From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

We have a jam packed show this week covering a legislative session that is winding down later in the program.

I'll have interviews with State Senator Clyde Chambliss, who is the Senate lead on public Service Commission legislation.

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels will join us to give the Democrats perspectiv on the budgets and other bills.

And former Auburn head basketball coach Bruce Pearl visited the state House this week and stopped by for a conversation.

Stay tuned for that later in the show.

Before we get to our legislative coverage, an update on Governor Kay Ivey.

She is back at the governor's mansion after a brief hospital stay earlier this week.

Her office says doctors a Baptist Medical Center herself successfully removed fluid that had been pressing against her lung and she is not expected to face any complications.

They say the governor remained engaged in state business during her hospital stay, and is now working for the mansion as she recovers.

Communications director Jena malone says the governor is grateful for the care she received and the support from Alabamians.

Saying, quote, Governor Ivey, thanks to doctors, nurses and staff at Baptist South for their capable, efficient, and professional work.

The governor is also extremely grateful to the people of Alabam for their outpouring of support.

She's thankful for their prayers and enjoyed many of their messages of well-wishes.

End quote.

With the legislature meetin for the 24th, 25th, and 26 days this week, we are getting down to the wir with only three days remaining.

That means the session will likely end on this coming Thursday.

The big news this wee was passage of a major overhaul of the Alabama Public Service Commission in pursui of reining in electricity rates.

The plan expands the commission from 3 to 7 members elected by a congressional district, and it add new oversight of utility rates.

But the final version came after changes in the Senate and a key decision in the House.

Capital Journal's Jeff Sanders has the story.

A sweepin rewrite of how Alabama regulates utilities is now law, with supporters of the legislation saying it brings more transparency and could help drive dow energy cost for many Alabamians.

So we have the meat in ther that we can get the information the public needs and that the PS needs to make their decisions.

That's State Senator Clyde Chambliss of Prattville who carried the bill in the Senate.

The legislation started in the House, sponsored by Representative Mack Butler of Rainbow City, with a focus on requiring regular rate case hearings.

Those are detailed reviews of utility finance aimed at keeping rates in check.

But that requirement became the central point of debate earlie this week in a Senate committee.

Democrats raised concerns after it was removed from the bill.

You had Democrats and Republican that voted for House Bill 475.

You all came together and made this decision in the absence of the other side of folks that actually supported the original House bill 475.

Republicans argue those mandatory hearings could actually lead to higher costs for consumers requiring formal rate case studies.

Does two things.

It spends 8 to $10 million, and it will almost necessitate that rates be raised.

Instead, the final version allows either the commission or a newly created energy secretary to call for a formal hearings when needed.

The revised bill moved quickly through the Senate and passed unanimously, sending it back to the House.

There, Representative Butler pushed back after seeing his key provision stripped from the legislation.

There's no way I can support the bill, and I would move that we not concur and go to conference and hopefully finish the negotiations of what we agreed to before.

But most House Republicans chose instead to concur with the Senate version, sending it to the governor for her signature.

And now that Governor Ivey has signed that legislation into law, she can appoint a new energy secretary along with the new members of that expanded PSC board until staggered elections are phased in within the coming years.

Reporting from the statehouse in Montgomery.

I'm Jeff Sanders for Capitol Journal.

Thank you Jeff.

And I'll talk in more detail with Senator Chambliss about that new law later in the show.

The budgets were on the move this week and are now close to final passage.

The Senate unanimously approve the Education Trust Fund budget of more than $10 billion, spending plan that funds the range of education programs across the state.

It includes pay raises for teachers and increased funding for key programs.

While largely mirroring the version that previously passed the House with only minor changes.

Lawmakers say that alignment between the two chambers helps smooth the process this year with broad, bipartisan support and limited debate on the Senate floor.

Senate Education Budget Chairman Arthur Or says that that kind of cooperation is exactly how the process is supposed to work.

Chairman Garrett, I'v worked through a lot of issues.

Most all of our changes, most all of our requests were reflected in the House pass version.

Therefore, you know, it may be boring for you.

Not a lot of high drama in the Senate, bu there were very modest changes in the Senate version of the of the budget bill.

And I think that's a good thing.

And so I think it shows bot chambers working well together.

I think you see Republicans and Democrats both pleased out here, unlike our situation in Washington when it comes to appropriations.

The Democrats were very amenable to the proposals and substitutes they were offered today.

We're clued in, dialed in and I think it was a, you know, healthy process.

They working for their districts just like the Republicans.

So it's the way the process hopefully should work when we can do that.

Because some small changes were made.

The ETF will now head back to the House for its approval for final passage, and the general fund budget has passed the House.

This week, the lower chamber took up the more for the record $3.7 billion budget, which varies only slightly from what was originally proposed by Governor Ka Ivey and passed by the Senate.

House General Fund Budge Committee Chairman Rex Reynolds called the budget a conservative spending plan that properly funds the state's obligations.

Members.

The governor's recommended budget for 2027 was three little, over 3.6 billion.

The Senate came out of the sub upstairs.

