From our statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

The Alabama legislature has adjourned sine die.

That means this 30 day session is over.

And barring a special session called by the governor, the legislature won't convene again until next February.

The last day of session is always interesting.

As lawmakers come down to the wire to get their bills across the finish line.

Today was no exception.

There wasn't a long to do list for the legislature.

They needed to pass the education budget, then a handful of local bills and confirmed some appointments.

But the day dragged on because once again, the issue of gambling threatened to reemerge.

Remember that the gambling package fell one vote short in the Senate last week, and proponents worked all day today for one last chance to bring it back up.

Negotiations went on behind the scenes for hours about how exactly that could happen, but ultimately there was not enough support to bring it back up.

Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed said he wasn't a part of the gambling negotiations, but Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton explained what happened.

I was not involved at all in any discussions or negotiations related to a topic on gaming today, I think that that topic is always a topic of discussion.

I mean, as I've, I've said, I've been in the legislature for 14 years and it's with us every year.

It's a part of the package in terms of what came down, in terms of what people were expecting in the conference package, I think that we can look at it something differently, because our goal was to raise as much money for the state of Alabama as we possibly can.

And when we had a package.

Least $1.5 billion when the Senate sent it back, we wanted to do what was best for the state of Alabama.

So I think that we could tweak it and still get the money and make it work.

Do I anticipate that legislation will once again come from members of the Alabama Senate or House related to the topic of gaming?

I do.

The last big task of the session was to pass the Education Trust Fund budget and related bills.

A conference committee report was first taken up by the House, where education Budget Chairman Denny Garrett explained the changes from what originally passed the House more than a month ago.

So this is the education budget and what I want to mention to you, first of all, as the Senate changes from the House budget, there were they really didn't change anything substantial from the House budget.

They did not delete anything that we had submitted.

They added a few items I want to mention.

One is, the, summer, EBT program, the feeding program.

There's been some misinformation in the media about that.

If you recall, Representative Hall came during our budget presentation to propose that we do some supplemental funding for that.

At that time, we agreed that we would be looking at this to see if we could find a continuing source of this.

The Senate was able to add $10 million for this feeding program that is in the that the budget.

They also had a line item of $14.9 million to cover a potential bill that was, conditional.

It looks like it's not going to pass, but that would have provided a workers compensation fund for teachers, that bill is not going to pass.

Therefore that money would revert to the, just operating costs of the education fund.

They added $5 million to install defibrillators through in school systems across the state.

And then they added $1.5 million for school safety mapping as part of the school safety task force.

Those are significant items they did there.

The Senate later also concurred on the education budget and sent the bills to Governor Kiv's desk, Ivey said in a statement this evening that she looked forward to signing the record, spending plan into law.

I'll talk in more detail about the education budget with Senate Budget Chairman Arthur Orr later in the show.

Well, most all state House types agree that this has been a uniquely intense session from beginning to end.

It is also seen some sharp disagreement between the House and the Senate.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter took a moment of personal privilege today to thank his members from both parties for putting in the work and standing up for their co-equal body.

I just want to personally and publicly thank each and every one of you.

It doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on.

I've asked you to stay late.

You have.

I've asked you to do hard things.

You've done it.

You've made a difference for the people.

Alabama and the next generation to come.

I certainly think there's been things that's happened during this session that has changed lives.

And people in Alabama not only in Alabama, but the next generation, you know.

So I just want to personally take an opportunity to come down and say thank you.

And it doesn't matter which side of the aisle you're on or or what part of you're with.

You guys have stood with me late at night, early in the morning, and you've done hard things that I've asked you to do .

And I personally just want to say thank you for that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Senate leaders also reflected on the breadth of this session.

Reed said it was a challenge to tackle so many issues in this 30 day period.

Singleton talked about working to have a seat at the table for Democrats in this Republican supermajority.

And I think we did a really good job on the Dei bill.

We put 1819 amendments on that bill that kind of watered it down.

Monuments We put amendments on it.

So I really feel good about some of the wins that we made, even though the wins were small.

But we came out of here looking pretty good in terms of all that.

They shouted us, we're still standing.

This is a challenge session.

We had a lot of issues that we worked on.

We secured Alabama's elections, budgets.

We had issues that were associated with teachers, pay raise for teachers and state employees that were included in this, a lot of resources that were spent in different areas, like with road and bridge and topics that were of significance .

