From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capitol Journal.

Today was day six of the Alabama legislature's 2026 regular session.

And would you believe it?

That means we are one fifth of the way through this 30 day session.

We'll start our coverage tonight in the Senate, which continued to move at a pretty fast pace today.

All three meeting days this week were largely non-controversial, with lawmakers approving a lengthy slate of local bills and confirmations.

By law, all confirmations must be completed by the 10th legislative day.

The smoother start stands in contrast to the end of last session, when a Democratic filibuster killed dozens of local bills, threatening rules changes by Republican leadership.

But with this being an election year, both sides of the aisle seem eager to finish up work and get home to campaign.

But that doesn't mean the rest of the session will be smooth sailing.

There's always things that may cause hiccups and, things to be a little bit slower.

I don't expect any of those in the near term.

There.

You know, there always is.

So, it'd be a little bit foolish to say no, everything's going to go smooth this whole session.

But, you know, that's the way the system was designed.

We all come from different areas of the state, all walks of life, and we have different opinions.

We're not supposed to come here and agree on everything.

We're supposed to come here and debate things, and we'll we'll do that.

As we get deeper into the session that that always happens.

And it will this session as well.

I do know that we're all eager to get out of here and get to our districts and campaign and do that kind of thing.

So, we'll we'll see, how intense it gets.

But I don't expect it to get, significantly intense.

We'll get through.

So in the Senate, so far, we've been singing Kumbaya.

It would be nice if we finished the session.

This way.

So we are actually moving pretty fast.

Got some really good things passed thus far.

But, you know, when some of those other things come upstairs from the house, I think we may be in trouble then in a week or so.

What are some of those things?

I mean, immigration bills that are coming, some of the, the voting legislation that may come up as well.

So, you know, I always talk about, you know, election year and red meat and people, you know, speaking and playing to their base.

So, you know, that that's when we'll, we'll kind of get divided.

The Senat today passed legislation aimed at addressing Alabama's ongoing teacher shortage.

Senate Bill 149 is sponsored by State Senator Matt Woods of Jasper.

It would allow military veterans to temporarily teach in K-12 classrooms, even if they do not yet hold a bachelor's degree, provided they meet specific education, testing and background requirements.

Woods says the bill not only addresses teacher shortages, but helps veterans continue to serve their communities.

We've all experience a teacher shortage in the state.

Every school district is facing shortages, and so we're trying to fin unique ways that we can engage populations that would be great fits in the classroom and get them into, a pipeline for our education system.

Other states have done something similar.

And so we felt like we should adopt that here in Alabama.

We want to be a military friendly state, and that include being a veteran friendly state.

I believe this will help our veterans give them opportunity, lead and serve, and continue to serve here in the state of Alabama.

So that bill now goes to the House for consideration.

And the Senate also passe a bill aimed at improving safety during traffic stops for peopl with certain medical conditions.

Senate Bill 46 from State Senator Merika Coleman of Birmingham, would allow driver and non driver ID holders to voluntarily designate certain invisible medical conditions, giving law enforcement officers immediate awareness during an encounter.

The designation would be optional and free of charge.

Supporters sa the measure could help prevent misunderstandings and promote and improve communication between officers and the public.

Aliyah has worked with this bill as well, just to make sure we can come up with something that law enforcement officers can identify.

So someone who's on the autism spectrum or has epilepsy or some type of other invisible ailment, the law enforcement officer knows as soon as they stop.

How to deal with that person.

So very proud of that.

My bonus son, my children' brother, name is Edward Weaver.

We call him E.J.. So he's been calling this bill.

His bill.

So we're really, really excited abou the past day of Senate Bill 46.

That bill now heads to the House, where a companion bill by Representative Ontario Tillman has already passed out of committee onto the House of Representatives, which had a productive day of its own, passin 24 different bills on the floor.

There's the bill requiring age verification for App Store users that passed unanimously.

Trey's law, which aims to empower victims of sexual abuse, also passed unanimously, as did a bill to allow retired state and education employees to drive a school bus without suspending their retirement benefits.