Their budget recommendation was it 3.68 billion, a difference of $37,100,000.

I will say that that does seem a little high, but, of that, 10 million was for our first, payment due on the on the debt service and operations of the of the state House.

And then, your house, today that I'm recommend you only is increasing by 12,595,000.

Which brings it to the 3.72 mil a billion.

And that was significant.

Well, this is this is only less than a 1% increase over the 2026, budge that we passed here, last year.

And so I think that's significant.

Think consistent with what we have said about a conservative budget.

We do have additional revenues.

If those revenues, reached $300 million at the end of FY 26, 20 million in the back of the budget, we have language that 20 million will go into the general fund reserve and 20 million will go into the Medicaid, reserve and certainl based on the numbers we've got, I feel, pretty confident that that in fact, will occur.

And the general fund also passe unanimously there in the House.

And we'll have to go bac to the Senate for its approval.

Perhaps the most controversial bill taken up this week was Senate Bill 298 from State Senator Will Barfoot of Pike Road.

It would essentially force the city of Montgomery to increase the number of police officers or risk the police department from being taken over by the state.

Barfoot says his intention i to make the capital city safer, and he says the city has not been transparent in sharing just wha the officer ranks actually are.

But neighboring State Senator Kirk Hatcher, who represents most of Montgomery, said the measure is unnecessary because the city is making progress, and he expressed disappointment with not having a voice on the legislation.

That motivation is simple.

It's the public safet of the citizens of Montgomery, those who live here, those who work here those who own businesses here, and the safety of those police officers, the men and women of the Montgomery Police Department that go to work every single day to protect us every single day to protect us.

You know, I've gotten calls, more call about this piece of legislation than any other piece of legislation, that I have, been a part of or have seen in my eight years here.

And I get to tell you, the number of calls that are in support are dwarf, dwarf, the 15 to 20 texter email that I've gotten in opposition, absolutely disappointed that there was no dialog whatsoever, no conversation whatsoever here with my, my colleague, representin the city of Montgomery with me.

But we did not get a chance to have any, talk about any aspect of this bill both prior to its introduction and and even all the way up until this time.

Right now, I feel the city of Montgomery has been picked on and singled out, for reasons that are a national crisis.

This is a national crisis in terms of recruitment of police officers.

It's not a local failure.

That bill eventually passed along party lines and now moves to the House for its consideration.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate gave final passage this week to a bill aimed a making camps safer for children.

House Bill 381 from State Representative David Faulkner of Birmingham, would require overnight camps in Alabam to meet higher safety standards.

That would include creating plan for emergencies and evacuations, and procuring emergency preparedness licenses from the Emergency Management Agency.

It was filed in the wake o the tragic flood at camp mystic in Texas that claimed the lives of 27 girls, including Alabama's Sarah Marsh.

Sarah's parents gathered with supporters this week at the state House, urging lawmakers to pass the bill.

This bill is different to me.

It touches my heart and I know it is to you, and I certainly kno it is to Patrick and Jo Morris.

You stand here with me because this honors their little girl.

Eight year old Sarah Marsh and those other 26 young girls that were then tragically passed away in this state last summer.

The Sarah Marsh heavens 27 Campu Safety Act is about protection.

It's about protecting our state's most valuable and treasured asset.

Our children, our future.

It is about ensuring that no parent in Alabama ever has to experienc what our families have endured.

It is about requiring which should have always been required real emergency action plans, serious training, not just paperwork.

Accountability for leadership and the culture for safety is live, not filed away.

This one's more personal because I think of her, and I think of all the young girls that that lost their lives out here.

And I do think of how many lives we're going to save.

I'm very invested in this.

And this bill is, you know, my top priority.

So here to get done.

Member of the House of Representatives step back in history this week by meeting in the old House chamber of the State Capitol.

The ceremonial session sets u lawmakers reelected in November to be the only House members to serve in three separate buildings.

The Capitol, the current state House and the soon to be finished new state House across the street.

The house did not consider any bills, but did pass a ceremonial resolution to officially designate the new state Hous beginning on January 1st, 2027.

Capitol journal's Randy Scott was there and has his story.

We're used to seeing this action in the Alabama House.

Well, get ready for a flashback in time to where lawmakers sat closer together and there was no air conditioning.

The lower chamber is meeting in its former setting across the street in the state capito for the first time since 2009, when flooding at the statehouse led to a loss of power.

And lawmakers chose to work in this very chamber.

It's been a busy regular session, both insid and outside of the statehouse.

If you look over my left shoulder, you can see some construction going on for the new statehouse project.

Over my righ shoulder is the state capitol, where the old House chamber resides now.

Earlier this week, House members decided to do something different.

They went across the street to the old House chamber and made a little history.

The purpose?

Give these lawmaker a chance to be a part of history by serving as legislator in three different facilities.

Pro Tem Pringle had this idea.

I think it's a great idea.

And tell them one, I'd love to do it.

And so they set everything up.

And, you know, having the members to have the opportunities to return back to serve in three different chambers.

I mean, this is historical moment and certainly awful humbling to be in this chamber with all those, you know, the leaders that we have followed.

