From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

As she promised right her on Capitol Journal a week ago, State Senator Merika Coleman of Pleasant Grove has officially dropped her gambling legislation here at the state House.

Senate Bill 257 proposes a constitutional amendment that would allow Alabama voter to decide whether to authorize a state lottery, in-person casino gambling, and both in-person and online sports betting.

The measure would also create a statewide gaming commission to license and regulate gambling, and will allow the governor to negotiate a compact with the porch Band of Creek Indians.

But the bill's path forward remains uncertain.

Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger has previously said he does not want the Senate to deal with gambling again this term.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbette has said the same for the House.

That will make it tough for Coleman's legislation to advance.

When asked about that challenge, Coleman said the decision should ultimately rest with the people.

The end of the day, we do actually serv at the pleasure of the people.

I have huge respec for leadership in both parties.

I've served in the House before as well.

But at the end of the day, we are state legislators, and we serve a constituency.

And if the public decides and folks are, you know, calling us and saying, we want this chance, folks, listen to it.

If they want to continue to serve again, I'll respect for the pro tem.

We work very well together, along with my, minority Leader Bobby Singleton as well.

But again, it'll be up to the people if we take the vote or not.

And look, I'm open in this conversation up.

If folks don't want to do the vote this year, let's pass somethin and we'll have a vote next year.

But we need to do something so the citizens can finally.

Now they have 23, almost 24 years.

And a lot of those year we talked about this same issue.

And again, now with the budget deficits that we are facing, we just can't afford to wait any longer.

And that bill is co-sponsore by Democratic Senators Stewart, Hatcher, Coleman, Madison figures, and Smitherman.

And it would, if taken up it would go through the Senate Tourism and Economic Development Committee.

A bill in a Senate committe today drew strong reactions over how sex education is taught in public schools.

Senate Bill 209 sponsored by State Senator Shea of Trussville, would do three things establish sexual risk avoidance as the framework for sex educatio in public k-through-12 schools require parental notification before instruction and give the Attorney General the authority to enforce these standards.

Supporters say the bil strengthens parental involvement and ensures sex education is age appropriate.

Opponents argue it restricts access to comprehensive, evidence based information and could negatively affect student health and safety.

Lawmakers heard testimony from both sides during a public hearing in the Senate Education Policy Committee, including from a student who described her experience in a fifth grade sex education class.

And from advocates who oppose the bill.

This bill undermines the progress needed to address critical public health issues and pursue bodily safety for youth in our state by restricting access to comprehensive evidence based on age appropriate sex education.

This legislation compromises the ability of students to make informed, health decisions about their futures.

We know that almost 40% of Alabama house schoolers report having had at least one sexual experience.

So keeping critical sexual health information away from young people only exacerbates the sexual violence that they face.

While specifics were not mentioned, my mom was assured it would be age appropriate.

The day of the talk, kids were divided.

We're always going to our classroom, boys going to the gym.

We were taugh how to put a condom on a banana and how you can turn transgender with surgeries.

With these lessons, these lessons may feel uncomfortable and should not be taught in elementary school.

Our focus should be learning how to have a healthy relationship, and what a healthy and happy family looks like.

Ther was no vote taken on that bill following today's public hearing.

That will happen when committee members reconvene next week.

Another Senate bill is putting a spotlight on how volunteer fire departments across Alabama are allowed to manage their money.

Senate Bill 232, sponsored b Senator Robert Stewart of Selma, would change current law that limits where volunteer fire departments and rescue squads can place their funds.

Supporters argue the bill would give those departments more flexibility by allowing them to choose between federally insure banks and credit unions, helping stretched limited resources especially in those rural areas.

But the proposal is facing opposition from the banking industry, which says opening the door to credi unions creates an uneven playing field and raises concerns about how public funds are handled.

Lawmakers in the Senat Banking and Insurance Committee heard from both side during a public hearing today.

This bill is aimed at helping rural Alabamians because the majority of our state is home and volunteer fire departments and rescue squad, giving them the optio to compare rates based locally and be the best stewards of their finance.

When I first heard about this bill, someone told me that a voluntee fire department was miles away from its nearest bik and it opted for a credit union that could not serve at the time.

That struck me as odd, althoug we just heard that ten happen.

I checked the numbers and certainly well, that sounds like it's the case there.

Alabama has 1347 bank branches within 134 banks that service our state.

Now, I hope you'll get this.

That's more than none.

The $975 generals in the state.

And there are verified 975.

Yet credit unions have 548 locations in.

