From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capitol Journal.

Today was the 29th day of the Alabama Legislature's 2026 regular session.

That means tomorrow is the 30th and last day of the session.

And for just about every lawmaker, lobbyist and even us in the media, it can't come soon enough.

One quick item of note.

Budget work is now complete.

The Senate concurred on the general fund budget today and sent it to the governor.

Now, both budgets are awaiting her signature.

But perhaps the biggest item of the day was passage of Bo's Law, a measure that would make keeping a dog outside without adequate food, water and shelter punishable by a class C misdemeanor.

Advocates for the law have filled the halls of the statehouse this week, urging lawmakers to act to protect dogs.

Today, the bill was debated on the House floor.

This bill, coming from the Senate, from Senator Gauger, provides for reasonable, responsible and humane conditions for tethering a dog outside.

It's simply requires access to adequate food, shelter, and water.

This bill is about basic common human decency and compassion towards God's creatures.

This bill is very narrowly tailored to only apply to companion dogs, so dogs that people have as a pet.

To be abundantly clear this bill has absolutely nothing to do with farm animals or working dogs.

They are explicitly exempt.

I think it is ridiculous that in this, with all the crime that we have on the human side here, we are talking about putting people in jail over our damn dog.

It's a ludicrous to me.

And the idea that they have to have a wooden floor or we're goin to build condominiums for dogs.

Now, it's this to me, is, not something that I can be in favor of.

When you come to rural Alabama, people got down chains all the time.

Dogs and their natural are in the wild.

They don't have a roof over their head.

So why should these be require to have a roof over their head?

Most of them do, but most of them have a 55 gallon drum laying, which is better than an arm with a floor in it anyway.

That bill eventually passed 69 to 23 in the House, then went back up to the Senate for concurrence, which happened this afternoon.

So Senate Bill 361.

Those law now goes to the governor.

Legislative leaders today tried to build momentum for final passage of caree and technical education bills.

On the last day of session, the Train act and the CTE Teacher Certificatio Act are still awaiting passage in the Senate.

Leaders are hopeful they can get over the finish line on the last day.

The career tech education is a great is a big piece of this, and we can't grow career tech without great instructors and this legislation ensure that experienced professionals can get into the Alabama classrooms faster and easier to give the students the skills they need to be successful and what they're trying to accomplish is it creates a pathway or a certificate, rather, that these individuals that are in the career tech fields can now be teaching in the classroom.

So they're bringing their real world experience into the classroom, and then it allows their employers to get a tax credit for loaning that employee to the classroom.

You know, you got to have the instructors, you know, you can build the classrooms and you have the kids.

But if you don't hav the instructors in career tech, what good is it?

So all of this is working together to complete this missio of making sure that our children do have pathway to be successful in life and can have the opportunity to hurt, to earn a high wage, high demand jo and be successful in their life.

And certainly we started last year when we put $100 million in expanding and building new career tech facilities.

We have 139 school systems with just about 80 career tech facilities.

Some of those are outdated and rundown.

And so, that's good.

Pro tem, good year to to join with me and in organizing some bills to put together not only to make sure tha we get the trades that we need for the different parts of the state, but also that we can move forward with schools that can accommodate the kids getting, trained that they can be successful in.

With just one day left.

All eyes are on the Alabama Senate, where the fate of several remaining red meat bills remains uncertain.

Among them is the closed primary bill, which which cleared a Senate committee earlier this week.

The proposal would limit participation in primary elections to those voters registered with either the Republican or Democratic Party.

However, that bill has received a lot of pushback not just from Democrats, but also from Republicans.

Following today's session Senate President Pro Tem Garland Governor and Democrati Minority Leader Bobby Singleton weighed in on what they expect to see on the Senate floor tomorrow.

It's going to be a little spicy, as I say tomorrow, our friends and on both sides of the aisle, I've got some bills that, you know, they feel the pressure while they're in the vice because we've only got a little bit of time left.

So it's going to get a little hairy tomorrow.

But that is just part of the last day.

And every year quadrennial especially much less each session is that way.

So it's going to be a little spicy.

Yeah, a lot of people are asking me about those primaries, and you're going to see that on the calendar.

Besides that, I'm going to kind of leave that putting on a little bit of some strategy on our part of trying to win and how what's going to be on the calendar tomorrow.

So that's the one thing I can tell you.

I expected it to be on the calendar in, in and we're going to talk about the close primary while and, and I have no indication in terms of where the majority is on that.

It's their party who's pushing this.

And, it's going to be very interesting to see how this will go.

We're going to deliberate.

I think that we need to talk about some of those bills before we just let them pass.

So, we'll look at it.