So it was a great day for our house.

And I think it's certainly a good way to wind up the session.

The member fill the seats in this chamber.

Some, such as Representative Adam Campbell, brought his family along, including his grandson to be a part of this occasion.

They also got to hear personal thoughts about this day.

One writer said, there is a destiny that makes us brothers.

No one goes his way alone.

All the good that we send into the lives of others come back into our own.

So much good.

You have given.

I've learned so much.

Representative Barbar Boyd is retiring this session, but says she's here to do more good work for the people before she leaves.

Long.

Well, in closing, said, let us then be up and doing with a heart for any fate.

Still achieving, still pursuing Alabama House.

Let's learn to labor, work together.

And may God bless us all.

At one of the state houses.

Randy Scott, Capitol Journal.

Thank you.

Randy.

More drama this week.

Inside the House Republican caucus, state Representativ Arnold Mooney of Shelby County was removed as a member of the caucus after allegedly being caught attempting to record or photograph a closed door caucus meeting.

Multiple sources tell us tha Mooney was seen with his iPhone perched in a wa to secretly record the meeting.

Mooney himself denies this, releasing a statement saying it is simply false and that he has never attempted to record a meeting.

House Majority Leade Paul Lee confirmed that Mooney is no longer a membe of the House Republican Caucus, but did not elaborate further, saying the meetings are controversial, confidential.

House Speaker Nathanie Ledbetter said the same thing.

But here's a photo obtained by Alabama Daily News from inside the meeting in question.

It shows Mooney with his iPhone perched as described with what looks like the camera app open.

But it isn't clear whether Mooney is recording a video or taking photos.

The caucus was discussing 2026 election preparations and fundraising numbers at the time.

Of course, this isn't the first time recordings have been an issue for the House GOP.

Earlier this session, an audi recording of another closed door meeting was leaked in an effort to make Speaker Ledbetter look bad.

To our knowledge, no caucus member has been punished for that incident.

This has bee a wild session, let me tell you.

Turning to politics for a bit.

With Alabama's primary elections less than 50 days away, new polling shows the race for Alabama's ope Senate seat remains wide open.

Washington correspondent Alix Angle reports on where the Republican field stands heading into May.

In the battle to replace Senator Tommy Tuberville, three Republican contender have emerged from a larger pool.

A new statewide survey from the Alabama poll shows Congressman Barry Moore, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and former Navy Seal Jared Hudson are in a tight race.

Moore appears to have a slight advantage right now.

This race is going to come down to the wire.

Founder of the Alabama Poll, Michael Lowery, says even with President Donald Trump's endorsement, Moore still has to prove himself.

Lowery says none of the Republican candidates have really focused on affordability yet which is a top issue for voters.

If Barrymore just says I'm endorsed by Donald Trump, that's not enough.

What they need to be saying is, I understand grocery prices are high.

I know that your gas is increasing in cost.

I know your family is spending more on insurance, and I'm the guy that's going to fix that.

The Alabama poll shows about a third of Republican primary voters are still undecided.

Political science professor Benjamin Gross says that's because no one candidate has truly pulled ahead.

The three of them haven't really been abl to, build a strong enough name recognition across the entire state, to take off those undecided yet.

So far, Moore's campaign and outside groups supporting him have pounded the airwaves with millions of dollars worth of ads.

But as the other candidates follow suit, grow says it will be up to the campaigns to strategically deploy their unspent funds to bring in those undecided voters.

I think this comes back to really have you done your researc and do you have your operation set up politically to be able to identify those potential voters and how to reach the in the platform that or these, you know, mediums that they're consuming?

The Republican winner will face off against one of four Democrats who are also vying for the open Senate seat.

If no Republican candidat gets more than 50% of the vote in May.

The top two will move to a runoff in June.

Reporting in Washington Alexandra Capital Journal.

Thank you.

Alex.

We'll take a quick break and be back with state Senator Clyde Chambliss.

Stay with us.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

aptv.org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes on Capital Journal's Facebook page.

Self-taught artist Jimmie Lee Sudduth was born in Fayetteville County, where he spent his entire life in a modest home.

Even as he rose to prominence as one of the great southern folk artists of the 20th century.

He captured the attention of local, national and international art collectors, galleries and museum for his portraits, local scenes, still lifes and animals create with natural pigments and mud.

He is widely recognized as a master in the field of outsider art.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Do you want to be.

Next is state Senator Clyde Chambliss of Prattville.

Senator thanks for coming on the show.

Appreciate you having me.

Well, look, here we are.

Almost done.

Three more days.

Three more days.

Been a long week.

And, I mean, I know y'all can.

Y'all can see the finish line.

Wanted to ask you about this PSC bill.

You kind of became the author.

Of the eventually would eventually pass the Senate, and it gets into the governor.

But let's start from the very beginning, because, you know, when we were coming into this session, nobody thought energy rates, affordability, the Public Service Commission, nobody had that on their radar in terms of a big issue.

How did this really crop up to become one of the dominant issues of the session?

Well, like you said, as we came into the session, I mean, I didn't have this on my radar, wasn't thinking about it.