One bill that saw significant debate was House Bill 80 from State Representative Mac Butler of Rainbow City.

The measure seeks to streamline rules to make the eviction process in Alabama more efficient.

But that could be a touchy topic, so it led to plenty of questions.

Will you please give me the process again of, with the tenant versus the landlord?

And I understand what you're doing.

Yes.

And I know that the shares usually have a back law that they're backed up and can't get to everyone.

So what is your process in which a bill is doing?

Okay.

And this is what is actually taking place currently.

But what what this bill does is the sheriff comes out is this sheriff constable.

And then we have a sub where they amended to add a special service, a process server also.

But they come out to keep the peace.

Only the landlord would be responsible for changing the locks, disposing of the property.

And as a realtor, you know, 99 out of 100 times the house has been vacated and the only debris is left there sometimes.

Yeah, but but if there was furniture there, it protects the the the sheriff and the landlord from any amenity.

Say, someone says my grandmother's $10,000 bracelet was there, you know, where is it?

Or you chipped my my living room furniture or something.

Oh, are they giving, the tenants time to move out?

Yes.

Oh.

So basically you give them time to move out and not putting your things on the sidewalk, right.

And this right now, the currently is no requirement to notify them of the disposition.

This requires that, to, to track it down all they ca to make every effort possible.

That that protection is no longer there.

But yes, that is addin that protection for the tenant.

So basically the tenant is able to hav a stone at the time to move out.

So are we saying that now the sheriff is not moving their things out for them?

That's.

And leaving that his side, while to my knowledge that's never taken place, at least in our county, it's always been the landlord.

We we have been in this business for 26 years.

It's one of the they reached out to me and I thought I knew the law, but there was no law and I was I was shocke when I actually we had a meeting with our presiding judg with the sheriff's department, and everybody was floored that there was no law, only the administrative rule and that Ministry of rule only applied to foreclosures.

Right, right.

So I'm I'm I'm glad that you brought this bill.

I support it 100%.

Thank you.

I myself do property management, and we see a lot of stuff.

Yeah, you know more about it than all of it.

So, Yeah.

And some folks, I'm not going to say that, but I'm glad that you allowe them time to get the things out.

And it's not being moved out.

It just thrown on the side walls.

Right.

Because no landlord wants to want to take possession of their property, nor d they want to deal with it right.

That bill also passed without objection and now goes to the Senate.

And we'll have more coverage of all of this House and Senate action on tomorrow's show.

Our week in Review episode so you won't want to miss that.

After the break, I'll be joined here in studio by State Representative Pebble and Warren of Tuskegee.

And after that, Jeremy Walker of the Alabam Association of Realtors will be in studio here on the show.

Stay with us.

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

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Click on the online video tab on the main page.

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Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is state representative Pebblin Warren of Tuskegee.

Representative thanks for coming on the show.

I thank you for the invite.

I always enjoy it.

Me too, me too.

And look at this point.

You are a veteran lawmaker.

We depend on your expertise on a number of issues.

I wanted to specifically to ask about two.

One is rural health care.

You are on this task force the governor's put together for, I think it's called rural health transformation.

Right.

Targeting some of the hospital that are struggling out there.

Also mental health facilities.

And there's this pot of money, right.

The state' going to get this pot of money from the feds this year.

It's $203 million maybe 500 over the whole term.

You're on this task force.

I mean, it seems like a pretty big task, if you will.

What's the conversation about?

What?

This how this money can be put to use to help save rural hospitals?

Yeah.

When you look at it, it looks big.

But what the issues that we're having in Alabama and health care, this is only a drop in the bucket for the the medical costs that we're having because we've had so many of our rural hospitals close.

I mean, they're in some areas, like I said, you have to drive 50 or 60 miles to have a baby.

So what I'm hoping is that we can we can start, I'm just not sur how far we can go with the 203, but to try to get everybody started and try to get them sustained so that once these dollars are over, we don't have to close again.

So that's that's the problem.

That kind of scares me.

You know, we get the money an we use the money in is helpful.

But when the money is gone, where are we going to be in the end?

So I think that that's something that we really got t concentrate on is sustainability of these, hospitals and areas.

