From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capitol Journal.

Today was the 27th day of the Alabama Legislature's 2025 regular session.

That leaves us just three more legislative days to go.

Let's talk about how that's likely to play out.

According to legislative leadership.

Next week will see two legislative days Tuesday, May 6th and Wednesday, May 7th.

They'll then break for a week and come back for the 30th Legislative Day on Wednesday, May 14th.

Eventually adjourning signing day.

There have been talks of adjourning next week, but the slow pace in the Senat and the backlog of local bills will require another legislative day.

It will also allow the legislature to overturn any potential vetoes from the governor and avoid any pocket veto situations.

Following today's Senate session, President Pro Tem Garland Gudger spoke with reporters about the path ahead.

He said there's still plenty of work to be done befor lawmakers wrap up the session.

The main thing for me is local legislation.

All politics are local.

We've got a lot of bills that came up from the House that are that we still have to finish up.

We have confirmations that are in the Senate that we have to finish up.

So those are the basic that we have to get out first.

And any Senate bill that are local legislation as well.

There's a lot of speculatio that we'll still be looking at trying to handle the Tse or Bill that's coming up.

So that's going to take a lo of our time I think, next week.

So just in case the governor doesn't have time to sign all the bills or doesn't want us on some of the bills, especially local legislation that gives us a week to override her pocket veto.

So when we come back, we can make sure that those bills go through.

Local legislation is an important and a lot of time pay increases and things like that.

She doesn't know much about the governor and was ask us.

And so sometimes it's easier for her not to sign those and let us come back and pass those.

A bill that could reshape health coverage options for Alabama farmers is now on its way to the governor's desk.

House Bill 477, sponsored by Representative David Faulkner, passed the Senate by a vote of 30 to 2 today.

The measure would allow Alfa to offer its own health benefit plans that are not classified as insurance, and therefore not subject to federal Affordable Care Act requirements.

Supporters argue this gives farmers access to more affordable options in a market where traditional insurance is often out of reach.

The plans would include a $2 million benefit cap, prohibit dropping members due to illness, and ban premium hikes based on health status.

But critics remain concerned that the plans would not be required to cover essential health benefits or accept people with preexisting conditions.

You know, they're paying anywhere from 1800 to $2400 a month, if you can imagine that for a young farmer, young farmer, most of these guys don't make 7 or $800 a week.

They're struggling as it is, and all of a sudden you've got your paying.

Your insurance is 2400 a month.

Say, what does that leave you when your house no, 600 a month is bad?

When you got that much on insurance and you can't afford a house, your car notes and everything, it's just hard for young farmers to make it, period in life.

As of today, as far as my grandson, I mean, we just we surprising me and my wife, paying his bills all the time, just where he can keep doing what he wants to do on the family farm.

Just like most members come who have that one individual in their community that get somebody, I want to pass a law to try to now help them.

So once somebody get denied for preexisting conditions, I don't want you to come back running to m we need to put this on this plan because it's hurting the farmers in my area because they can't get insured.

Thank you very much.

And, I hope you all have a good, healthy life.

The house today gave final passage to legislation revamping the makeup of the Birmingham Waterworks Board.

Senate Bill 330 from Senator Dan Roberts passed 66 to 27.

After more than two hours of debate, here's how the restructuring o the appointed board will work.

There will now be eight regional board members instead of the five they originally wanted.

When the bill was dropped, Birmingham's mayor, the City Council of Birmingham and the Jefferson County Commission will each get an appointment to that board.

The governor and lieutenant governor will also have a say with one appointment each.

Lawmakers are seeking the reform due to high water prices that they attribute to a dysfunctional board.

The city of Birmingham will have one appointment.

Birmingham City Council will have one appointment.

The president of the Jefferson County Commission will have one appointment.

The Blount County Commission will have one appointment.

The Shelby County Commission will have one appointment.

The tenant governor will have one appointment, and the governor will have one apartment.

Do you believe tha the Birmingham, that Birmingham owns all of the assets to the water board?

No.

They sold.

Oh, did they sell it to who did they sell it to?

They sold it to a public corporation.

Who did they stand?

I've got the transaction Bill price.

Why would that public.

So why would that public corporation allow Birmingham mayor and Council to select the board members?

I wasn't there for that.

But they also.

That don't make sense, does it?

Ain't you a business man?

You're a business man.

So, you know, if you purchase the assets and you own it, so if you own it you're not going to let somebody else determine how is ran.