But we are really a reactive body.

In most cases, sometimes we are.

We try to be proactive but most times we're reactive.

And with with the, increases in energy prices, the inflation, overall that we've had and the different things, just the outcry from, from, from the people, saying, hey, our our power bills are too our power bills are too high.

It just started bubbling up, from the people.

And, you know, we have to be careful how we talk about this and be be careful with terminology, because certainly our power bills are higher than maybe some other states because it's hotter here.

And our power bills are higher now because I set my thermostat lower in the summer than my parents did, and my children set it lower than I did.

So a total cost is one thing, but the rate the rate is what we don' control as individual consumers.

How much total we use, we control.

You know, houses are a lot bigger now.

We have computers everywhere.

A lot of things are making our power bills higher.

We're using a lot more.

We're just using a lot more.

But the rate is the issue.

So I started looking into i because I'm hearing this input.

And back in 2000, we were among the lowest, in the South and thus the nation, power rates.

And now we are the highest in the South.

And way up there in the nation, about middle of the pack in the nation.

So what's happening?

What's going on?

So we started digging into it and trying to figure out what's going on and why and how, and that sort of thing.

So that's that's kind of wha started the process on my end.

Okay.

Well how will this bill impact that.

Because the right that's I think everybody agrees that sort of the what what you're in pursuit of is reining in rates.

But how will reforming the PSC overhauling the PSC do that?

Or are you, wanting to see more action from the Public Service Commission in terms of setting rates or having hearings and things like that?

Yes.

So all of that and even more, in my opinion, there are a lot of ways, a lot of approaches that could have been used to tackle this issue.

I do not think there is like one silver bullet that just solves it.

As a matter of fact, the house, tried to solve the problem in a different way than we tried to solve it.

They passed a bill.

We passed a bill.

But kind of the common thing through our position in their position is what really will help this long term is shining a spotlight on the issue.

Well, how do you do that?

Well, number one, going from three, three members to seven members, elected members, you have more people looking at it.

Right now our PSC members are all in a similar portion of the stat after the elections this year.

It may be that they're all still from the similar portion of the state.

So we need more people in other areas of the state, more eyes looking at the same thing, somebody that you might run into when you go to the grocery store or little league ball game or something like that.

Whereas right now like folks in central and South Alabama really don't have that opportunity.

So going to the seven elected members is a big way of of shining that light.

Now we can talk about the transition, how we get from here to there, that kind of thing.

And that that's probably the most controversial part of all of it.

But the other thing is, is the secretary of energy.

Yeah.

Explain that because, I mean, involving the executive branch in this has some kind of constitutional questions, but it's a novel idea, I suppose.

Well, it is, and we tried t balance that, in the bill.

But ther are very few positions that have more public attention on them than the governor's cabinet.

No matter what, governor there is, that they are always in the spotlight.

They are answering the questions.

They're being put on the spot.

When we get questions that as legislators, a lot of times the cabine members are who we're calling.

And if we had a secretary of energy, that's wh we would have been pounding on.

So we think that that check and balance legislative and executive actually helps that, in so many area of our government that is done intentionally to create that friction, to create that, discussion, to create that light.

So we think that will be a big help.

Now, we did put in there that the five of the seven commissioner commission members can overrule the secretary.

So there again, we have tha balance, that check and balance.

There's no one entity that's just absolute authority and that friction actually creates what we need, in my opinion, to solve the problem long term.

Interesting.

And I've been curious all along because when Tuberville, who really kind of floated this idea of the energy secretary, I was thinking, man, why would you want to involve yourself like, you know.

Why would you want to strap that on?

But you're right.

The governor is the most, you know, has the most spotlight of any public official.

And so taking that on, you know, that's he he will, you know, whoever wins will own that.

That's right.

So we'll just talk about right hearings because that's the big difference between the House bill and the Senate bil and the and your House sponsor, Mark Butler, said he couldn't support it because it the final versio did not mandate right hearings.

Talk about why you took tha path and why that's better than, you know, actually forcing the PSC to have a right hearing every three years.

Well, if we're goin to force them to do X, Y, or Z, what's the purpose of having them?

We should just legislate at all.

We should just so that is part of the thought process.

But we have to think about terminology here again.

What was in that bill were were formal rate case hearings.

That is a big, big deal that costs, from what we understand, anywhere from 8 to $10 million when they have those.

It requires a lot of attorneys, a lot of accountants, a lot of certifications, a lot a lot of information.

So, the second part of that is it almost guarantees and I'll say almost in my mind, practically guarantees a rate increase every time you have those hearings.

The studies and the reason is all costs tend to increase.

So the cost that a utility pays for their vehicles goes up.

The cost that they pay for personnel goes up.

Pretty much everything goes up over time.

So if we mandate thos hearing those rate case studies, then we actually are mandating rate increases.

So you're saying it could backfire.

It could very much backfire.

So what we did is we went to a formal hearing.

So the formal hearing has all of the elements of the case study.

They, they're under oath.

We have subpoena power.

PSC has subpoena power subject to perjury.

