From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey, welcome to Capitol Journal.

Today saw education budget hearings here in the state House.

Lawmakers gathered to hear proposals from education budget leaders.

But the biggest issue discussed was p hip.

That stands for the Public Education Employee Health Insurance Program.

Going into this legislativ session, the program was facing a potential shortfall of about $380 million.

Governor Kay Ivey and lawmakers would like to avoid a maybe a major premium increase for teachers and other employees.

So the talk mostly focused on a short term fix for the upcoming year, and then looking for more long term at what needs to be done with ongoing costs in the future.

You know, the biggest issu we're facing is this here issue.

So I think that was discussed.

I think maybe there's some better understanding about that, what that means.

I think we, had some really good information from the higher ed community who had some really good information on the KSAT 12 report, which was good.

So I think we just ge a little more informed to them.

But I think what me stood out was the impact of this.

You know, perhaps it is but also how challenging this, you know, the staff is doing a lot of work to kind of, figure out what's causing what's driving a lot of this.

What can we manage through cost saving programs that does an increased cos for employers and for members?

What are some other kind o creative things that we can do while we're using these long term funds is kind of a stopgap measure.

I mean, I think we can get through fiscal year 27.

We're obviously still very concerned about 28 because the projections for that year, it keeps going up.

And it's a it's a bigger issue than just perhaps a nationwide issue with health care costs.

And so, you know we're going to be doing our work and hopefully there's a lot of other work going on to figure out how do we make it more affordable, not just for health employers members, but for everybody.

And I'll be speaking with State Representative Jamie Keel more about those budget issues later in the show.

We are almost a third of the way through this legislative session.

And finally it happened.

There's gambling legislation coming like death and taxes.

It never fails.

Here in the studio on Capitol Journal over the weekend, State Senator Marika Colema made news saying she's bringing a constitutional amendment for a straight up referendum on a lottery.

Though we haven't seen the bill or the details.

Here's what she said.

I think the people of the state of Alabama should have the opportunity to vote yes or no.

Do we want this in the state of Alabama?

I mean, oh, look, I'm tired of all of this money going across the state lines to fund public education and to find scholarships in Georgia i all of our surrounding states.

We are engulfed, which states that are either gaming states or gaming and lottery states.

And so Alabama money is going out of the state.

So, I think we've always gotten caught up in the details.

Where do these facilities go?

I mean, is it going to, you know, get rid of the constitutional amendments we already have in place for those places that do have electronic bingo and some others.

This is simply about allowing the very smart, intelligent people of the state of Alabama to say yes or no.

Do we want this in our states?

It's important to remember that in the wake of the last gambling proposal that was floated last year, Senate President Pro Te Garland said the issue was dead until after the next election.

And House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbette had expressed similar thoughts.

One bill we are following coming into this new week of session is House Bill 72 from State Representative Patrick Sellers of Pleasant Grove.

It would require mandator reporters, teachers, counselors and others who interact with children to inform the Department of Human Resources when children smell of marijuana.

The bill requires D to investigate these instances like suspected child abuse or neglect.

It would also make smoking marijuana in a car when a child is present a class A misdemeanor.

Smoking tobacco with children in the car is already a criminal offense.

House Bill 72.

Under existing law, smoking tobacco products with a child i the car is a criminal offense.

Also, under the existing law, smoking marijuana of any kind is prohibited under any circumstances, but this bill will provid an additional criminal penalty of a class A misdemeanor for smoking marijuana in a motor vehicle.

When a child is present in the motor vehicle, whether the motor vehicle is in motion or at rest, and whether the windows are open or closed.

This bill would also require the court to order a person who violates this bil to take an in-person education course developed by the Alabama Department of Public Health, about the dangers of drug an marijuana use around children.

This bill would require law enforcement to report violations to the local count Department of Human Resources.

This bill will require mandatory reporters to report to the stat Department of Human Resources, or another duly constituted authority when children smelled of marijuana smoke, and will require such reports to be treated, investigated as any other reports of suspended or suspected child abuse or neglect.

This bill would also require the Alabama Department of Public Health to develop public education material about the dangers of exposing children to marijuana smok at about 100 parents last week attended our meeting here in Montgomery, and they invited me after the meetin to share some of their concerns.

And that was one concern that we put in.

We have a system that we put innocent parents in this system just because of a phone call.

The good news, next week I will be filing a bill to address that.

I just want to just bring that to attention.

And, before I filed a bill, I will bring it to you, and hopefully you can join me in co-sponsor, because, I believe if parents is not being parents, it's, they reach a threshol of placing their kids in abuse or neglect.

That situation they should be held accountable, should be indicated.

But when the current law is written, is putting thousands of parents in this database, for no reason of.

That bill passed 77 to 2, with 18 abstention and will now go to the Senate.

Turning to politics for a moment.