I cannot remember a session where we did more in more different topics than we did in this session, and it was all for the benefit of the people of Alabama.

It's hard work.

It takes collaboration, but we're up to the task.

And I think those things that we accomplished, were very important.

The state's top leaders today gathered for a special bill signing ceremony.

The working for Alabama package of bills all received final passage and were signed into law by Governor Ivey.

The bills are aimed at transforming the state's workforce development system.

You've heard us report on how the state's 57% workforce participation rate is among the country's lowest.

State leaders have been working on ways to address that problem by removing barriers that keep potential workers on the sidelines.

Governor Kay Ivey, Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed and Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton said the state is united to address this problem.

While we have record low unemployment, our labor force participation rate is one of the lowest in the country, and that's not low in a good way.

As I said during my state of the state address, I workforce development programs need to work better for two customers job seekers and employers.

Today they all together.

We are going to achieve this and more with our working for Alabama bill package grow in Alabama's economy and create more long lasting, high paying 21st century jobs is one of my top priorities as business owners across the state continue to tell me the number one limiting factor to growth is people.

I believe everybody has a God given ability and everybody has a passion.

We said we were going to do it and we have.

And working for Alabama and the different pieces of legislation that are a part of this package are going to be transforming Alabama moving forward, working on the growth of our workforce, participation in looking for ways to improve those that are engaged and involved in our economy, looking for ways to support young folks that are excited about workforce diplomas, and an opportunity to focus on their trade skills.

Looking at collaboration with all of our institutions of education, as well as private sector growth champions.

Moving together, working together, supporting with credits on housing credits, on helping moms make sure their babies are taken care of so they can be back in the workforce.

All of these efforts together are working for Alabama.

We've only just begun.

If you think about where we've come in Alabama in a short period of time and what we can do by working together across party aisles, from Senate to house, from the from the governor's office to the legislative body and from the public and private partnership.

If we continue to do that, the sky is only the limit.

This has been a bipartisan piece.

You know, we started out as the governor talked about all the way back with road taxes, connect Alabama doing all those things together.

And it could not work without us all working together.

And I'm glad that this governor has that vision to be inclusive, to allow those of us who didn't have a seat at the table to have that seat at the table.

And with that, we see Alabama moving forward.

I believe in this state.

I believe in what she could be.

I believe that we could be number one in the world.

We don't have to be number 39 and 40 together as we work.

We will be at the top.

Let's review those bills that are now law.

The Alabama Growth Alliance Act was sponsored by Reed and representative Randall Shedd.

The Alabama Workforce Transformation Act was sponsored by Senator Steve Livingston and Representative Danny Garrett.

The Alabama Career Pathways Act was sponsored by Senator Donnie Chesteen and Representative Kelvin Lawrence.

The child care tax credit was sponsored by Senator Garland Gudger and Representative Anthony Daniels.

The housing tax credit was sponsored by Senator Chris Elliott and Representative Cynthia Allman.

The Innovation District Act was sponsored by Senator Bobby Singleton and Representative James Lomax, and the Innovation District Act.

Constitutional amendment was sponsored by Senator Dan Roberts and Representative Neil Rafferty , and that was today in the Alabama Legislature.

We will, of course, have more in-depth coverage on the weekend show.

Coming up next, I'll sit down with Senate Education Budget Chairman Arthur or always a key lawmaker, and especially this session, we'll be right back.

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

The USS Alabama is a World War II era battleship that first served in the Atlantic Theater, but was better known for helping to take Japanese held islands in the Pacific between 1943 and 1945.

During the battle of the Philippine Sea.

The Alabama State of the Art radar alerted the fleet to incoming aircraft, providing the Americans enough time to scramble fighters and decimate the attacking force.

Later, the Alabama served during the Battle of Leyte Gulf and anchored in Tokyo Bay to unload Allied occupation forces.

In 1964, the state of Alabama took possession of the battleship Alabama.

Schoolchildren raised $100,000 in nickels and dimes to help bring the ship to mobile and create battleship memorial Park.

The park features the Alabama, the World War II era submarine USS drum, and an American military aircraft collection battleship memorial Park is one of the state's most visited attractions.

You're watching Alabama Public Television .

From our statehouse studio in Montgomery.

And welcome to Capital Journal.

The Alabama Legislature has adjourned sine die.

That means this 30 day session is over.

And barring a special session called by the governor, the legislature won't convene again until next February.