And I'm not sure we have not had a meeting yet.

Mr.

Boswell is in the process of dealing with the phase and getting everything, get everything in order, but what we need to do.

And then we have the proposal that was submitted, and I'm in the process of reading that now, so I can at least kno what we're supposed to be doing.

To, comply with wha the grant says is going to do, but I do I see problems, and I think one of the biggest problems that I see in this whole operation is going to be recruiting doctors.

Doctors don't want to come to rural poor areas because they don't have the social life, and especially if they have two children.

You know, our school systems i rural areas are just not good.

Well, they don't get pai and you don't get paid as much.

And then another thing about it, in some of so many of our poor areas, the majority of their patients will be on Medicaid.

Right.

And that's not a good paying thing.

So I think that's going to be one of the biggest challenges we're going to have in trying to, remedy this rural health problem is getting the, the, the staff that does need it.

You know, we got nurse practitioners and, you know, all these other folks.

But every now and then you nee to see a true MD doctor, right?

And you have to see one.

So I think that that's going to be the biggest issue we're going to have.

I'm not sure exactly, if we're going to use the rule definition for rule because when you look at some of our, inner city hospitals, they're the ones that are serving those rural areas out there.

So we got to be mindful of that.

Even Jackson right around the corner, that's on the on the verge of closing.

That would be horrible for the entire region and entire region because people come from everywhere.

Lowndes County, Elmore, Macon.

Yeah.

But you know, s we got to make sure as we start looking at the work rule that we're actually, including everybod that needs to be in that part.

I find it interestin you use words to sustainability.

That's really important.

Like you said, one time money, if you spend it, it's gone.

But I hear a lot what you're saying about, you know, planting the seed, trying to get, you know, not just one time money, but let this kind of grow and help sustain over years, because once it's spent, it's gone.

On a related topic, I wanted to ask you about mental health.

You've been an advocate in this legislature on that for a long time, kind of back, you know before it became more popular.

Yeah.

And I do give credit to the speaker and others, for really focusing on this and bringing it to the forefront.

And Governor Ivey, obviously, and Commissioner Boswell, but it used to be not talked about so much.

But you, you done on this issue, I think for so long mental health has been mis understood, you know, in many areas, this city, you're crazy.

It's a taboo.

You know, they put you away, don't want to see mental illness is a sickness.

It's just like cancer.

You know, you'd be surprised when your brain stopped functioning.

All you look is stop functioning, you know?

So you have to be real careful with it, with it.

And I think with my experience, I have firsthand experience, with, my family, on one side of our family, it this mental health thing is hereditary.

So I have been dealing with mental health in Alabama for probably the last 30 years.

Are we getting better?

I mean, I've seen a lot more investment in funding, some changes in policy because there's never enough to go around.

But how are we getting to the right plac and what else needs to happen?

We definitely need we have the clinics.

You know, they're all driving in clinics and talking.

But what I'm seeing that we don't have, we need some beds.

You know, everybody can't be treated with a our conversation on once a week.

You need a facility that that person can stay in, be on medication, get the therapy and everything they need.

And when we close our facilities down, I think that was one of the worst things that we could do because as I was telling you earlier, I had this parent to call me and her so had been in prison for 30 years.

And while he was there, he was in the middle ward of the prison system.

He was let out on the street.

I mean, they don't know what to do with him.

Everybody's afraid of him.

They don't know how to how to try to calm him down.

And she's called me several times and she said, Miss Warren, I just need to send hi somewhere.

Where can I send him?

And that's where I truly see the need for long term care.

You know, just just over an overnight stay.

My husband was a sheriff for 20 years, and I saw him two and 3:00 in the morning getting up, having to go and get mental ill people.

They sometimes had to drive as far as to Huntsville just to get on the bus, just to get a beard, you know.

So it is something that as, a human being, we owe them more than what we are giving them.

And like I say, as you know, money is an issue.

And we when you say beds, that basically is money.

That's that, that's money.

And like I say, you're going to be depending a lot on, the, the Medicaid situation.