There's an update on candidate ballot challenges.

We reported over the weekend that both Tommy Tuberville and John Wal were the subject of challenges to their candidacies over the issue of residency.

The Alabama Republican Party steering committee on Sunday voted to dismiss those challenges and allow the candidacie to move forward for Tuberville, who is running for governor.

The decision was unanimous for a wall.

The former GOP chairman who is running for lieutenant lieutenant governor.

There was a split decision among committee members on whether or not to investigate further.

But that tie was eventually broke by acting Chair Joan Reynolds.

The decisions do not rule out potential legal challenges down the road.

And we have an update on the two big federal races in Alabama this year on the fundraising side.

We'll start in the crowded race for the U.S.

Senate and specifically the Republican primary.

In that race, it is US Congressman Barrymor leading the cash on hand battle, finishing 2025 with $842,000 in the bank.

Next, it is Attorney General Steve Marshall, finishing last year with $562,000 cash on hand, Morgan Murphy with $530,000, and Jared Hudson with $480,000.

This is all according to the latest Federal Election Commission finance reports.

Now to the race for Congress in Alabama' first district in south Alabama.

There.

State Representative Rhet Marks is leading the fundraising battle, finishing 2025 with $775,000 cash on hand.

Former Congressman Jerry Karl finished the year with $483 cash on hand between both his campaign account and his joint fundraising account.

And we'll be right back with tonight's guest, representative Jamie Kiel.

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.

Tuskege University is the second oldest historically black college in Alabama, and one of the largest in the United States.

Founded in 1881 as the normal School for Colored Teachers at Tuskegee, the school quickly became a driving force in the developin industrial education movement.

Under the leadership of noted educator Booker T Washington, its first president in its early decades.

Tuskegee Institute made significant contributions to agriculture and improving the lives of rural black farmers.

Tuskegee has played an integral role in Alabama history and education.

It pioneered the movable school, served as the training ground for the Tuskegee Airmen, and students and faculty were heavily involved in the civil rights movement.

In addition to its many notable alumni and academic developments, it was the first HBCU to have a marching band.

Tuskegee University was recently ranked as the top black college in Alabama, and the sixth nationally.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is state Representative Jamie Kiel from Russellville.

Mr.

representative thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me, doc.

Absolutely.

Well, we just had budget hearings today.

The second round, meaning education, budget hearings.

You sit on the way and Means Education committee, education budget Committee, if you will, on the, you know, 30,000ft level.

What did we learn today?

What did you learn today as a member of the committee?

Well, there's there's never enough.

First of all, there's always, requests for more than what, we're taking in every year.

And so there's always a shortfall for, for any given year.

However, we have brought in more money in the past year than we ever have before.

It's gonna say it's a record budget.

So record budget and so but there have been record budget requests.

And so we, we heard from those folks toda from the four year or two year, our retirement system people, all those folks were, sharing their needs today with the budget committees.

You mentioned P. That is the public education employee health insurance program.

Get a gold star if I got that right.

That's been the big question mark going into this session was okay, we know tha there are a lot more costs for, education employees as it comes to their insurance program.

They're the same as everybody across the country, right?

Health care costs rise, insurance costs rise with it.

Well, if people were scared, maybe there'd be a hole in the budget.

Were you satisfied with hearing from the of of RSA and the back and forth that we're going to be able to address this mounting cost concern?

Well, it has been an ongoing concern for us.

Anyone in the state who has health care need have seen an increase in cost, except for those folks who participate in Pip.

And over the last ten years, they've not had an increase at all.

And so while health care costs have gone up, the cost of insurance has gone up for every other citizen in the state.

It has not gone up for for our teacher and other folks who participate.

Be here.

And so because of that, has put us at a, a deficit when it comes to funding Pip.

And now it really showed up last year.

We, we did some stopgap measures, to pay for it last year.

And so here we are again.

We're going to have to mak those decisions again this year.

How to pay for some of that from perhaps trust fund.

Some from supplemental funding from, our budgets.

But, it is a concern and it's not something that, that is going to be solved in one year and, it's going to be an ongoing concern, not something's going to just stop this year.

Yeah.

But you mentioned you know, public versus private.

Look, it's an election year.

And even if it wasn't an election year, it's not popular to tell, you know, millions or however many teachers and education employees that, hey you're going to pay a little bit more for health insurance, but is that is that going to have to be part of the solution?

Because if the if the education budget has to pay for all of it, then that takes away from other needs, as you mean and everybody's got needs.

Sure.

And I'm not sure that happens this year, but it will be in the discussion in the future simply because the costs continue to go up.

And so, we, we are looking at all the options this time.

Again with the, perhaps trust fund, I suppose that we will, rely heavily on that again to defer the costs again.

Now, when it came to the general fund, I heard, Chairman Albritton say they appreciated having it a like a week into session, a few weeks into session because, you know, the last several years it's been the, the very first day of session or maybe even the day before session started.