We get all of the information that we would have getting, obtained, through a case study without all the cost.

And there's a couple of triggers.

The secretary of energy can say, hey, we're going to have this formal hearing.

Or five of the seven members can say, hey, we're going to have this formal hearing.

But we also put in another public hearing that is annual, no triggers.

It just it happens.

So we actually adde two additional public hearings, and we specified in the bil that the public has to be able to have input.

It's not like they're just able to be present and just hear.

I say they have to have input and ability to ask questions and give comment and that sort of thing.

Well, that seems like a lot more transparency and like you said, there's more people looking at this issue than I can ever remember.

And so, it sounds like we'll get there.

We'll have a little bit of time left.

But I wanted to ask you about your bill on dams dam safety.

I've read over the years that we have a problem.

We have some dams that are, you know, insufficient or whatever the.

I mean, you're the civil engineer, so.

So talk about what this bill does explain the problem and what we need to get to.

Well, the public, has a reasonable expectation of safety.

If you live below a dam, you want to be reasonably assured that you're going to be safe from a breach of that dam and overflow or, catastrophic event from that dam.

To have that reasonable, you know, safet and that sort of thing and not, advance notice if there's a problem, that kind of thing.

We have to have a program in place that actually does that.

We actually are the only stat in the nation that that did not, inspectors and certification.

That's correct.

Right now, the program is voluntarily.

But what we are doing with the bill that we're, trying to get through right now, is it names Alabama emergency management as the agency that heads the progra and what it what it will do is we will have to have emergency action plans for these dams.

And we're not talking about, like, a farm pond.

We're not talking about, you know, low level stuff.

We're not talking about power dams.

They're already regulated through Ferc and all that.

What we're talking abou is kind of the mid-level, like, they're tall dams, a lot of water, and they would result in los of life if they were breached.

So if you have, like a, an earthen dam and trees are growing through it, eventually that will lead to that dam's failure.

There needs to be somebody out ther checking on that and making sure that we don't have that failure.

Interesting.

And I'm thinking of like Ley Lake and things like that that maybe aren't powe generating, but still, you know, they still would all be regulated already.

So this wouldn't affect those.

Okay.

Well, see, it pays to hav a civil engineer in the Senate.

Well, look thank you again for coming on.

This is the most, robust explanation of the PSC bill that I think we've had.

And I appreciate that we get a lot of questions about it, so I appreciate you explaining it.

Well, thank you.

And I guess we'll see you nex week as we wrap up the session.

Three more days.

Thanks.

We'll be right back.

Since 1997, Alabam Public Television has provided programs, services, and resources to childcare professionals, teachers and parents.

Visit AP tv.org/education to learn more.

You're watching Alabama Public Television.

And you.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Hous Minority Leader Anthony Daniels of Huntsville.

Mr.

leader thanks for coming on the show.

Well, thank you for having me, as always.

Good to be sitting with you, man.

All right, well, here we are.

I mean, surely the homestretch.

Only a few days left.

When y'all come back next week for session, a lot of a lot of things got done this week, including the budget.

So I wanted to ask you about that.

You know, how are you feeling about where where we are?

We'll start with the education trust fund.

A lot goes into building it and crafting it.

You'll talk about it on the floor.

How are you feeling about where we are with the Education trust fund?

Well, I'm feeling extremely excited about it.

You know, Chairman Garrett, there's a tremendous job of really engaging the committee.

During the process, talking to members about the various priorities around the state, particularly in their region, in their districts.

Talking to all the members of the legislature that come you know, sit and visit with him about priorities in their areas and how those priorities are going to be able to drive growth and opportunity.

And so, you know it's always good to have someone that's leading a committee that engages the membership.

But I'm excited that the, Alabama Senate, did put dollars in for, the, retired educators.

I think that, you know, that was an interesting approach, to it.

Like a bonus check.

It's a bonus check.

But, you know, I'm always more of a sustainable guy.

And so I want to look at ways to to make it sustainable.

And I have some ideas about some ways to do that.

But, you know, just, excited to see that, and we'll see kind of where we go, from there.

Yeah.

And higher ed as well.

I found it interesting.

You know, higher ed gets an increase, but also this legislation about outcomes, right.

Kind of asking more of our universities.

You represent universities up there in Huntsville.

I mean, is that the right approach to to ask more of universities to say we, we want to align our outcomes to what the money is paying for them?

I do think that it's it's something that, you know, should be considered when you're dealing with outcome based funding.

I've seen in places where it does not work.

I've seen, places where it does work.

But I think the approach that was taken, of engaging those university presidents throughout the process, kind of helping them understan exactly, our priorities is to, to retain and train workforce within the state of Alabama.

And how do our investment, yield the return desired returns, graduation rate.

Can we get students in and out?

Timely?

In.

What's the fastest way to do that?

What are the barriers that are in front of you and keeping you from doing so?

And so there are a lot of things there that I think wher the universities were engaged.

And I think that at the end of the day, it could be a good thing if there are no drastic changes and to, to forcing universities to do some things that are unrealistic.

Yeah, just kind of starting down the path a little bi on the general fund side again.