I believe the Senate has been moving tremendously smooth compared to the past.

I think that we have accomplished a lot of our goals on both sides of the aisle.

There has been things that we have been trying to think through over the past couple years, and we've done and I've even saw where the first time in 26 years, we passed a bill to stop the cruelty of animals today.

So there's been a lot of things that this particular sessio has brought to us and we have, I think, handled those with care and efficiency.

And so I'm proud of them.

Going to be quite a day tomorrow.

We'll take a quick break and be back with tonight's guest.

Stay with us.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is State Representative Jim Hill, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Judge thanks for coming on the show.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Enjoy it.

Absolutely.

Well, reason we want to have you on is you retiring this year.

This is I gues this is your second to last day in the Alabama legislature after a ten year stint.

I guess, you know, is i a bittersweet feeling to see it come to an end?

It's been a good 12 years.

I've enjoyed it.

Yeah.

It's bittersweet.

I've made a lot of really good friends in the legislature.

I learned a lot.

I am, absolutely convinced.

At least the House of Representatives does the very best they can to promote, the best interests of the state.

And we don't always agree on what the best interest is.

Nevertheless, I think most of the people act in good faith.

And most of the people, act with that goal in mind.

Yeah.

Well, remind our audience about your career before you get to the legislature.

There's a reason I called you judge to answer.

And.

And in the halls of the state House, that's what people call you is is Judge Hill.

So talk about your career as a judge before you even ran for the legislature, started practicing law in 1975 and 1994, I was elected to be district court judge in Clark County in 19.

Excuse me, 2004 I was elected to circuit bench.

So, I spent 19 years as a practicing attorney.

I spent 19 years, on the bench.

And since 2000 into 2013, I have been, you know, retired, went back to practicing law with the law firm that actually, I started in 80 or 81, And it's been a it's been a just been a good run.

It's been a good run.

Yeah.

Well, what?

Because, you know, there's plenty of lawyers in the legislature.

No, there are lots in in Congress.

Not a lot of judges, though.

But there's not a that's okay, I hear you and there's there's not, but there's not plenty of lawyers.

We don't have nearly enough lawyers in in Alabama legislature.

It's a shame that more of our attorneys do not take this opportunity, because lawyers offer a very unique, perspective on, what these laws are all about and why they should be passed and why they should not be passed.

So lawyers, lawyers add a lot.

And, unfortunately, I don't think we have nearly enough.

Well, what about you perspective as a judge, though?

Because that's different.

I mean, that's your perspective as judge coming into the legislature, you know, presiding as a as a chairman.

Talk about the the difference that perspective brings.

As a lawyer.

You're an advocate.

And so you are advocating for one side or another.

As a judge, you that's not your job.

Your job is to be impartial and to listen and to, try to come to a decision where justice, is rendered for the individuals that are before you.

So, yeah, it is certainly a different approach to the same system.

Okay.

Chairing the Judiciary Committee is different than chairin just about any other committee.

There's so much legislation there.

Any change in criminal law is going to come before you.

Any change in process, all of that.

That's why y'all's meetings are so long.

You have to meet every sometimes twice a week to talk about that challenge, what it's been like and what you're, I don't know, kind of mindset has been to manage such a key committee.

We have a lot of bills.

You know, obviously when a bill gets filed it is assigned.

Right.

And many of these bills, you're right, they're signed to the Judiciary Committee.

And we I read them and I try to almost select which ones I believe to be the most important and the most pressing.

And we try to handle, ten, 10 to 12 every week.

And you're right, th some of some of these meetings would go in 2 or 3 hours.

And, and he you've got to credit the people, on that committee because they sit there and they listen and they ask questions.

They try to if that bill needs to be amended, they amended.

One thing I'm very proud of this committee is that as a general rule, when our bills when bills come out of the House Judiciary Committee and get to the floor of the House, rarely are they amended anymore.

They are where they are.

And y'all that I'm pretty good with that.

Well, and that is a credit to the members of that committee.

There's 15 and they do a great job.

Well, it goes back to the lawyering you're talking about, because a lot of, you know, lawyer in that committee are meticulous about exactly what those word are going to mean, knowing that, all righ is, is going to end up in court.

Is this law going to be challenged, you know, things like that.

So maybe does that take take care of some of the language in term of you're thinking ahead to the lawsuit and things like that.

It's certainly it certainly, is factored in when, when we are tryin to get the language in the bill the way that it should be, so that, the words and the language, express the intent, that is meant at the, at the, at the time, that is filed and those what we try to do and I know y'all have, presided over some efforts to reform Alabama's judiciary, give more financia support, create more judgeships.

It's one of those things that like, nobody is going to run on that.