So, these agencies budgets hadn't been released yet.

And so every time that they're, you know, an agency director would go before the committee and say, well, look, I can't get ahead of the governor, can't get ahead of our budget being released.

Well, now the budgets are released so they can more candidly answer those questions.

Did you see a difference in that?

Do you like the way there are time now?

I do so the the reques when we see them and most years when we see them early are are grossly bloated because they're they're asking for everything.

But this time we see what the reality is.

And the governor's folks, the finance folks, have sent over more responsible budgets.

And it takes out a lot of the the bloated request that we would typically see.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

Just a few week and all the different, you know, the difference in the world.

Okay.

Going back into session tomorrow, I keep hearing look is kind of smooth sailing so far.

You have dealt with some more controversial issues down in the house, but I just want to get your gauge.

What is your.

How do you think the sessions flowing so far in terms of managing the floor flow of bills in the House at least?

Well, it's it's been smooth sailing for the most part so far.

I mean, obviously we've dealt with some controversial issues on the on the floor.

We're almost a third of the way through the session, which is really incredible.

So we have moved rather quickly so far.

We're going to do more to day to day weeks, going forward.

So it'll slow down a little bit.

We still have both budgets to deal with, so we'll have to we'll have to do that.

But, so far, as far as operating on the floor, in the house, it's been very smooth.

We operated from a regular order calendar for, the first week or so, and then special order calendar last week.

And you know, it previous I've been here.

This is my eighth regular session.

Previous.

You know, it would be a lot of times we wouldn't get through first 3 or 4 bills on a calendar.

And it's not uncommon at all for us now to work through an entire calendar.

And so or 2 or 3 or 2 or 3.

We haven't done that this year, but we have in past sessions.

And so, I think we've I think the streamlining of the process, as has, has really occurred with Speaker Ledbetter and his staff.

I give them a lot of credit for doing that.

We start on time, and we work through.

And so, I've been very pleased with the flow of the session this time.

Now, the education budget start in the House this year, right?

So y'all are going to be pretty busy on the ETF committee.

When do you think those things might start?

Because that's that's the big question every year.

What are the budget start?

Any indication from the chairman when that might happen?

I don't know, a certain date, but we'll we'll get to it pretty quickly.

The sessions moving very quickly, like I said, we're a third of the way through.

And so I think we're all interested in, pulling all of the proposals together, see what makes sense and what doesn't this year, especially when it comes to tax cuts and tax incentives.

Tax credits.

See where that all lines up with the money that we have and then move forward.

It is tax season.

So you're going to hear let's get perked everybody's ears up when you say this.

Okay.

We've got a couple of pieces of legislation that I wanted to ask you about.

One was on the floor the other day having to do with masking, and it's kind of people might not see that when they look at the bills online or whatever, because it has to do with, modifying Alabama's loitering law.

So that's kind of how it's categorized.

This is actually the second year you've had this bill.

And so it's not new, but because it didn't pass the Senate last year, it's having to come back.

So please do me a favo and explain what this bill does and kind of where it comes from.

Well, this this bill does modify the loitering law because, there are people a times who need to wear a mask.

You know, if you've got a medical condition and you've been the docto and they declare you to, either be acceptable or you have something you don't want to to to share, to spread to other people.

You know, there is a reason for, for doing that.

And so now in our loitering law, there are exceptions to the loitering law.

Things like Mardi Gras, this that's going on and fixing to take place in the state or, any kind of parade or demonstration, those type things, as long as they're organized and planned.

They're not loitering.

And so all I did was added that if you have a medical mask, you're not loitering.

And it also the second part of that is if you're wearing a medical mask, if you're requested to identify yourself by law enforcement, you have to do that.

And so it's as simple as when the officer asks you to identify yourself so you can check your I.D.

you pull your mask down, and he he had you on the street or wherever it might be.

Now, this partly stemmed from everything you sa at some of the college campuses.

Oh.

After the October, seventh.

You know, all the demonstrations you had, the kind of the pro Hamas crowd.

And it seemed like all these demonstrators were masked and therefore evading, getting caught on camera.

Maybe they don't want to get suspende or expelled from universities.

Is that kind of the impetus behind all this?

Well we had this bill last session, as you know, and then it didn't pass, got caught up in some of the, late session antics in the Senate.

And so, i brought it back again this year.

There is some, I guess some coincidental timing there.

But, fact matter is if you're if you're wearing a medical mask, you shouldn't mind showing a law enforcement officer, added yourself if you're asked to do so.

And so that's what this does.

Ask the law enforcement officer to, gives law enforcement officer the ability to identify, someone wearing a medical mask in a protest or otherwise.

I see there's also I could see, like, like in a convenience store or something.

I mean, never since Covid, but wearing medical masks, as you mentioned, has been pretty common.