Also receiving final passage today was Lulu's Law, a bill designed to implement a shark alert system along Alabama's Gulf Coast.

House Bill 437 from State Representative David Faulkner will establish a system under the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources through Mobile and Baldwin County Emergency Management agencies to warn beachgoers of shark attack near the shoreline.

The alerts would be sent t cell phones in localized areas and to first responders, similar to Amber alerts.

Can't wait to have Lulu.

With the governor and sign the bill.

It'll be a fun day.

You know, Lulu Strong and her inspiration.

You know, this is just to me, the feel good great bill of the of the of the session.

To, you know, for people, she's such an inspiration to so many people.

And so I'm so happy that it passed the Senate.

And I think with, 32 yes votes.

So really excited about it.

When this happened, it was like my own child.

It's like your child has been attacked and those kind of things.

As a father who has a daughter, you know, it just breaks your heart and, but then, you know, watching.

Good come out of something, seeing how God can do that in somebody in Lulu.

Just her faith and her courage, to say that no matter what life throws, it throws at you.

You know, you can endure and there's hope and you can recover and be stronger.

Lawmakers gathered this morning to celebrate the topping ou of the new statehouse building.

Construction has been rapidly progressing, and now the steel and concrete vertical structures are complete.

The project is being managed by the Retirement Systems of Alabama, and CEO Davi Bronner said he hopes to deliver a building the state can be proud of.

The people of Alabama need this.

Legislators need this because the future is the future and the way you organize and the old highway building.

This is not the future.

My whole ide and my big push on this project, was to get both the Senat and the House on the same floor.

I wanted you guys to talk because when I would talk to Senator, a representative, they didn't know who the hell was in the other house.

That's not good.

We got to get together.

We got to make the state better.

We've got to remember that poor people are poor people.

They're always going to be poor people.

And we've got to help those poor people have a chance to do what they can do, whatever that is.

I'm excited about what we have here.

I know one of the criticisms is, is, oh, y'all just want some nice place for, you know, go ahead to hang your hat down there.

We're not here that much.

I mean, this is not about us.

This is, you know, the staff is there all the time.

Has to endure that.

All the building and all the things that go along with it.

The financial, impracticality of of maintaining the building that we're in today, but also having something to show off our state.

I mean, it's embarrassing t bring a leader in to this area and to go taking the lieutenant governor's office or speaker's office or protein's office.

Alabama should have more pride than that.

Coming up next, I'll sit down with State Representative Terry Collins.

Stay with us.

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Fort Toulouse site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

The day known as the Fort Toulouse Jackson State Park, during the colonial period, Fort Toulouse acted as a commercial, religious and diplomatic frontier outpost for the French from 1717 until 1763.

It was one of a series of fort built by the French to protect their holdings and French colonial Louisiana from British and French during the 18th century.

Fort Jackso played a major role in the Great War of 18 1314, when General Andrew Jackson and the U.S. Army used Fort Jackson, buil on the old side of Fort Toulouse on August 9th, 1814, after their defea in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Upper Creeks surrendered to the United States and the Treaty of Fort Jackson, effectively ending the Great War.

19 million acres of cree lands were open for settlement, resulting in Alabama becoming a state only five years later.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is State Representative Terri Collins, chairman of the House Education Policy Committee.

Madam chairman thanks for coming on the show.

Glad to be with you, Tod.

Thanks for asking.

I want to get to education policy in a minute, but I first want to ask you about your latest legislation having to do with rura hospitals and investment program tax credits to help support rural hospitals.

Walk me throug the legislation.

I'd be glad to.

We've worked on it for three years, and this year it's gotten, all the way through Senate committees.

So hopefully this is the year that it will be successful.

It sets up a tax credit for, but it uses more than just income tax.

It uses insurance tax and financial tax and utility tax in your rural areas.

Sometimes those have bigger tax liability than maybe even income in some cases.

And so it uses all four of those which affect in Alabama the ETF with income tax.

But the general fund with the other three.

But then the hospitals are kind of funded as a general fund.

So therefore I think it's a good mix of how the credit works.

It allows third parties so that, they can actually work with communities to try to recruit support for people to use that tax credit, as you know, against the tax liability tha they have on their income tax.

And, it has a chance to direct if I want to direct my tax credit to a specific rural hospital.

It allows me to do that.

It is $20 million for this first year.

