportunities tha maybe they're getting right now.

Yeah, I don't think any question about that.

And that's one thing we've looked at.

You know, we've always done things a certain way this this yea we've had two different times.

We had 40 different companie and industries across the state come and meet with u and ask them, what do you need?

You know, we're we're setting the curriculum for people that don't tell us what they need, which doesn't make a lot of sense.

And so we got them to come in and sit down and talk to us about what they need.

And some of it was simple.

I mean, it's things I didn't think about.

You know, one of the things that was brought up amongst all of them, all 40 different, organizations or different companies, I said, you know, one of the things that we need to look at first probably is soft skills which we probably all knew that.

But the other thing I didn't think about was just some type of safety classes, so that they kno when they come into an industry or into a plant, what to look for or what not to do.

And th I don't think that was something that we thought would come out of that.

So that's been very productive.

You know, the thing about it is we only graduate about 34% of our kids from college.

So it gives us a chance for 66% of those that don't go to colleg to give them more opportunities.

We only have about 80 career techs.

At least we've got 139 school systems.

So we're short.

I mean, the class of kids that's not going to college or don't have the amount of instructor and classrooms that they need.

And so I think this starts that ball rolling.

And, you know they've done a really good job.

We've got a number of these.

It's off the ground and in construction.

We've got another facility that's being planned and the architecture work's been done.

So I mean I'm really excite to see how it's going to change and what it's going to do for our future because everybody, you know, every one of thes kids, it's one of opportunity.

No, look, we're out of time.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you for your time and your candor.

Dealing with, you know, this, this, this recent drama and everything.

Appreciate it.

And hope to talk to yo all soon, later in the session.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Thank thanks.

Sir.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Rex Vaughn, the newly appointed chairman of the Madison County Commission.

Mr.

chairman thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me.

And congratulations were appointed this week by Governor Ivey as chairman of the Madison County Commission.

Thank you.

Those are big shoe to fill behind Mac McCutcheon.

And I've been a long time friend mentor to me.

And so it's an honor and a challenge to follow his lead for sure.

Well, no doubt.

I wanted to ask you you know, what led you to pursue that appointment?

It's a big one.

I'm Madison County, one of th largest counties in the state.

Growing like crazy.

A big job, a big responsibility, as you said.

What led you to pursue the appointment?

It actually never crossed my mind that I would want to.

Until a few individuals had mentioned it to me as to give it consideration.

And I thought, well, I don't know that that I've ever, had really thought about that.

And I really had not.

But the more I thought about it, the more, people had convinced me that you know, a lot of the players in Madison Count and Huntsville in north Alabama, you might be a natural fit, so don't write it off.

So I had a few months to to think about it.

And then meanwhile, Ma McCutcheon health began to fail him, which is, thank goodness right now is not, it's not all bad He's had some good news lately.

But, during that time frame, Mack's health was going backwards.

So he had told me, he said, you know, try to be making your mind up sooner than later.

So talking with a lot of friends and elected officials, it kind of persuaded me that, yes, I think I'd like to pursue that job and and serve my local people that I've been in that backyard my county my entire life.

So growing up and my family's been we've had descendants, our ancestors there for a long time.

So, I've been my family's been there a long time.

So I've seen Madison County and hustle, ebb and flow for decades and watched all the growing pains, what some people might call them.

But there's parts of our state that would like to have our growing pains.

So I don't view it that way.

I look at it as challenge that we can address, hopefully.

Certainly.

We can't get them all fixed at one time, but, the more I thought about those opportunities that I might have as a chairma of a Madison County commission and workin with our fellow commissioners, it might give me a different look of my of my government.

And I've never worked in government, so that was a thought for me.

I thought, maybe I want to do this in this season of my life and just see what happens.

Well, I know y'all have been in Montgomery this week.

You the mayor of Huntsville, the Chamber of Commerce.

We talked to some TVA folks earlier this week.

So, the big North Alabama presence in Montgomery this week.

What does y'all come down here to talk about?

What are some of your messages to the legislature?

Well, certainly, you know, the road roa challenges up in North Alabama.

We cannot fix them fast enough.

There's not enough mone to fix those roads fast enough.

Certainly not enough road building companies.

But so we have to prioritize.

And I think that message has already been conveyed.

Certainly chairman McCutchen in the past has carried that state for years.

And the mayor battle as well.

And, the Madison mayor, Renee Bartlett, she's also been a team player with all of us.

So I think all of our voices i unison are finally getting that message across.

The goal line, that with the population explosion that we've had in North Alabama, traffic flow is of paramount interest.

So getting our people back and forth to their good jobs that fortunately we have.

But that's that's crucial right now to north Alabama, to the hustle area all across Madison County, because I think about 17 counties send employees to the hospital area to work.

So it's a lot of, commuters that work in area, but we just need to find ways to help them get to their jobs and back home safely.

And right now, we're probably lacking because the timeframe of driving is just too, too much for many of them.

But they still do it because the jobs are that good, but that that would be a number one priority.

I would say education is also a consideration for all of our people.

The city of Madison, Huntsville and Madison County.

We've got five of the largest schools in the entire state in Madison County.

So that's another, reason I think our people are interested in what Eric Mackey, our superintendent, has on his plate.

What?