The last day of session is always interesting, as lawmakers come down to the wire to get their bills across the finish line.

Today was no exception.

There wasn't a long to do list for the legislature.

They needed to pass the education budget.

Then a handful of local bills and confirm some appointments.

But the day dragged on because, once again, the issue of gambling threatened to reemerge.

Remember that the gambling package fell one vote short in the Senate last week, and proponents worked all day today for one last chance to bring it back up.

Negotiations went on behind the scenes for hours about how exactly that could happen, but ultimately there was not enough support to bring it back up.

Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed said he wasn't a part of the gambling negotiations, but Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton explained what happened.

I was not involved at all in any discussions or negotiations related to a topic on gaming today, I think that that topic is always a topic of discussion.

I mean, as I've I've said, I've been in the legislature for 14 years.

Years.

And it's with us every year.

It's a part of the.

From our statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

The Alabama legislature has adjourned sine die.

That means this 30 day session is over and barring a special session called by the governor, the legislature won't convene again until next February.

The last day of session is always interesting, as lawmakers come down to the wire to get their bills across the finish line.

Today was no exception.

There wasn't a long to do list for the legislature.

They needed to pass the education budget, then a handful of local bills and confirmed some appointments.

But the day dragged on because once again, the issue of gambling threatened to reemerge.

Remember that the gambling package fell one vote short in the Senate last week, and proponents worked all day today for one last chance to bring it back up.

Negotiations went on behind the scenes for hours about how exactly .

From our statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

The Alabama legislature has adjourned sine die.

That means this 30 day session is over.

And barring a special session called by the governor, the legislature won't convene again until next February.

The last day of session is always interesting as lawmakers come down to the wire to get their bills across the finish line.

Today was no exception.

There wasn't a long to do list for the legislature.

They needed to pass the education budget, then a handful of local bills and confirm some appointments.

But the day dragged on because once again, the issue of gambling threatened to reemerge.

Remember that the gambling package fell one vote short in the Senate last week, and proponents worked all day today for one last chance to bring it back up.

Negotiations went on behind the scenes for hours about how exactly that could happen, but ultimately there was not enough support to bring it back up.

Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed said he wasn't a part of the gambling negotiations, but Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton explained what happened.

I was not involved at all in any discussions or negotiations related to a topic on gaming today, I think that that topic is always a topic of discussion.

I mean, as I've I've said, I've been in the legislature for 14 years and it's with us every year.

It's a part of the package in terms of what came down, in terms of what people were expecting in the conference package, I think that we can look at it something differently, because our goal was to raise as much money for the state of Alabama as we possibly can.

And when we had a package that came from the House that was at least $1.5 billion when the Senate sent it back down, was about 400 million, we came out of conference with a bill that was about 750 million.

We wanted to do what was best for the state of Alabama.

So I think that we can tweak it and still get the money and make it work.

Do I anticipate that legislation will once again come from members of the Alabama Senate or House related to the topic of gaming?

I do.

The last big task of the session was to pass the Education Trust Fund budget and related bills.

A conference committee report was first taken up by the House, where Education Budget Chairman Denny Garrett explained the changes from what originally passed the House more than a month ago.

So this is the education budget.

And what I want to mention to you, first of all, is the Senate changes from the House budget there were they really didn't change anything substantial from the House budget.

They did not delete anything that we had submitted.

They added a few items.

I want to mention.

One is, the, summer, ate program, the feeding program.

There's been some misinformation in the media about that.

If you recall, Representative Hall came during our budget presentation to propose that we do some supplemental funding for that.

At that time, we agreed that we would be looking at this to see if we could find a continuing source of this.

The Senate was able to add $10 million for this feeding program that is in that they have that the budget.

They also had a line item of $14.9 million to cover a potential bill that was, conditional.

It looks like it's not going to pass, but that would have provided a worker's compensation fund for teachers, that bill is not going to pass.

Therefore that money would revert to the, just operating costs of the education fund that had $5 million to install defibrillators through in school systems across the state.

And then they added $1.5 million for school safety mapping as part of the school safety task force.

Those are significant items they did there.

The Senate later also concurred on the education budget and sent the bills to Governor Kay Ivey desk, Ivey said in a statement this evening that she looked forward to signing the record spending plan into law.

I'll talk in more detail about the education budget with Senate Budget Chairman Arthur Orr later in the show.

Well, most all state House types agree that this has been a uniquely intense session from beginning to end.