Everybody's pretty much unanimous.

It is not a lot of controversy in there.

But one thing I'm curious about moving forward is rural health care.

It comes up every year, I think, more this year than ever.

You had the ambulance bill pass and which I think was almost unanimous in in both houses.

But everybody knows that's going to cost money down the line.

And you're on the governor's rural, Health Transformation Council.

What needs to happen in this state to to make sure that we're not left behin in terms of rural health care, because as much as we're trying to do to build up rule Alabama with investments and things like that, if there's no access to healt care, it's not going to happen.

Oh, absolutely.

I think that you find that there's so many hospitals that have either reduced their care or change the kind of the way they operate in rural communities, or close.

And so we realize that that is not necessarily just a direct investment, to a state from the federal government to really save them, but also, you got to look at health care access.

And so health care access, a lot of us alone, don't do the job, but it will certainly help, those hospitals becomes, sustainable.

Long term.

But I'm excited about this committee because it also pushes innovation.

And so innovation is one of the primary areas of focus where the CMS is looking for innovation.

But it's not a slam dunk to $203 million is really not a whole lot of money when you're talking about al the needs and rural Alabamians.

And so I think one of the things that we'll have to look at, we have to be very precise and very intentional about where are the needs currently and does the needs that we're investing in yield the returns that we need in a sustainable for that, that that hospital or entit to be able to operate long term?

And so you can't have $203 million and give a little bit all across the board like you do with the Harriet.

You got to be able to hav things and a plan to say, hey, these are the things that we want to do at our hospital that we think a tranche of funding that, maybe 10 million, maybe 20 million and maybe a little bi more will help us for jump start things that we need for the next ten years.

And so I think for me, seeing those types of things are important.

How can we help you now?

But how can we help you to help yourself long term?

Don't take money after bad.

Absolutely.

And so we got to look at the technology while at the same time looking at the innovation in way to scale some of the operations so they can reduce your overhead.

But also you got to look at other ways to, demonstrate your ability to, to care for your patients and care for folks in the community.

And so we've seen telehealth, telemedicine, that been talked about for a number of years.

But seeing the how the technology and innovation has evolved i health care has been tremendous.

And I think this will force individual that are want to be recipients of some of these dollar to start looking at innovative ways to solve the problem within their own infrastructure.

Switching gears, I wanted to talk about overtime wages and taxes.

The House has passe and it's moving in the Senate.

Representative Lomax's bill to essentially have a tax deduction, thousand dollars tax deductio for any overtime wages worked.

Everybody understands this is coming in the wake of your bill, your law expiring.

What year did you pass that?

21.

Was it?

Well I think it was about 23.

Okay.

And so it was allowed to expire.

Because some of the, its impact on the education trust fund, unexpected, revenues.

So you had some choice word for representative Lomax on the on the House floor about his bill.

I mean, is it a good thing i general that this is happening?

But explai you know, what your, you know, point was on the floor there.

I think for me, the point was that deduction is not an exemption.

And I want it, folks, to b clear about what we're passing.

And I'm all for, representative Lomax's bill.

But I think that the difference is, when a person talk about guardrails, when you're following the advice of the folk who are advising you, right then that's the number.

And I know that the number exceeded what the expectations were.

But I also look at the when I look at the dynamic scoring of it to where the, right now, you see, I think probably corporate and individual, income tax receipts are down.

When the overtim bill was in place, they were up.

And when corporate, corporate taxes were up.

But corporat tax is not being up right now.

You ask yoursel the question, why is corporate taxes down currently?

When six months ago, they were, I mean, sorry, eight months ago.

Nine months ago.

At the end of last June, they were up from June of 25 back a year and a half beforehand.

The participation rate was up.

The sectors that folks were working were sectors that offered overtime.

So you're saying there were benefits beyond just the revenue?

The revenue exceeded the actual costs.

And so but it also helped the very budget that was impacted by this.

And so I think that when you look at it and so when you look at a deduction now, every person will not qualify for this because every sector doesn't offer overtime.

And so I applaud Representative Lomax because this is the year of affordability.

Because it does.

It will help folks in the next whether to you know, from a tax standpoint, but you are limited to, you have a cap on wha that tax deduction looks like.

Does it improve, productivity?

So so I look at it a lot different.

His bill is a deduction.

My bill is an exemption.

My bill.

You get the money, you do your check immediately where it's not being taxed and it stays in your state.

His bill.

You have to do it when you are, basically doing your taxes.

So it's a it's a credit that can go against what you owe or get you a refund of a certain amount.

I have already paid.

Yes.

I have a little bit of time, but I wanted to ask you about this, police bill, from Senator Barfoot because it's moving and you've.

You spoken out many times about it, but it changed a little bit, essentially to raise the threshold, to, to basically write Huntsville out of the bill because as a written, it would have applied to, as originally written, applied to class three municipalities, Montgomery and Huntsville.

They but they played with the math a little bit to kind of remove Huntsville, hoping to maybe remove objection from the Huntsville delegation.

But it sounds to m like your objection remains just the whole purpose of the bill.