There's rarely an instanc where there's funds to deposit.

But in those cases where we're raising money for a truck over a three year period and want to put those same funds in a seed, 1 or 1.5% interest make a huge difference to us, right?

That's that's the difference in having to have another fund raiser and take everybody away fro their family on another event.

Again no vote was taken on that bill because it was a public hearing.

Lawmakers are expected to decide the fate of that bill next week.

The House Public Safet and Homeland Security Committee took up legislation aimed at stopping disruptions at church services.

This, of course, comes on the heels of an incident in Minneapolis where two people were arrested for interrupting a place of worship as part of a protest on th immigration enforcement issue.

House Bill 363 from State Representative Greg Barnes of Jasper will create stiffer penalties for such activity.

Under existing law, the crime of riot, harassment and disorderly conduct establis and or a violation of the law.

This bill would establish the crime of disruption of church worship service an provide that crime if committed.

If during that worship service that has a scheduled time, an individual entering upon the premises of the church or church property with the intent to disrupt the worship service, engage in a riot, disorderly conduct, the harassment of a worship participant, or the obstruction of the ingress and egress of the church property or the building.

You projecting people going to go to churc anyway, but you're projecting.

People go to go to church to disrupt service, where you got the deacons and you got the trustees disrupting the church service.

It's not the agitators.

This has an element of purpose.

Yeah.

I mean the intent.

This bill has an element of intent to g there and intentionally disrupt a service.

This is not some one that's already in the service or something.

That's someone that attends church there.

This is someone that comes outside with the intent to go in and disrupt the service was harm, harassment, disorderly conduct, everything that I described.

You know, I'm Pentecostal.

If I came to a Baptist church and I said, Hallelujah, praise the Lord once.

And that's disrupting the service.

No, that's you know, no, sir.

No, sir.

That's not that's that's not regular.

Well it is not in the Baptist church.

I don't talk over you.

I'm not a my answer.

We we jump up and holler Hallelujah.

But what's your about?

Someone coming from the outside.

I'll be the ask that I'm not a member of the church, but I'm visiting you.

Come visit and you jump up and I. We're going to be all right.

I'm going to turn the preacher to the preacher.

This ain't the true preacher.

That bill was approved by the committe and now goes to the full House.

Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham has been named the 2026 Sheriff of the year by the National Sheriffs Association.

This is a big deal and one of the highest honors in the law enforcement profession.

The award highlights Cunningham's leadership and service among more than 3000 sheriffs nationwide.

The association says his innovative public safety initiative and strong community engagement have made a lasting impact across Montgomery County, while maintaining the highest standards of professionalism.

Sheriff Cunningham will be formally honored later this year.

Congrats, Sheriff, and we'll be right back with tonight's guests.

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 o Capital Journal's Facebook page.

Rosa Parks i one of the most enduring symbols of the American civil rights era of the mid-twentieth century.

She was active in the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, serving as its field secretary.

Although she was not the first black woman in Montgomery to be arrested for doing so.

Her 1955 arrest for violating the segregation ordinance by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, triggered a 382 day boycott of Montgomery city busses and prompted a challenge o the ordinances constitutionality in federal court.

In December 1956, after the US Supreme Court affirmed a district court ruling against segregation, parks took a symbolic victory ride near the front of a city bus.

Parks continued to work for civil rights causes throughout her life, and was awarded the nation's highest honors for her role in the movement.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Do you want to?

The next is State Representative Terri Collins of Decatur, chairman of the House Education Policy Committee.

Madam chairman thanks for coming on the show.

Always glad to be here, Todd.

Thank you for asking.

Absolutely Well, you've got a lot of bills.

One bill that' headed to the governor's desk.

Yes.

Rural health.

Rural health care, tax incentives.

You can clean that up for me.

What does this bill do?

Because you're basically amending a law that you passed last year.

Correct?

Correct.

What happened?

Even at the very end, we realized we had used, finance, and we should have been using revenue.

Revenue was doing the work.

It was the appropriate place.

And we said we would clean that up.

So we kne we needed to make that change.

They were already working on it.

The part we did not realize until after it was done.

And that happens sometimes when you pass legislation the actual way something is implemented doesn't wor like we thought it was going to.

And that's what happened with this one.

It's a rural health care tax incentive.

And we built an revenues that go both into the ETF and the general fund, because of which utility taxes and license and things that could be included that are not always included.

And so we wanted our rural utility companies to be able to support and and benefit from helping their local hospitals.

And the codes that we used, the sections.