Well, all right, if I've got a security camera or something and somebody comes in wearing a, you know, completely covering their face with a mask and my store or something, that really cuts down on my ability to you turn that evidence over to the police.

Is anything like that contemplated in this bill, or is it just about the demonstration?

It's more about the demonstrations and that that aspect, you know, if somebody if you own a private business, it's your business.

So, I would support whateve the business owner wants to do.

As far as masks go, you can require in their personal property.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Well, what are the prospects this year?

You mentioned you got caught up in the Senate filibuster.

We don't know exactly what's going to happen.

It's too earl to tell in the Senate this year.

But do you think it's moving fast enough where you're confiden will get over the finish line?

I am, well, the things in the Senate are moving smoother this year so far and we're earlier in the session this time for the bill.

So I think both of those things working together, pretty good prospects of getting it passed.

I think everybody learned a lesson last year.

The quicker you get it upstairs, the better chance you have.

Switching gears to another bill you had that I know everybody is going to be really interested in.

This has to do with the state of Alabama essentially selling, voter roll information and you've got a bill putting some limits on those specifically with cell phone numbers.

Talk about the impetus for this bill.

Where did it come from?

Well, the bill has a couple of parts to it.

One, anyone can buy the voter roll in the state and the voter rolls.

It's a snapshot of who is voting of currently who's registered to vote currently.

And it includes things lik your address, your phone number.

Your date of birth, that sort of thing.

And so it's very expensiv currently to buy it in Alabama.

It's one penny per voter to buy the voter rolls, which is about $38,000 right now in comparison.

You could you could buy all of the other voter rolls in the United State for less than $38,000 combined.

And it's been a very frustrating point to anybody that's ru campaigns in the last 20 years.

Yes, it is very because everybody has to go by the voter rolls.

It's also kind of a moneymaker for the secretary of State's office.

It is.

So we're going to cap that $1,000.

It makes it more accessible to more people.

You know, if you want to go se who is voting in your election, in your community, you can buy that voter rol and see who's actually voting.

So, it will make i more accessible by doing that.

I think it will also allow us to sell more copies because it's not $38,000.

Sure.

And that's interesting, though because if you're running for, let's say, state House for the very first time, like when you signed up eight years ago, I mean, $38,000 is a pretty daunting number, and it limits what you can do for many other, you know, campaign funds.

So I think that's interesting.

I think a lot of people involved with campaigns might, you know, it's almost a barrier to running.

Sure, sure.

Well and one thing that will happen, like I said, I think more people will buy the voter rolls at only $1,000 apiece.

So that's going to expose more information to more people than ever has been before.

And so more people will buy the voter roll.

Therefore, the information that's on the voter roll will be more more accessible to more people.

Well, one thing that people are typically not too happy about is that the state includes the phone number, their phone number, when someone purchases the voter rolls.

And we were discussing earlie about the number of spam calls we receive.

Oh yeah.

And it is unbelievable.

Bill.

And I think almost everybody i the state, it's happening too.

But I might get a dozen spam calls a day.

And what we want to make sure of is that the state is not participating in that and not complicit in that by selling phone numbers on the voter roll.

And so we'll redact those phone numbers.

It also will not we'll never allow Social Security numbers, driver' license numbers to be published.

We'll put that in code so that going forward, the state will never do that either.

Now, we're all used to getting those text messages around election time.

If I'm an election vendor, Sam, a managing a campaign for state House or Congress or whatever else, and I buy that voter roll.

Can I still text?

You know, because we get those is that treated differently than, say, like you said, the spa from right now it's tax season.

So you're getting like tax spam.

And I guess you're, you know, borrowing information.

All that is, is corporat treated differently than voters.

Yes.

So we are explicitly excluding the, the the vendors for voters.

So electioneering so to speak.

And but we are including commercial use.

And so we're outlawing the commercial use while still allowing people to carry out their races like and get their message out to the voters.

Sure.

Well, House Bill 67 I think you said that bill was that will be one to watch because everybody especially, you know, taxis in whatever season it is, you start getting spam.

And you're right, it has really gotten out of control.

It's incredible.

Not just the text messages, but the calls.

I mean, anywhere there.

And they get more and more clever every year.

Mr.. Carla, we're out of time.

I appreciate you coming o and sharing some of the stuff, and we'll follow these goin forward.

Good deal.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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Benjamin Turner was an entrepreneur, business executive, civic leader, and legislator.

Born into slavery, Turner became the first African American representative from Alabama elected to the U.S.

Congress.

He founded the first school in Selma for the education of African-American children, and was a political moderat and proponent of reconciliation.

Turner took a stance regarding the injustices of slavery and advocated for desegregated schools and reparations to former slaves.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night with more coverage of the Alabama legislature at the same time.

Right here on Alabama Public Television for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.

For.

This.