So the for for me, in the state of Alabama, we've been able to get along very well as representatives on both sides.

Both sides get along with each other for the most part.

And what I like to see for me is if we're trying to reach a solution let's set milestones in place.

I would say this the state of Alabama on under the former Commissioner of Corrections, requests that funding for additional funding to hir more of a correction officers.

We gave a significant amount of money to hire more correctional officers.

We have agencies within our own state.

We don't have the personnel and can.

It's been impossible to recruit the personnel to fill the jobs that we have that' paying more money in the state.

How do we think that we are able to take over the lot of law enforcement for a community, and to help them is even hard to recruit.

Officers in Huntsville.

And so I think that we ar growing the size of government.

We're also providing another layer of oversight instead of supporting a local community on, hey, what can we do to help you get there?

We will assign someone with you to help you.

We know that is hard to recruit officers.

We know that.

We know that it's hard to retain officers because families, folks, they have to feed their families too.

And so for me, we're not in the business even at the state level.

Aliyah does a tremendous job with what they do for us.

But Aliyah, they're not cops on the ground in communities.

They're not community policing, right?

They're they have two totally different responsibilities.

Well, we got to leave it there.

We're out of time.

But I really appreciate your time.

And we'll see you next week when y'all come back to close out the session.

Thank you.

Thank you sir.

All right.

We'll be right back.

The Alabama Department of Archive and History was founded in 1901, becoming the nation's first publicly funded independent state archives agency.

The archives identifies, preserves, and makes accessible records and artifacts of enduring historical value to the state.

Thomas owned, founded the agency and served as its first director.

He was succeeded by his wife, Marie Banchero, who headed the archives for 35 years and was the second woman to lead a state agency.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is former Auburn men's head basketball coach Bruce Pearl.

Coach, thanks for coming on Capital Journal.

It's good to be with you, Todd.

Thank you.

Well you're in the state House today, so we really wanted to have you on the show.

Thanks for taking the time.

What were you doing today in the state House?

You were sharing a message.

Lawmakers.

What was that message?

Well the timing of the message was, not exactly perfect, because we got a lot going on in the state, a lot of problems that need to be solved.

And I guess you only got a fe more weeks left in legislation.

But there was an important piece of legislation that was coming up that does involved, the state of Israel.

You know, in 1943 Alabama was the very first state in the entire country to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.

And the Jewish people have a homeland.

It was 1943.

It was right in the middle of the war, after that recognition, probably 2 million more Jews died in the Holocaust.

That' how historical how timely it is.

There has begun to be some legislation that have started to go across the country.

It started at Arkansas.

Governor Sanders led this, an she said, basically, you know, every time I open up my Bible I read about Judea and Samaria.

When Jesus talks about, Samaria and the Bible and that, special woman at the well, he refers to what Samaria was good enough for Jesus.

It's good enough for me.

Judah.

Judah is referred to 800 times in the Bible.

Can you recall reading about the West Bank in the Bible?

Todd?

Now that that in, rang a bell in the Bible because it's not ther because it was created in 1950 after Israel was born in 48 and five armies attacked the next day.

Israel survived, but it lost a great deal of Jerusalem, what they called East Jerusale and much of Judea and Samaria.

So what is this legislation?

Well, what this legislation is all about is in 1950, the Jordan Army renamed a place that had been named for three 3500 years and started calling it the West Bank.

And as everybody else started calling it, the West Bank, except those that know the trut or knows it, know their Bible.

So this legislation i that when the state of Alabama has any business that's referred to that particular part of geography, that land, the land west of the River Jordan, they're going to refer to it by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria.

It sends a very, very strong message, to the, pioneers that are living there, because there are million Arabs and a million Jews that are living there right together, peacefully, having the name be referred that way isn't going to displace anybody, but it's just going to honor the Judeo Christian roots of that land and not honor a terrorist army that committed atrocities and then change the name.

And so Alabam has got a chance to once again lead and do what's right.

Okay.

I'll be following that.

Well, that brings me to a question I've been wanting to ask you.

You have been outspoken for years about, you know, the defense of Israel, especially after October 7th, 2023.

And it strikes me because it's it's coming at a time where, I don't know, there's a lot of social pressure to, you know, shut up and coac or shut up and play or whatever, you know, and you've not let that bother you.

You've been outspoken on Twitter.

I follow your, you know.

Why is that?

Why why have you felt so strongly that you needed to be outspoken, in defense of Israel?

I think it has a lot to do with how I was raised.

I think it has a lot to do with what I was born and where I was born going in 1960, in Boston, ther was tremendous racial tension.

There was tremendous ethnic and religious diversity and separation.

And as a kid that played ball, my teammates didn't care whether you went to church o temple or what color you were.

We just wanted to play as kids and have fun and compete and win.

But our parents and our grandparents, they they sure were concerned about it.

And that just obviously bothered me to my core.

I think being young enough to see and live through some of the civil rights movement.

And Doctor King said silence was complicity.

Silence is complicity.

My grandfather named me Mordecai.

We just got done celebrating the festival of Purim.