It is also seen some sharp disagreements between the House and the Senate.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter took a moment of personal privilege today to thank his members from both parties for putting in the work and standing up for their co-equal body.

I just want to personally and publicly thank each and every one of you.

It doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on.

I've asked you to stay late.

You have.

I've asked you to do hard things.

You've done it.

You've made a difference for the people of Alabama and the next generation to come.

I certainly think there's been things that's happened during this session that has changed lives and people in Alabama, not only in Alabama, but the next generation.

You know, I just want to personally take an opportunity to come down and say thank you.

And it doesn't matter which side of the aisle you're on or or what part of you're with.

You guys have stood with me late at night, early in the morning, and you've done hard things that I've asked you to do .

And I personally just want to say thank you for that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Senate leaders also reflected on the breadth of this session.

Reed said it was a challenge to tackle so many issues in this 30 day period.

Singleton talked about working to have a seat at the table for Democrats in this Republican supermajority.

And I think we did a really good job on the Dei bill.

We put 1819 amendments on that bill that kind of watered it down monuments.

We put amendments on it.

So I really feel good about some of the wins that we made.

Even though the wins were small.

But we came out of here looking pretty good in terms of all that.

They shouted at us, we're still standing this is a challenging session.

We had a lot of issues that we worked on.

We secured Alabama's elections budgets.

We had issues that were associated with teachers, pay raise for teachers and state employees that were included in this, a lot of resources that were spent in different areas, like with road and bridge and topics that were of significance.

I cannot remember a session where we did more in more different topics than we did in this session, and it was all for the benefit of the people of Alabama.

It's hard work.

It takes collaboration, but we're up to the task.

And I think those things that we accomplished, were very important.

The state's top leaders today gathered for a special bill signing ceremony, the working for Alabama package of bills all received final passage and were signed into law by Governor Ivey.

The bills are aimed at transforming the state's workforce development system.

You've heard us report on how the state's 57% workforce participation rate is among the country's lowest.

State leaders have been working on ways to address that problem by removing barriers that keep potential workers on the sidelines, governor Kay Ivey, Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed and Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton said the state is united to address this problem.

While we have record low unemployment, our labor force participation rate is one of the lowest in the country, and that's not low in a good way.

As I said during my state of the state address, I workforce development programs need to work better for two customers as job seekers and employers.

Today they all together.

We are going to achieve this and more with our working for Alabama bill package grow in Alabama's economy and create more long lasting, high paying 21st century jobs is one of my top priorities.

Business owners across the state continue to tell me the number one limiting factor to growth is people.

I believe everybody has a God given ability and everybody has a passion.

We said we were going to do it and we have.

And working for Alabama and the different pieces of legislation that are a part of this package are going to be transforming Alabama, moving forward, working on the growth of our workforce participation, looking for ways to improve those that are engaged and involved in our economy, looking for ways to support young folks that are excited about workforce diplomas, and an opportunity to focus on their trade skills.

Looking at collaboration with all of our institutions of education as well as private sector growth champions, moving together, working together, supporting with credits on housing credits on helping moms make sure their babies are taken care of so they can be back in the workforce.

All of these efforts together are working for Alabama.

We've only just begun.

If you think about where we've come in Alabama in a short period of time and what we can do by working together across party aisles, from Senate to House, from the from the governor's office to the legislative body and from the public and private partnership.

If we continue to do that, the sky is only the limit.

This has been a bipartisan piece.

You know, we started out as the governor talked about all the way back with road taxes, connect Alabama to doing all those things together.

And it could not work without us all working together.

And I'm glad that this governor has that vision to be inclusive, to allow those of us who didn't have a seat at the table to have that seat at the table.

And with that, we see Alabama moving forward.

I believe in this state.

I believe in what she could be.

I believe that we could be number one in the world.

We don't have to be number 39, 40 together as we work, we will be at the top.

Let's review those bills that are now law.

The Alabama Growth Alliance Act was sponsored by Reed and Representative Randall Sheet.

The Alabama Workforce Transformation Act was sponsored by Senator Steve Livingston and Representative Danny Garrett.

The Alabama Career Pathways Act was sponsored by Senator Donnie Chesteen and Representative Kelvin Lawrence.

The child care tax credit was sponsored by Senator Garland Gudger and Representative Anthony Daniels.

The housing tax credit was sponsored by Senator Chris Elliott and Representative Cynthia Allman.