There was no mechanis for revenue to pull that money from them into this tax credit.

And so this bill corrects that.

And it's a $20 million cap this year.

I think we're already at 17 million.

So there's just a little bit lef for them to take advantage of.

But it was always my goal that rural people could support their own local hospitals.

And this, I think, will open up that last avenue we intended.

Right.

So if I'm a company and now a rural electric cooperative or something, and I want to support that rural hospital because that's so important to get that buy in.

But you can do that.

But you get a tax credit for it, which is that incentiv you're talking about.

Exactly.

Because our rural hospitals are facing tough times.

They are if they are.

One of the saddest things representing Jackson pointed out to you.

And I actually rode by his Thomasville, hospital empty parking lot you know, and once one closes, they're not going to get back because they're not ever going to meet the codes and things that they're going to need to do.

So trying to help our hospitals stay and to focus on not expensive things that people aren't even going to come there to have done, you're not going to go t a rural area for heart surgery, but you would be very much more convenient to go to your rural area hospital for your dialysis or for your mammogram, or for your certain things.

That and let them refocus their business plan.

What is sustainable for our hospital?

Bring them back up into those.

Maybe they need extra machines.

Maybe they need some things like that.

This credit, this extra additional funding would help them hav a business plan that sustainable and then fund what they need t do to meet that business plan.

Well, I hope you'll invite us to the governor's bill signing ceremony, because I think that's a great track.

Wanted to ask you, also, yo have a constitutional amendment up this session having to do with, you know, there are counties that have school systems.

There are cities that have school systems.

I think in all it's like 130 something throughout Alabama.

What is it?

What is your constitutional amendment do?

We had a bill earlier about represented Chairman Garrett, and it would allow cities that were contiguou to combine their school boards.

And that' what actually gave me the idea.

We have about ten counties wit less than a thousand students.

And so what the constitutional amendment right now in our Constitution, every county has to have a school system, right.

This would not change that.

Every county would still have their own school system.

What it would let them do if they wanted to especially the smaller counties, is it would let them combine so that they had one administration.

But that was over the separate, still separate school system, 2 or 3 counties that are rural and correct, allowing more resources more planning, things like that.

Well, less money going just into administration and more money going back int the classroom with the students.

That's what we need to do.

We need to focus on giving that money to the students in that classroom.

If we are reducing that overhead, that would really help you do it.

And the other thing I think that would be very positive is some of these small counties with elected superintendents, there might not be someone even really qualified to be that superintendent.

So if these countie went together with a plan to see how it would be beneficial, they could recruit a superintendent to help their school systems thrive.

Just like you'd recruit a football coach.

And those county lines are really just lines.

They are.

They're invisible lines.

They're they are not evident.

And a lot of times people are crossing over thos and different things like that.

In our charter schools they don't have those lines.

You are open to anything.

And then they have ways they reduce their administration.

So I think this opens up just an option for people to consider for counties.

It has to be a majority vote.

There's a way that you could petition and not want it.

I mean, I've tried to think of everything.

The people would have to vote on it.

This next election to allow it to even be an option.

And then the local would have to do a study to make sure it's a, a viable option for their counties.

And then they would have that local referendum.

Interesting.

We'll be following that.

All right I wanted to ask you about this.

One of your very first reforms, because you're an education reformer I think it's fair to call you.

That was passing the A through F grading system.

Meaning, for schools, a through F grading syste has been around forever.

Yeah.

For report cards.

Right.

But you passed a bill making it those report cards for schools, meaning that parents, communities anybody can go and see.

Okay, how is my school doing.

It's big refor because you know any thing we do whether it's economic development or education improvement it should be based on something right.

You passed that back in.

What was it 2012 2012 okay.

So I understand you've got some revisions you're working on.

Yes, I've spoken with the school board for years, really, about doing some of this tightening it up, making i so that we're focused on growth of our student and achievement of our students.

And so I've been working on trying to do that in the legislation this time.

I am very excited about it.

I think it sets up more of a return on investment.

How are we doing?

Are students prepared like we think they are?

It, raises the waitin of a college or career indicator so that our students really know.

Are they prepared for college, if that's the direction they're going?

Are they prepared for a career?

And then we would assess that later on to say, are we doing what we think we're doing?

I think there's a lot of that.

There is, a provision in it.

When I was first elected in ten.

Florida had passed this in 1990.

They were in the bottom 10% of schools.

Achievement by ten years.

They were in the top 10%.

But they lifted their bar of what was an A, what was a, B, a, c, I think fou different times in that decade.