Nobody's going to campaign on.

Hey, I added two more judgeships in whatever county.

But it's so important.

And like, you know, judiciary reforms aren' going to be politically popular.

In fact, it's kind of easy to ignore.

Maybe that' why we've gotten into the mess we had been in, talk about some of those reforms, and why it's so important to support the judiciary and evolve the judiciary.

We've added, I would say, about 15 judges statewide in the last, 4 or 5, six years.

They were needed, you know, the population of the state shifts.

And as it shifts, where to where it shifts increases the workload of that particular circuit may well decrease.

So the workload of another one.

But but when you start seeing the growth in, in in Madison County, in Limestone County in Lee County and Tuscaloosa County, in Houston County, in Mobile County, in Baldwin County, and even in Saint Clair, Shelby County, where I'm from, you see, you see the population shift.

When the population shifts, the workload goes up.

The number of judges that is there is absolutely necessary to handle that workload.

Increases.

So we've added judges throughout the state.

Another thing we have don is if you are going to attract good people, and I just care to build for the D.A.. Okay.

And get it increase their, height.

And it is if you're going to try to attract good people to be judges and to be DA's, you've got to pay up.

You've got to offer them the incentives of retirement and those types of things.

Because what we're looking to do is take a lawyer that well be may, ma be making 200, $250,000 a year.

And so come be a judge for us.

Come be a day for us.

Start at 150.

That's a lot to ask somebod that's got a family and expenses and things like that.

So I mean, and some people have a heart for it, hard for public service.

But you've got to have some incentives.

You do.

But I think, I think most of the folks who take this, these job absolutely take a cut in park.

They know they're going to do that.

Yeah.

They, the see real value, in the system.

They see a real value in serving the public.

I think that's, that's the kind of person we want, you know, we don't wan we don't want the lowest bidder or the lowest common denominator.

We want the very best person that we can get to attract to those positions.

Yeah, it was interesting.

I saw a statistic the other day that said that in Congress, most of them elected now are getting paid more in Congress than they would be in this or that.

They were in the private secto kind of should be the opposite.

Sure.

If you think about it.

Well, what else?

You know, you can you have th benefit of hindsight now, right?

As you're retiring.

What other reforms might be necessary to improve Alabama's judiciary or to improv what we can accomplish in terms of reducing backlogs, ensuring justice, things like that.

There's there's anything come to mind in terms o what might the next, term hold?

I think we're pretty good shap as far as allocation of judges.

I think you always have to look at that.

You know, we passed a bill several years ago that talked about reallocating judges over periods of time.

And I think we've got to do that.

Ever as a as an area grows and the population increases, the the number of cases, whether it be civil, criminal, domestic, it doesn't matter.

They're going to increas when you population increases.

So you, you just you see that I think we need to continue to look for that.

And we need to monitor that.

And we need to ensure that as these shifts are taking place, we are able to shift the assets, you know, the the people, the judiciary, the judges, into those areas, where it's needed.

Yeah.

Well and by the way, that's not easy.

Nobody well nobody wants to give up a judge.

They don't want to give up judge.

Sure, I understand that.

And you know what?

Maybe that's why it.

Sometimes it's really easier to add them than shift them.

But nevertheless, we need to we need to stay cognizant of of that fact.

We've seen that fight in the legislature before, I thin was just a couple of years ago that that got a real big fight in the Senate about judges, you know, judgeships and everything.

Well, we don't know who the next chairman after this term is over, who the next chairman is going to be, the House Judiciary Committee.

So, but what advice might you have?

We read every bill that comes to committee.

Okay.

Know what they are?

Make make, you know, talk to other people, but make your own decisions.

There there will be.

Listen, people file bills for a number of reasons.

And sometimes those those reasons are good and horrible, and sometimes perhaps they are not.

But you need to read the bills.

You need to see what they're about.

Don't be swayed by, individuals that have a vested interest in this, be willing to look at somebody that you like and say, no, just not going to put that bill on this committee.

You know, one thing, as a as a chairman of a committee, you have pretty much unfettered discretion of what goes on that committee.

That's a huge responsibility, because it doesn't nee to be something that you want.

It needs to be something that's good and will and will benefit people.

So you, you, you.

I've looked at folks in this legislature that I genuinely liked.

It's a no, I'm not going to put your bill on.

On your bill is contrary to to what we need in this state is contrary to the way the court systems work.

And I'm not going to put it on there.

And I've heard people, some of them take it fairly well.

Some of them don't take it so well.

I can't help it.

Yeah.

And you know, people don't talk like that enough anymore.

And leads me to my last question.