The Innovation District Act was sponsored by Senator Bobby Singleton and Representative James Lomax, and the Innovation District Act.

Constitutional amendment was sponsored by Senator Dan Roberts and Representative Neal Rafferty, and that was today in the Alabama Legislature.

We will, of course, have more in-depth coverage on the weekend show coming up next, I'll sit down with Senate Education Budget Chairman Arthur or always a key lawmaker, and especially this session.

We'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal Online anytime at Alabama Public Television's website at opb.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.

The USS Alabama is a World War II era battleship that first served in the Atlantic theater, but was better known for helping to take Japanese held islands in the Pacific between 1943 and 1945.

During the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

The Alabama state of the Art radar alerted the fleet to incoming aircraft, providing the Americans enough time to scramble fighters and decimate the attacking force.

Later, the Alabama served during the Battle of Leyte Gulf and anchored in Tokyo Bay to unload Allied occupation forces.

In 1964, the state of Alabama took possession of the battleship Alabama.

Schoolchildren raised $100,000 in nickels and dimes to help bring the ship to mobile and create battleship memorial Park.

The park features the Alabama, the World War II era submarine USS drum, and an American military aircraft collection.

Battleship memorial Park is one of the state's most visited attractions.

You're watching Alabama Public Television.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is state Senator Arthur Orr from Decatur.

Senator, thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you.

Todd, good to be with you.

I should also say chairman of the Senate Education Budget Committee.

And that's really what I wanted to talk about, because this budget is now three new as of today.

And so a lot of work goes into this.

And, you know, I know it started in the house, but a lot of work in the Senate as well.

Are you pleased with where you ended up in terms of the Education Trust Fund?

I know there's so many different pots of money and there are caps and things like that.

Or are you pleased with where we ended up?

I am, and a lot of that's attributable to my house counterpart, Representative Danny Garrett, who's the House chairman, and we work well together and share ideas.

Some we don't agree, sometimes we don't agree.

But a lot of times we do and certainly have a vision for our state as far as where we're going, I know late in the process, in the Senate and your committee, y'all added, it's only $10 million or so, but it's for this summer feeding program for children who are, you know, out of school making sure they have the resources to eat, drawing down some considerable federal money.

But we just need to basically pay the admin costs.

Were you pleased to see that?

I mean, I know you added it was that important.

I was and, you know, had a lot of advocacy from senators wanting that in there.

And with for only $10 million, we'll draw down in, I think, close to $100 million to help these children who, you know, depend on the school meal program during the school year.

But when that's not happening, they have very little alternative.

And so we were able to get that done.

So it's a good thing.

Maybe offer some realism about the budget because it is a record budget.

Again, you know, 9.3 billion.

And on top of that, you know, supplemental money and things like that.

But you talked about inflation things, you know, the what the dollar speaks for now versus years ago.

And kind of a warning to your colleagues about, look, you know, the economy might not always be this good.

We need to save for the future.

And just like a bit of realism in the budgeting process, can you kind of speak to that?

Well, as you know, we're not the federal government and we can't just print more money to spend on our desires and wants.

We the money has to come from somewhere and so when we give tax credits or tax exemptions or whatever it comes from literally the, the education of our children here in Alabama and being a very, very low tax state already.

We need to make wise decisions.

And I think sometimes legislators can get carried away with cutting or giving exemptions, etc.

in certain cases.

And, you know, we just need to be careful.

No one knows the economy.

I certainly, you know, the future.

I certainly don't.

But if we overestimate the economy's growth and the budget's growth, I think we'll regret some of these decisions.

And I just feel like it's my duty to be that warning cry that to not get carried away.

Well, yeah.

Because you know, we're talking about tax credits.

I mean, there were a bunch of them this year.

There were a bunch really kind of every year.

And they're well intentioned.

Right.

It's always a good idea, everybody likes low taxes, I mean everybody.

And getting credit for this and that.

But I heard it described as like death by a thousand tax credits.

And everything I heard about this kind of come to Jesus meeting about, look, guys, we can't do everything thing, you know, through.

Why do you think that is?

Why do you think tax credits are the way lawmakers have chosen to go about enacting policies that they want?

Is that just sort of the easy way?

I think some of it's pushed by special interests.

Again, well-intentioned a lot of times helped the economy grow, things like that.

You know, I'd like to see tax cuts for the consumers, for the grassroots type people.

But we have got to be very careful.

We cannot look at other states and say, well, they're cutting taxes.