But as I tell my colleagues, you know, we got to really put our true priorities in order.

You know, we're building we'r building a jail for $1 billion.

I mean, we can put $1 billion in a, incarcerated institution.

What are we doing for these mental people?

Why can't we find those resources to put where it's really needed?

And that's why I. You going to.

Every time I go to the mic, I've already to give them fair warning.

I don't care what the bill is going to be.

I'm to bring up mental illness so we would know and keep the keep them very mindful of the fact that this is a priority.

We need to put top of the top of our list.

Well look we're out of time.

Thanks again for your time.

And hope you'll come back soon to share more.

Okay.

Thank you.

And I enjoy being with you today.

Thank you.

Okay.

We'll be right back.

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Visit AP tv.org/education to learn more.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Jeremy Walker, CEO of the Alabama Association of Realtors.

Jeremy thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me, Todd.

Well, we do this every year because it's at the beginning of the session.

You'll have Realtor Day at the Capitol.

I was, fortunate to participate a little bit in y'all' big day down at the Renaissance.

Of course, then everybody comes to the state House.

You fill the hallways.

So talk about Realtor Day.

What a big deal that is for your association and for all the different, groups across the state that get to gather here in the capital city.

Well, it's our favorite day of the year, and we're really grateful that we had almost 300 realtor members from across the state.

Take the time for away from their business and families to come to Montgomery and meet with policymakers.

And there's no one better to articulate the issues on what's affecting their day to day business.

But our realtor member and we're really proud of them, really gratefu that they took the time to come.

And also grateful for policymakers who took time to meet with their constituents and talk about issue that are important to realtors and property owners across Alabama.

Well, yeah, you had, you know, legislative leadership with the speaker and the minority leader.

You had Steve Flowers giving some giving some politics to the lieutenant governor.

So a real big.

I mean, they had a lot to take in and their leaders and then, of course, coming in here and and having that presence.

You see a lot of groups doing it.

But it's so importan to have that physical presence in the statehouse, especially early in session, you know, before things get too contentious.

Well, I agree, I agree.

You know our members are very attentive.

They watch the news, they watch what's going on here at the statehouse.

You know, they read our newsletter when we put out bulletins and it's important.

And I thin when you look at a lot of groups across Montgomery in the state, some of the most effective grassroots organizations have members who show up and lawmakers know that they're paying attention to what's going on here.

Well it is the legislative session.

And you all talked a little bit about your legislative agenda as part of Realtor Day.

So what's on that agenda.

Again we're having this kind of most people thin is gonna be a shortened session because we're in an election year.

But what are y'all looking at in terms of bills policies.

Where are y'all following?

So we've got a couple of, really consumer friendly bills that we're going to push this year.

Number one is dealing with unsolicited offers on property.

And a lot of property owner across Alabama are getting these notices in the mail many of which are below market.

Many of which are targeting minority communities around the communities.

And so we've got to put some guardrails on that activity.

There's another, concept called wholesaling, where you've got big private equity groups that are going in and they're making mass offers in an area, and they're not really, truly trying to own the property.

They're trying to flip it ver quickly and make a small margin.

It's like a predatory kind of very predatory, very predatory, and it's really operatin more like a financial instrument than it is really a true real estate transaction.

So we've worked with some o the best regulators in Alabama.

The Alabama Securities Commission, to try to try to regulate this conduct.

Because really, you've got people that are being taken advantage of.

So that's one.

Another issue that's growing in Alabam is something called land fraud, where these fraudsters, typically they're located overseas, have gotten really good at faking IDs, faking property records, and selling people's land and property in Alabama without them knowing about it.

I think I've heard about this.

Yeah.

And so you really hear some some horror stories about people being defrauded and their land being taken from them, or at least their land having their their title clouded.

And it's a real mess to unwind this.

And frankly, our current probate system i does not have the tools to deal with the technology that is being generated by AI and how sophisticated the fraudsters are getting.

So we're going to try and get our arms around that.

That's a complicated bill.

It's probably going to take a couple of sessions to get that one done.

But if we pass what we've we're going to put out there, it would be the strongest anti-fraud measure to protect property in the country.