You know, I've been on this hobbyhorse for years about you know, let's not let what happened in Washington happened in Montgomer in terms of the politicization of politicization of everything.

I mean, up there, it's gotten so bad.

Partizan wise that I don't think you could get them to agree on the lunch menu, you know, much less, you know, the budget and things like that.

We've been fortunate down here today where it's not been that way.

It's been fairly, you know, you know, people get along, you'll pass bipartisan, budgets and things like that.

But you're starting to see it creep in.

In fact, this session has been pretty fired up, you know, politically and everything.

What as you look at your time in the legislature, what would you say about that?

What would your perspective be on?

What needs to be done to avoid the partizan, you know, politicization of the legislature?

The same that happened in Congress.

Of course, the legislature is by definition a political body.

Sure.

There you are elected in a party.

You are elected by the people in your in your district.

So by by definition, it is it is a political animal.

How do you avoid that or how do you avoid that bleeding ove into what you're trying to do?

I think the first thing you do is you elect the very best speaker that you can.

And with our question, we have elected the very best speaker, in my judgment, in the history of the state of Alabama, the notion of doing a little better, Nathaniel treats people with a with an even hand.

Listen, I was up there yesterday on a bill that.

And Nathaniel was diametrically opposite to what I wanted.

That's okay.

He let me get up there He let me tell them.

Tell him.

He told me later.

He says you're wrong.

I said, no Mr.

Speaker, I'm not.

You are.

But that's okay.

We're still friends and we are.

I think you've got to have if you want to avoid Partizanship leadership, people who are willing to, you know, the Republicans are super majority.

What could we pass?

Anything.

Everything.

Does that mean we should do it?

Or we can do it.

It means we can do it.

That does not necessarily mean you should do it.

And when you got people like, like Speaker Ledbetter that are looking at that thing and making allowing people to have their say to come to the mike to, to vet their or whether it be their frustrations or their feeling or their positions, that's fine.

He does a great job of that.

So if you want to avoid political saturation, then you've got to have people who are willing to to be that kind of leader.

I hope I was in the Judiciary Committee, my intention was to let every the read, every bill that came up and pick the best ones that I could.

We might have 100 file and one reading.

Yes.

And we'll do 10 or 12 a week, some of which need to go to subcommittees some of which need to be worked on, you know, for various things.

But it didn't matter to me if that bill was filed by a Democrat or a Republican or whatever the question was.

Was the substance of the bill.

Good fo for what we were trying to do?

And that's that's what I tried to do.

And you know what?

But it's not just me.

Look at look, at Reynolds and get and and Joel Vaughn and these guys that had really important before the voting could keep every bill.

He wants to keep all of th House calendar if he wanted to.

But Joe didn't do that.

He puts them on there and there and they're fair, and that he gives everybody an opportunity to be here.

I am concerned about the political ization of America and of Alabama, because I don't see it as being a positive thing.

I think we ought to be able to work together.

You know, on nice thing about being a lawyer, I have spent 50 year with people disagreeing with me.

And it's okay.

It's okay.

We can disagree agreeably.

We can have different positions.

We we can go about what we're trying to do and the way we want to, but we should not be enemies.

And, and that's I don't want that to to creep in to what we're doing in the Alabama legislature.

We need to disagree if we have to.

We need to find a place that we can agree, the legislation is, by its definition, compromise.

You're supposed to give it to.

You know, I just I just got through with one with, with the leader Lee, you know, I didn't like the bill at all when we started.

I didn't like it much better when we got it amended, but I did like it a little better.

But you know what?

It's it was better when we got through with it than than when it started out, so.

And I appreciate people like him, you know, leaders that are willing to sit down and listen to you and talk and try to make that bill the very best it can.

Yeah.

So that if you want to avoi political ization, do it, do it, do your leadership.

And that's what I think we've done in the House.

And I'm proud of very well said.

And we'll end it there.

And you, you have you have le your committee by all accounts.

Judiciously, pardon the pun.

And you're going to be missed.

But thank you for coming down and and sharing some of this.

It's really valuable, advice.

And I really appreciate it.

Thank you Appreciate it.

Had a good time.

I've had a wonderful, wonderful run for 12 years.

And I will miss a lot of these people.

Those are good people.

You'll be missed as well.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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Although Alabama has no official state nickname, it's often referre to by its unofficial nickname, The Heart of Dixie.

The motto began in the late 1940s.

In early 1950s, as part of a public relations effort by the then Alabam Chamber of Commerce.

The goal.

The new slogan, was to give Alabama a distinctive identity among other southern states.

The state legislature soon passed a bill to add the slogan to license plates, with the motto first appearing in 1955.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow nigh for the final day of the Alabama Legislature's regular session here on for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.