They're cutting taxes.

Again, when we are the lowest tax state for state and local revenue, you in the country and we sometimes flit around between 49 and 50.

But generally we're at the bottom of what we're bringing in.

And that's not a bad thing.

But we need to be careful as we cut taxes or do exemptions and credits, etc.

Last thing on the education budget.

I know that y'all are talking about looking at reforms on really how we budget, period.

Yes, basically kind of bringing it into the 21st century.

Other states that, like Tennessee have done that, is that something you all are going to be studying over the off season?

Yes.

We'll have our first meeting in two weeks, I think, and be kicking that off and working with the two appropriation committees in that regard, but also so interested parties in the education community, universities, of course, the governor's office.

So be a broad kind of group.

But we need to look at it.

And we right now, very simply put, divide the money based on student census or headcount, and it costs a lot more to educate a special needs child.

It costs a lot more to educate an English language learner or, you know, categories like that.

So other states have moved from the foundation type program to a more student based who is does it take more resources to educate as opposed to just a traditional student?

But as has been said before, our my goal is first, do no harm.

You know, let's let's not upset the apple cart.

You know, if we don't have to and look at us a smooth transition period if Out of will path thing.

Right.

So, you know, is we move around in our districts, we hear Firmly what's the hard and fast rules?

But you and.

I had to give our principals some support and the training that they received from the legislation that passed last year should be very helpful.

And again, the assistant principals funding many, many more scores and scores, more assistant principals across the state should bring in support to help our principals and help them deal with these issues.

They have.

Switching gears, I want to talk about Open Records Act.

You've been at this for a while trying to update Alabama's Open Records Act.

It's no secret that we have historically had one of the weakest, you know, public records laws in the country.

So you've been working at this for a while, have finally passed the bill.

It's been signed by the governor.

Talk about what people can expect now that the rules are different in terms of how agencies have to respond to public information requests, right.

Well, you know, we wouldn't be here congratulating ourselves if it weren't for my house counterpart with this bill.

Representative Cynthia Allman from Tuscaloosa and also the Press Association, Governmental Affairs, liaison, Brad English, they did a tremendous job in helping get this legislation passed.

It's important for our state because right now you can have a revolving door to eternity as to when a governmental entity needs to comply and give up records.

The only remedy is to go to the court system and that's, of course, very expensive to litigate this legislation often brings timetables to that and says, you know, that a request, it has to be acknowledged by the governmental entity.

They weren't doing that.

A lot of times you don't know if they received the request and then it begins a series of timetables for responding with the records or explaining why it's not they're not available or the request is overly burdensome or, you know, so it's a good step forward.

It's not the end all be all, but it is a significant step for us to begin laying some guardrails and timetables for our open records.

Yeah.

And I saw, you know, part of this threading the needle is that you talk about overburdensome.

Right.

You can't have a law that just requires every agency meaning like colleges, schools, like everybody to just be constantly feeding requests and constantly, you know, so you've got to balance that out, you know, in a reasonable way.

So how did y'all do that?

How did y'all figure out that, you know, threading that needle?

Well, you you have whole companies that are dedicated to getting governmental information, repackaging it, and then selling it on the internet.

So then they want voluminous amounts of records so they can monetize it or profit on it, you've got to be careful with those kind of requests.

But, you know, again, this is not a perfect bill, but we needed some clarity on those timelines as far as if the governmental entity does not respond by a certain time, you know, then they'll be out of bounds.

And we'll, you know, you can go to court and you can as a have a judge enforce it.

And, you know, we need to raise the transparency that we have here in the state.

And, you know, I think we'll keep trying to do that.

But as you mentioned, Todd, it's a very complicated issue.

And I'm just glad we got this first step going.

Well.

Yeah.

And we're grateful because just from the news perspective, I've been there.

I've I've filed public information requests that took six months to get a no back.

You know, and it's really frustrating.

So it's just it's great to see a little bit of progress and a step toward more transparency.

So congratulations on that.

We're out of time.

But, look, it's been a heck of a session, and I guess we're, you know, to the finish line.

But I guess we'll see you next year.

Thank you.

Todd.

Good to be with you.

We'll be right back.

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That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

Make sure to tune in tomorrow night for Capitol Journal's Week in Review .

There's a lot to cover, so you won't want to miss it.

That's Friday at 730 and Sunday at noon here on Alabama Public Television.

For our Capital Journal team I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time