That's the cap.

The cap.

It is 25 the second and then 30 and then it sunsets.

Because we're really not sure how it' going to affect the different.

And I actually am thrilled this year that in a year where we've had so few tax credits even discussed, that this one is finally bein considered and that we're moving it forward.

I think our rural hospitals see it as a lifeline.

They have to have a five yea plan to try to be sustainable.

You're probably not having heart surgery in a rural, rural area, but you might like to do your dialysis every week.

You might like to do infusions.

You might like to mammograms.

I mean, there are things that they could do and you need in a rural setting in order to recruit, you know and a new industry or anything.

You've got to be able to offer health care.

So this allows the community, whether it's an individual, an organization, a company, to say, okay, we want to support our rural hospital.

And this is an incentive to do that because they get that tax, they get that tax credit.

And it's also one of the things we added in Senate committee, yesterday was a match.

So that local community has t have some type of a local match.

And we set it at 10%.

And up to half of that could b an in-kind service of different.

If the county or the city are doing maintenance or yard work or whatever.

And so those are kind of very doable.

But they have skin in the game.

And I think that's important as well.

Yeah.

So it's waiting on the Senate like everything else like everything else that I have.

Yes.

It is not just you I have I've heard from several House members that, you know just the slowdown in the Senate really is affecting things.

And we can talk about that in a minute.

Let's get to education policy, okay.

You've had a busy year.

Yes.

As chair of the education Policy Committee.

I love how you when you invite everybody in and you say, welcome to education policy, because if you haven't been here before, this is how we do things.

But it's interesting because so much legislation has been coming through your committee.

You all are this, you know, kind of clearinghouse or, you know, or, gatekeeper, if you will, because, you know, everybody wants their legislation well intended and everything.

But anytime something impacts schools, you've got to think very carefully about it.

And I've this been my observation that you obviously but I also your committee members are very thoughtful and intentional about how you go about it.

I'm thinking back to lik the religious instruction bill, that maybe because it's such a conservative sort of, you know, body, you'd think it would sail through.

But y'all had a lot of debate and it ended up failing.

Talk about your role there as chair and the committee's role in terms of, you know, filtering out bills and making sure that you're doing right by education.

I think a lot of times I tell people, especially if they come in my office and they say, wow you've got a nice house office.

I said, I think it's an apology for being education policy.

Yeah, but we sit around in a comfortable setting and try to calm down some of the passions, because that's what I experience in education policy.

Every single issue, both sides, those for it and those against it are extremely passionate.

And and it's very important to them.

And what I've tried to do thi time and I want to give a plug out to the Senate actually Commission policy chair.

Senator testing.

We've both tried to really focus on bills that will improve education, not as many of the social issues.

Right.

We get a lot of those a lot.

I love, how my committe I think it's the best committee I've ever had.

And they do they are all very intentional with their thought process.

They read, they know their questions when they come in, and they all have different questions.

They all they come to the policy, whatever the debate is from different places.

We have past school board members.

We have, teachers that are retired.

We have, early childhood now.

We have, a lot of different areas.

Higher ed is in there, pay more and it's it's a really good committee and they've been abl to take things and really weigh.

Is this a benefit for the classroom?

Does this promote our students education?

And I think they've done a great job.

So I'm proud of them.

It's been a busy year.

They've been a busy, busy couple of years education policy.

And I know it will continue to be.

Speaking of that.

One of the, I think, I don't know, understated, underestimate I don't know, I think one of the biggest policy developments of this session is going to be the Raise act, a great there' a lot of talk about other bills.

There's a lot of talk about, you know, the more controversial things the Raise act, setting that student base funding formula, resetting it.

I think it's going to be a really big deal long term.

Talk about how y'all came to this, and what it's going to mean for schools.

I'm glad to, three years ago now, I think maybe a state.

I was at a Southern Regional educational board and that's our southern states.

And Tennessee had just passed something very similar.

And I was so excited.

And I actually had Senator White, Mark white come and share it with everybody.

And I was so excited.

And we started working.

I started working with a group that had helped Tennessee.

And every state' education looks very different.

One of the other conference I go, they have a little quote that says, when you've seen one state, you've seen one stat because everyone's so different.

But how it worked in our stat was going to be very different.

And we were able to do thi dashboard that would let you see if we set the base amount per every student here, and then we set this white for this and this white for this and this white.

How would that affec every single different school?