And that's when Mordecai spoke to his niece, Quee Esther, and said, look, Esther, if you don't get with the king Haman, his advisor is going to kill about a million of us Persian Jews here.

I don't even know that he knows all about it.

But you know, you got to get to him because guess what?

You'll be next.

And the rest of your family.

And Mordecai, his willingness to step out at great risk to himself and his niece.

And she did the job.

And as a result, Haman was the one that was killed.

And so if you're going to si back, relax and enjoy the flight while things are going around you that are not good fo our country, not good for faith, family, Judeo Christian values, Western civilization, then do something about it.

Say something about it because guess what?

This American dream is worth fighting for and the freedoms that we enjoyed.

There was a time when we wer willing to go to war for them.

World War one or World War Two, differen things like that.

I'm not saying that's the only way you do it is through war.

But when our freedoms have been challenged, we've said no.

Not on our watch.

And as a result, we have th greatest country in the world.

And I just want to see that my kids and my grandkids are abl to live the same American dream, or even better than the one I lived for such a time as this, for such a time as this.

Well, let's switch gears.

Talk a little ball.

Or a little maybe about your career.

You retired last year a Auburn's really most successful by far.

Head basketball coach.

Two Final Fours.

I mean, we followed it.

It was amazing.

What's life been like in retirement?

Obviously your son Stephen is head coach.

I mean, now you go back to spectating.

Basically.

What's it been like?

In the stands?

Well, I'm not really retired.

I'm just not coaching.

And when you're head coach for 30 years and in college basketball coaching for 48 years, I just felt like I. I. Winning became a relief.

And I don't know whether I was losing my edge a little bit.

It's hard to say.

You lose your edge when you're in the Final four, but, I had enough of it.

And, you know, my thing was coaching was always very ministerial.

I had guys for three or 4 or 5 years get them graduated, go through some stuff together, build championship teams and championship men and now with Nil and things like that, it's become so much more transactional.

And I just didn't think my effectiveness as a coach, would be as good.

And I didn't want tennis.

I didn't want Auburn to have to pay the price for that.

So when I had an opportunity, to do something else and, give a shout ou to my associate coach, my son, or help get him that job, and all the staff that built it.

Like, it wasn't just Stephen.

I had or 7 guys with me for 11 years.

We remember a time where we couldn't win three SEC games in a season.

Now we win 20 games in a season.

That's not good enough, right?

So that's frustrating.

I've always taken a position, a position that, we're Auburn family, and we're supposed to be a little different.

Well, let's act like it.

Right.

We get too involved with firing football coaches every 3 or 4 years, just like everybody else.

I just think we should b better than that as Auburn men.

And, so there's a little stress involving watching Stephen, but there are only eight teams right now still playing college basketball on the men's side for the Final Four and for the NIT Final Four and the Division one level.

So the fact that they've won 20 and the fact that he beat Calipar and Pitino and Todd Golden and they beat Kentuck the first time they ever tried, we went for 18 years without being Kentucky.

We sort of act now like being Kentucky is no big deal.

It's a big deal.

So I'm proud of him.

We'd like to win a couple more games during the regular season but the league was awfully good.

And, I tell you what, I. I guarantee you I would be doin no better than what he's done.

Yeah, well, now you'r commentating right there on CBS.

We watched you during the Elite Eight.

You're about to be in the Final Four coverage this weekend in Indianapolis.

I wanted to ask you, though, what's it like because you took two teams to Final Fours, including last year.

But I got to say that 2019 team that was really special.

It wasn't like you were top seeded.

It came.

But I guess what?

So the five seed we're five that came out of nowhere beat three blue but blue Bloods on the way to the final four.

Something of magic about that.

So as a coach and now you're looking at it from a commentary side, what's it like experiencin that March magic, if you will?

You know, for me, what it was, it was it was obviously a magic carpet ride, but it really wasn't magic.

It was God's plan.

I was just fulfillin what what he had planned for us.

And I felt that way.

I felt that wa with all these victories, like, how in the world are we beating Kansas and then North Carolina and then Kentucky?

Ther had to be some purpose to that.

And I think it was to elevate our program and to elevate our platform, to be able to, a few years later have Dylan Paige be calling God and and giving Go the glory and victory in defeat.

That 2008 loss was crushing.

In the last game agains Virginia there in the semifinal, but I don't think there were many teams that could have left that game after some of the unfortunate happenings shots, calls, mistakes.

And given Virginia the credit for beating us.

I think God put us in that moment so that young people could, could look at, go, hey this is how you handle winning and this is how you handle losing.

Yeah, absolutely.

Look, we're out of time.

Thank you so much for taking time.

To come share this with us.

A blessed pass over to you, and we'll be following the final four.

Thank you.

Great to be with you.

We'll be right back.

Since 1997, Alabam Public Television has provided programs, services, and resources to childcare professionals, teachers and parents.

Visit AP tv.org/education to learn more.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

aptv.. org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes o Capital Journal's Facebook page.

That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back next week.

Starting on Monday.

Where?

The final week of the Alabama Legislature's 2026 regular session.

For our Capitol Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.