So we're excited about that and looking forward to the dialog on it.

Wouldn't be the first time Alabama Realtors were leading the way in a nationwide.

I remember, some of the Covid, things that y'all were leading the way on.

I don't know if it's part of your legislative agenda, but y'all are one of several groups that are involved in this Alabamians for Legal Reform.

This group we we talked about that was I guess, formed late last year.

Talking about lawsuit abuse and things like that.

What's, you know, your involvement.

What is the goal of this group?

Well, the goal of the group is to be sure that Alabama has a fair legal environment that creates a a positive economic, environment for our state.

Right.

You know Alabama's got a lot of momentum, and we want to be sur that Alabama continues to grow, that people that live here continu to live a great quality of life.

But part of that and you've got many issues, quality health care workforce.

But being sure you have a great legal environment as well, factors into where someone may locate open a small business and there's a lot of room for improvement in our state.

Now, we haven't completely slid off the edge, yet, but bu we see a little bit of slippage.

In some of the court rulings that are coming out.

So, many stakeholders got together were one of many and really proud of everyone who's, leaning forward.

And, we formed a new grou to try to advocate towards that.

And I think people are really going to be, pleased with the discussion.

I think you'll see very reasonable proposals come from the group to try and move the needle.

I don't think you're going to see anything extreme or anything wild.

We just hired, a young man to lead the organization named Harrison Proctor.

Right Well known here in Montgomery.

Very proud of him.

I think he's a rock star.

I think he's going to do really good things.

And, has a passion for the state.

And Alabamians is going to do a great job.

We'll definitely be following that as well.

I wanted to ask you about economic conditions.

One of the things y'all's group put in the album Realtors puts out, I guess it's every month, and I've, I've come to really depend on it.

And that's this economic report.

And it's not just abou real estate and property values and things, lower interest rates and things like that.

It's really an economic snapshot of what's going on, across the state.

I've heard lawmakers say that they really appreciate this.

So where are we now?

I mean, it's been a pretty volatile couple of years.

We know in terms of the real estate market and everything.

What are the latest numbers telling you about where the state is economically in this new year?

Well, the state economically, you know, number one, we're really proud to put that out.

That's been the culmination.

We've got two great economists that work on that.

We've got a number of all of our local board are feeding in real estate data to help generate that report, and a lot of national data and state that goes into that.

So right now the conditions in Alabama are really good.

We have not had any any recession like conditions in Alabama.

Our, labor force participation has continued to go up.

We are still lagging in that area.

But our unemployment rate is extremely low.

Our GDP is is very strong.

And, we're very optimistic.

We think we're entering in a golden era of Alabama.

We think the next ten years are very, very exciting, to be an alabamian.

And people come in here and move in here.

But one of the top ten states in the country, the last 5 or 6 years since Covid of people choosing to relocate here, that's really exciting.

I heard I heard Bill Poole, our finance director, talked about that, how excitin it was to see population growth and what a big indicator that was.

I'm just thinking back, you know, decades ago, Alabama wasn't one of those states that was growing like a Florida and a Texas.

But now we're on that list.

We are, you know, and I think that's a credi to public private partnerships, having great, stable leadership, both in the executive branch, legislative branch, and working together with private industry and, and just hard working Alabamians.

Nobody's going to outwork Alabamians.

And I tell that and all of my colleague across the country, Alabamians are some of the hardest working people out there.

And I think people know that.

And so we're going to continue to benefit from that.

The market itself, we're up 4% year over year.

Which is good.

It's still a low watermark for us.

A lot of peopl have got a great interest rate, and they're not they're not moving.

And I don't blame them.

You know, I'm one of those.

So.

But we see really favorable conditions, a lot of investors coming into the state and wanting to locate here.

So we're excited about the next ten years.

Absolutely.

I really appreciate you coming on to share.

I hope you'll keep us updated.

I know it's been a long week for you with it, with all those members in town, a big event.

So congratulations on Realtor Day and we'll see you soon.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow nigh for our Week in Review episode.

That's 730 here on Alabama Public Television for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.