Tag: Alabama Legislature
Lawmaker: Pubic Money Shouldn’t Be Used to Influence Voters
A state senator says he is considering legislation to prevent government agencies from spending state money to promote ballot referendums and proposed constitutional amendments.
“We shouldn’t use public money to influence voters’ decisions,” Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, told Alabama Daily News on Thursday. “The government doesn’t need to put its finger on the scale, attempting to influence decisions that the voters will need to make.”
Orr’s comments were prompted by a Legislative Contract Review Committee meeting on Thursday and information the committee received from the Alabama Department of Conservation about a proposed $200,000 public relations contract. The committee was told that the contract was to inform the public about a 2022 constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would let the state borrow $80 million to improve parks.
The committee can’t kill contracts, but it can delay them for up to 45 days. It moved to delay Conservation’s Thursday.
Read more.
More from the Alabama State House
New Testing, Revised ‘Implied Consent’ Law Target Drugged Drivers
The number of drugged drivers on Alabama roadways has steadily increased in recent years, and more impaired drivers were found to have marijuana in their systems than alcohol in 2019.
“Last year, for the first time ever, THC (marijuana) surpassed alcohol in prevalence in our DUI cases,” Angelo Della Manna, director of the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, told Alabama Daily News. His department performs all of the forensic laboratory testing in DUI cases across Alabama. Meth, alprazolam (Xanax) and cocaine rounded out the top five substances found in impaired drivers.
Under a law passed in the recent legislative session, Della Manna and law enforcement expect the ability to collect saliva at the roadside and more accurately detect the substances and quantities in a person’s system will get more drugged drivers off the streets. The law adds the collection of a roadside saliva sample to the state’s implied consent law, allowing for oral fluid collection at the time of a wreck or traffic stop.
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More news from the Alabama State House
Lawmaker: Pubic Money Shouldn’t Be Used to Influence Voters
Five Things You Need to Know About Alabama’s New Medical Marijuana Law
Alabama’s new medical marijuana law is more than 100-pages long. We did the hard work and pulled out the highlights that may impact you. Read more.
As Prison Lease Plan Fizzles, Ivey, Lawmakers Considering Options
As the clock ran out on Gov. Kay Ivey’s plan to lease new prisons, several lawmakers say they want to consider using some of the more than $2 billion in new federal Coronavirus relief money on improved prison infrastructure.
Earlier this year, Ivey signed lease agreements with Tennessee-based CoreCivic to build two large men’s prisons. Tuesday was the deadline for those agreements to be final and Ivey confirmed to reporters Wednesday that the lease route is no longer an option as support from potential underwriters has fallen away.
“To that end, my team and I will meet with legislative leaders again in the coming days to review all that we have learned through this process thus far, including the complexity and depth of the multi-faceted challenge at-hand,” Ivey said in a statement. “Anyone who is serious about these issues understands that replacing our failing prison infrastructure with safer, more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated people is essential. It is not a question of if this will happen, but how. Read more.
More prison debate:
Report: More Data, Tracking Needed on Prison Education Efforts
Lawmakers Considering Federal Covid Relief Money for Prison Fix
As the clock runs down on Gov. Kay Ivey’s plan to lease new prisons, several lawmakers say they want to consider using some of the more than $2 billion in new federal coronavirus relief money on improved prison infrastructure.
Earlier this year, Ivey signed lease agreements with Tennessee-based CoreCivic to build two large men’s prisons. Tuesday was the deadline for those agreements to be final, but CoreCivic’s funding has been in jeopardy as support from potential underwriters as fallen away.
Meanwhile, lawmakers have signaled to Ivey they want another crack at a state-funded prison plan.
Alabama budget makers and leaders are continuing to lay the groundwork for the distribution and spending of Rescue Plan funds. The state this summer will start seeing some of the more than $4 billion allocated to it and local governments in the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act. Separately, there is nearly $2 billion going to K-12 schools in the Rescue Plan.
Read more.
Report: More Data, Tracking Needed on Prison Education Efforts
While the Legislature and Gov. Kay Ivey this session put more money toward prison education programs and incentivized participation for some with earlier release, the state is not doing enough to track what programs are actually helping offenders find jobs and stay out of prison, a recent report says.
Meanwhile, there are still significant barriers to accessing prison education programs, the report from the Alabama Commission on Evaluation of Services said.
“The state is not tracking the necessary performance metrics to determine if our educational efforts are working for our population,” Marcus Morgan, ACES director, told Alabama Daily News. “We should know and we can know.”
Read more.
More from the State House on Alabama prisons:
Lawmakers Considering Federal Covid Relief Money for Prison Fix
Ivey Signs Spending Oversight, Teachers’ Benefits Bills
MONTGOMERY — Alabama’s state agencies wanting to spend more than $10 million on purchases or projects will soon have to answer more questions from a panel of lawmakers.
Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday signed House Bill 392 from Rep. Mike Jones, R-Andalusia. Though the final version of the bill significantly scaled back from what Jones originally filed, the bill will give the existing Legislative Contract Review Committee, made up of about a dozen lawmakers, the ability to question the spending of more than $10 million by state agencies and departments from their General Fund appropriations.
The committee can delay state contracts and expenditures for 45 days, but can’t outright kill them.
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Melson: Support of ‘Solid Legislators’ Key for Medical Marijuana; What’s Next for Access
MONTGOMERY — Going into this year’s legislative session, Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, said he knew the Senate would pass the medical marijuana bill he sponsored. It was the House where the bill would face a tougher vote. But when some “solid legislators” in the House said they’d vote for his bill, Melson became hopeful.
“I’m not gonna say solid conservatives or liberals or whatever, but guys who are solid legislators,” Melson said, mentioning specifically Reps. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham, and Allen Farley, R-McCalla, both former law enforcement leaders, and Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, the pragmatic House budget committee chairman.
“When they realized that this wasn’t about Republican or Democrat issues, it was about taking care of people, I thought we had a good chance,” Melson said. “… I knew then that the opposition wasn’t as strong as everyone anticipated.”
The bill to allow people with certain medical conditions access to forms of medical marijuana cleared the House on one of the final nights of the legislative session, and Gov. Kay Ivey signed it into law last week. Now the work begins to set up the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission. The 14 members will be appointed by July 1 and will be in charge of creating the rules, regulations and best practices for growing, cultivating, processing and selling a medical cannabis product in the state.
Read more.
Orr Not Running for Congress, Seeks to Stay in State House
State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, will seek a fifth term in the Alabama Legislature next year. The Morgan County native had considered a run for Congress in Alabama’s 5th District, the north Alabama seat Mo Brooks is leaving to run for the U.S. Senate.
Orr said he had potential donors and supporters discuss a congressional bid with him.
“I think with the current field of candidates, the race is wide open, but the Lord is just not calling me to do that at this time in my life,” Orr, 57, said. “It was an easy decision.” Read more.
Ivey Vetoes Literacy Act Delay Bill
MONTGOMERY — Gov. Kay Ivey has vetoed a bill that would have delayed until 2024 a requirement that third-grade students who are not reading proficiently repeat the grade.
Senate Bill 94, sponsored by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, would have delayed the holdback provision in the Alabama Literacy Act from spring 2022 to spring 2024.
Democrats and many Republicans supported the bill arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected students’ education, forcing some out of the classroom, and to test them after next school year under the act would be unfair. Read more.