We passed it in 12.

We first never had a grade till 8th December of 18.

It's very frustrating, very frustrating.

It was supposed to be 13 and so it was 18.

And we've never lifted our bar.

And so I just want to tighten that up so that we are truly focusing on student achievement, growth, achievement and what's best for the kids.

Are we going to run into the same bureaucratic hurdles that we saw?

Okay.

I hope to file it this way, an I feel certain when I file it, I will hear what those concerns are.

I'm confident that you will.

Look, we're out of time.

Thanks for coming on.

I hope to hear from you more this session.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Paige Hutto, president of the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama.

Paige thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks, Todd.

Thanks for having me.

And thanks for bringing the weather with you.

Yes.

Chamber of Commerce day.

It is a chamber of Commerce day.

We talked about this across the street.

We've been wet.

We've been cold.

But finally, the sun is out, and it feels pretty good.

You can thank your local chamber for that.

So y'all are in town.

I don't want to get to that first in a second, but first, can you tell me about the association?

What is its rol here in the state?

Sure.

Thanks.

So we are again the Chamber Association.

So we have 100 local chambers across the state of Alabama serving almost all of the community's top to bottom.

And we are their trade organization, their trade association.

So we do professional development, con ed, a lot of networking opportunities because none of us went t college to run a local chamber.

There's not a degree in this.

So a lot of it is on the job training.

And so we do that.

We also really work to bring them together to elevate our industry across the state.

Everybody knows their local chamber, but they don't really think about it as an industry of people, that do this work.

And I was one of those fortunate ones that I've been in this industry over 25 years.

I started at my local chamber, hometown, chamber, many years ago.

And so, it's really just to make sur that our chambers are involved at all the local, the local level, the state level and federal level, chambers have been around for over 400 years.

It's a brand that everybody knows.

Yeah.

So we just work to elevate that, that voice and, so that everybody recognizes and gets engaged with their local chamber.

Sure.

And every city, every community has different issues.

Absolutely.

One thing, but is there kind of an overarching message that you all have, because you all are meetin with lawmakers, right?

We are.

What's the overall message from the group?

So this is actually only our second year of Chamber Day at the Capitol.

And we really wanted to bring it's two ways.

We wanted to bring our local chambers to Montgomery.

So to make sure that they knew their state delegates, that they were very familiar with coming in and out of the state House and to hear from leadership throughout Montgomery, so that those lines of communication are open.

We don't really have an ask or a message because, as you said, the issues in mobile are different than Moulton, different from Eufaula to Foley.

But we all are in the business of just making the stat better one community at a time.

So that's really why we wanted to do Chamber Day at the Capitol and then also for Montgomery to see our chambers together.

As you know, an industry within within the state, every community has a chamber, you know, and it's not a partizan thing.

It's all about building the community.

Right, diverse and everything.

And talk about the importance of that, because it a plac like the statehouse, you know, they can get to arguing over issues and everything, but I would imagine that, the chamber's bring a message of unity.

We just want to work together.

So talk about the importance of that, that kind of message, unity and working together.

Well, it is that's the only way things get done, whether it is here in Montgomery or DC or it's particularly at the local level.

You know, everybody say all politics are local, right?

So our chambers, whether it is any across the state or across the country, we are conveners.

There is no other entity that has that ability to bring people together within a community, to sit around a table and talk about those hard issues.

Sometimes, we can bring health care and industry education, elected officials, nonprofits, volunteers all to that table to really say we want to build a better community.

And that's our role.

We are certainly an organization of business leaders.

We advocate for great policy when it comes to business helping small businesses.

99% of our businesses are small, and those are the one sitting on our chamber boards.

So, we really are.

It's that one place where people can come together to make better communities.

Absolutely.

I'm from a small town myself, and I remember the impact of the chamber and the organizations that make up the chamber.

So thank you all for being here.

I got to meet a lot of you.

Remember?

Yes.

Thank yo for entertaining us with Jason.

It was great fun.

Yeah, yeah.

But thank you.

And, good luck at the statehouse.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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

Appy tv.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.

Birmingham entrepreneur and businessman A.G.

Gasto was one of the most successful African-American business owners in Alabama.

Gaston overcame humble beginnings and racial discrimination to build a $40 million business empire.

Gaston work behind the scenes to financially support the civil rights movement, created an employee stock option and sold his insurance company to his employees for a fraction of its value.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night with more coverage of the Alabama legislature right here on Alabama Public Television.

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

We'll see you next time.