Because our starting place was we wanted to do no harm for no school to lose money for everyone to benefit.

And so we set a base amount each year, which is just the average amoun that the students are earning.

And then we have weights, we have weights for special needs.

We know it costs more to educate a special needs child.

We have weight for poverty, and we know it costs more to teach that English language learners.

We have a weight for gifted and we have a weight for charter.

The charter weigh is because they have no access to local dollars at all.

You proposed that I did.

I proposed that in many years and maybe this one will really help.

There are certain counties that also don't have additional local dollars, and so that would be excluded from there.

So I think it's very fair, a we've gone through this process in both the House and the Senate for participated, I'll file looking at it and I'm really excited about it.

I think it's a start.

You know, everything is not going to ge as much money as we would like, but we've had money i the savings that we've created.

We're putting that in this year.

We'll start again next year.

We've got a three year plan.

And I think as we continu to move in the right direction, it's going to make a difference.

But what I really like about our plan, even bette than some of the other states, ours has a really good accountability system set up so that if we give any district more money because of this, the different weights that they're receiving, then we expect to see a growth in that student achievement.

And there are some accountability measures for that.

And I've always been for accountability.

And so I think it's going to be really good.

I think it's going to be one of the best things we've we've done with education.

Yeah.

You're right.

The accountability, is very important.

And yes, you hav as you pass the school grading bill a long time ago, I did that and we talked about even connecting that.

And we still could at some point.

But we need to simplify.

We need to make sure that we're counting the thing that are truly measuring student growth and achievement and, maybe in the future.

Well I'm glad that you mentioned that because so many, you know, so many times we talk about budgets and how much we're spending and all that.

And I think folks need to know that, yes, it's important to have that accountability.

It's not just handing out money.

You're expecting results.

So it's an ongoing thing.

Switching gears real quick, also on the education front, cell phones in schools, this is a been a big policy proposal this year.

Where is this?

I know that there was a Senate bill, was a House bill?

Everybody seems to be notionally okay with this, plan.

The governor is supporting it.

Are we going to be able to ban cell phones in schools this year?

Is that going to pass?

I hope so, I believe so, I mean, like we starte the conversation, every almost everything I have is through committee in the Senate and waiting to be heard on the floor.

So, they can move really fast when they get moving.

So we will be hopeful that that will start pretty soon, since we'll have three days left.

But talk about the impact that the cell phones.

I will tell you.

Director Boswell with Mental Health said her comment when she came to committee.

I invited her to committee because I wanted everyone to hear some of the things we were hearing.

And her starting comment was that very rarely do we get to make a vote that could truly change the life of children going forward for the better.

And that's what this is.

People don't understan how much bullying is going on, the lack of just learnin to communicate and social skills that are going on because they're all stuck to their phones and all da to give them an eight hour bail to bail time where they don't see those phones, where they actually have to talk to people in the lunchroom for when they're walking up and down the halls.

They're they're talking to people.

They're looking at people.

They're not looking down.

It we have had some pilot programs.

We had one right here in Montgomery.

And what they saw within th first three months, first month, lots of turmoil, peopl not understanding, people upset.

By the third month, achievement had started going up and disciplin problems had started going down.

That's the trend we want to see.

I think it will b the best thing for our students that we've done.

Maybe since the Literacy Act and the Numeracy Act, I think it will make such an impact and I think we'll have healthier children.

Just giving them a break from from the cell phone.

Yeah.

We will be watching that because I do think it's one of the biggest bills of the session.

We're out of time.

But you mentioned literacy and numeracy.

I want to have you back maybe in the off season sometim to talk about updates on that.

I'm very proud of the direction we're going.

We're moving so many things in a great direction, and I am proud of the things we've done.

I'm proud of the things we've passed that have made that so and I would love to come back.

Absolutely.

We'll have you back.

Thanks again.

Thanks.

We'll be right back.

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Alabama's Gulf Coast is renowned for its white sand beaches bordering the Gulf of Mexico.

It is an important part of the quality of life for many of the state' citizens, and one of the state's greatest economic and environmental assets.

The white, sandy beaches of Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and Dauphin Island are popular vacation destinations for Alabamians and out-of-state tourists.

The fine quality of the san and gentleness of the surf make for some of the prettiest beaches in the world, and are the top tourist destination in the state.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow nigh for our Week in Review episode.

That's 730 here on Alabama Public Television.

For our Capital Journal team, I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.