How he foresees North Alabama and how he can help us address those issues in education.

And certainly just, understanding what Montgomery can help us wit in terms of legislative issues.

We've met with a lot of our elected legislators both senators and House members.

And, they all understan because most of them have been either live in the hustle area or the surrounding area, and they know all of the challenges that we have.

And, thank goodness they're all team players.

And we on the county commission, along with the Hustle City Council and the inner city Council of Madison, I think we're makin our best effort to get together, because what benefits one entity will benefit all of them.

Sure.

And you talk about an economic engine for the state, you know, and and not just that area, but for the entire state.

And I mean, those infrastructur issues, those go back decades.

I mean, I remember tha being talked about 20 years ago now, and that was probably, old news then.

What about the courthouse?

I understand that that replacing the Madison County Courthouse is of pretty urgent need right now.

How are those plans developing?

They're coming along.

Well, I think right now, the, we're waiting to get the final agreement on the architectural drawings to get those approved.

And once that happens, I think we can start looking to locate the judicial system elsewhere.

But we have a a lot of, courts in our courthouse.

So we're looking at, like, at least 14 courtrooms to satisfy the needs of ou judicial system, Madison County.

So there'll be a land in space that has to be provided, soon to address all those needs.

And, and while the new courthouse is being built.

So we've got a long time span of the tearing down of the current courthouse and then resurrection, a new one.

So that's going to be a pretty, intensive time.

But we've got to make sure we can adequately, adequately supply the court system first and foremost because what all they have going on, the caseloads are huge i Huntsville and Madison County.

So that will be a priority issue, is making sure that our judges hav what they need to do their job, and then we'll certainly will look for some administrative offices for the county, for the rest of the county, the commission and things of that nature.

We already have a major anne that supplies the tax collector and a tax, assessor and, driver's license.

All those things are alread been satisfied at another annex.

So now we're be in the in the pursuit of trying to find another location for the judicial system.

So that's that's going to be a heavy lift.

I bet it sounds like all of these issues revolve around one thing and that's growth.

Absolutely.

You got it.

Explosive growth in Madison County, Limestone County, just really the whole area.

How do y'all manage that?

Because like you said, a lot of places would love to have that problem, but it comes with stress.

It comes with stress on infrastructure, stress on schools and things like that.

How does how does the county this, this, the various cities, multiple counties.

Because the lands right there.

How do you all work together to manage that without, you know, getting distracted by, you know, factions and rivalries and things like that?

It is important that both sides of Madison County, both the East Side and west side, and also your commuters coming in from Tennessee, right in the southern part of Marshall County, Marshall County, Cullman County, and all the surrounding areas from Morgan County, Decatur, the major arteries, I would say, or the should be prioritized because that's where your traffic flow is.

The heaviest is the thickest, and they're trying to get into Redstone Arsenal or to Research Park.

So you can see in the mornings and the evening.

So those traffic lines are almost to the standstill some certain parts of the day.

And I know it's frustrating for drivers.

And of course we have our residents out scattered across the county in the metro area who would like their their county road to be either widened or, maybe modified but sometimes those have to be put on the backburner.

So your artery, your, your major arteries can be addressed.

So that's kind of what's what we're into right no and will be for the foreseeable future, is making sur the major arteries are adequate.

And right now they're not.

But it just depends on how patient our driver can be getting, getting in and out of Huntsville.

But once again, you know, a lot of our commuters are used to that problem.

I guess they they don't like it, but they are used to it.

So but that is a problem for Huntsville, for the city of Madison, for the Madison County Commission the Limestone County Commission, all of our adjacent areas face the same crisis that we do.

So it's a it will be a tea approach in trying to prioritize how we address these traffic, traffic flow.

You mentioned Matt McCutcheon, who you're replacing on the commission.

Obviously, he's spent years in this building, not just a state representative.

He was rules chairman for a while.

And speaker of the House.

A lot of affection, for Mr.

McCutcheon.

Talk about his legacy, in tha area from his years of service.

There's no finer example of a public servant than Matt McCutcheon.

I've known him for a lifetime.

Known his whole family.

I've known his wife's family.

And thank thank goodness that, you know, they still have a measure of health that they can enjoy this part of retirement.

And, but, I've always known Mike to be an honest man.

You know, politicians a lot of times get get labeled all kinds of ways.

Matt McCutcheon never was labeled that.

Well, I never heard that kind of talk about Mike that he would dishones or he would tell you something just to get you to go away.

He wanted to hear your voice.

He would not make you a promise he could not fulfill.

So he was just, just the best teaching me, he was a great mentor to me.

As far as me watching him deal with his constituents, both from a legislative standpoint, from a commission standpoint, he'd been a former policeman.

He's been a negotiator.

So he's dealt with sometimes the worst of the worst.

And then even working as a lawmaker, you know, he's greatly respected here in Montgomery and in the halls of the state House.

It's because the just kind of man he is.

And, there will never be another Mike McCutcheon, I can promise you that, Will said.

I hope you'll pass along our best wishes.

I certainly will to high Commissioner.

Congratulations again, and thank you for your time.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

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Space camp provides children and adults alike with an opportunity to experience what it would be like to be an astronaut.

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That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back next week with more coverage of the Alabama Legislature right here on app for our Capitol Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.