Tonight on Capitol Journals.

The commission overseeing Alabama public Television.

Votes to remain with PB after hearing from the public.

We'll explain.

Randy Scott takes us to Thomasville, where local leaders are trying to revive a rural hospital there.

And Alex Angle report from Washington on how Alabama's delegation vote on releasing the Epstein files.

Joining us in studio this week, sunny Brownsville, from the Alabama Association of County Commissioners, talks about the online sales tax.

Kim Lawkis from Feeding Alabama discusses the impact the government shutdown had on food banks.

And APT Executive Director Wayne Reed explains that PBS funding issue in detail.

It's all next on Capitol Journal.

From our statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capitol Journal.

Leading the news this week is well, Alabama public Television.

This week, the Alabama Educational Television Commission that's the body that oversees APD met.

To hear more details about one commissioner's proposal to break a contract with PBS and drop PBS programing.

Executive Director Wayne Reid offered a detail breakdown of the financial implications of such a move, which were pretty dire given the resulting drop in viewership.

About 100 citizens showed up at the meeting to voice their concerns and thousands more have written, emailed and calle to offer their concerns as well.

And Governor Kay Ive wrote the commission on Monday, asking them not to move forward with such a plan without careful consideration and legislative involvement.

In the end, the Commission voted without dissent to continue the PBS contract and then form a committee to study APT's future.

Given the federal funding cuts.

Also a motion to give PBS a 180 day notice of dropping their programing died because it did not receive a second.

Our news partners at Whitney Birmingham were there, and Rapporti reporter Amy Hybels has that story.

Of their children that I kno now from story time that I know watch the shows on public television and they should have access to that.

What's really important to me is that it's free programing for children without advertisements.

Listen to the public whe it comes to public television.

After all, that's in the very name of the the the Valley Public Television.

So you should listen to us.

Who should pay for it?

I think we all should when it comes to paying the bills.

Alabama Public Television executive director Wayne Reed provided the commissioners with a cost comparison.

If PBS programing were to be replaced, the annual dues to PBS right now are $2.2 million versus a cost projection of $3.5 million for replacement programing.

Music licensing fees and digital changes.

We asked Commission Chairman Ferris Stephens why he was a yes vote today for sticking with PBS.

This point.

It didn't look like the, finances.

You know, it was logical that, you know, to try to separate ourselves.

Although I d continue to want more options.

Another consideration.

The attorney General's offic determined that Alabama Public Television does not have the right to terminate its agreement because their federal funding was removed.

They still have to provide PBS with a 180 day notice.

The commissioners also voted to have a executive director, Wayne Reed, put together a committee after receiving a letter from Governor Ivey asking them to surve the need for a public television plan in Alabama.

It really bring the governor in the group and go, what is the future of Alabama public television?

If we continue what we're doing with PBS, with sports, with everything, I think everything is on the table to look at what we would do.

I think tracking forward for the next several years.

And thank you again to our friends at W IAT for that report.

And thank you to everyone who has reached out during this situation.

Your calls, your emails have been appreciated, and I'll talk in more detail on this issue with Wayne Reed later in the show.

Governor Kay Ivey has removed all of the members of the Alabama motor Sports International Hall of Fame Commission.

This comes after a state audit found dozens of violations in governance, and discovered a former employee allegedly stole more than $200,000.

The dismissals include board chairman and former state senator Gerald Dial, who has been connected to the museum for more than four decades.

The allegations includ mishandling of donated vehicles like a 2001 Pontia Firebird, a 1969 Dodge Charger and a 1968 Camaro convertible pace car.

Executive Director Adam Stock has resigned from his position, and his wife resigned as the organization's bookkeeper.

The Alabama Public Library Service Board has approved a new rule change that will remove certain books from children's and teens sections.

The policy, specifically bans books related to gender ideology.

The board was split on the decision.

Supporters say it protects Alabama children, while opponents argue it oversteps by dictating what material is appropriate.

The change won't take effect until spring 2026 at the earliest, and another development on legislative redistricting this week.

A new map ordered by a federal judge was released showing updated line for Senate Districts 25 and 26.

Here in the River region, Judg Anna Monaco ordered the new map after finding that the line drawn by the legislature in 2021 improperly packed black voters into Senate District 26.

Here's that map.

That Senate 26 district is held by Stat Senator Kirk Hatcher, a Democrat who will now represen large portions of Elmore County.

District 25, held by Republican State Senator Will Barfoot, loses all of its Elmore County territory but picks up sections of West Montgomery while continuing to stretch dow all the way to Crenshaw County.

These are the districts that will be on the ballot in 2026 unless a court intervenes.

And Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has said his office is looking at an appeal.

The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees recently approved the creation of a new School of leadership and policy at UVA, a move officials say will expand the university's role in preparing futur civic leaders and policy makers.

The school will offer a Bachelor of Arts in public polic and a master of Public Policy.

Beginning in fall 2027, and there are plans to add more degrees and certificates in the future.

U.S.

Senator Katie Britt, a 2004 U graduate, said the new program is, quote, a bold step to help young leaders become future policymakers and public servants.

Turning to Washington, where Congress overwhelmingly voted to release the Epstein files after President Trump reversed his decision on the matter.

Also, the Hous unanimously repealed a provision that would allow Senator Tommy Tuberville and others to sue the government over investigator obtaining their phone records.

Alex Angle reports from Capitol Hill recapping this week in Congres and how the Alabama delegation was involved.

Republicans and Democrats were united this week in releasing the files related to the lat sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

All of Alabama's congressional delegation supported the release.

The House passed the measur Tuesday, and just hours later, so did the Senate.

We want to make sure that there is justice for these individuals and that there is absolute accountability.

The vote came after President Donald Trump endorsed the bill, despite railing against it for months.

Some survivors of Epstein joined the bill's sponsors in front of the Capitol Tuesda to urge action on the measure.

I was a child.

He stole a lot from me.

Trump signed the bill Wednesday.

The legislation compels the Department of Justice to release all information related to Epstein within 30 days.

Congressman Dale strong told me on Tuesday he's been saying for months to release the files.

This is what he said back in July.

Release the Epstein files.

He was a threat.

He was a sick individual.

But I believe the American people deserve to know.

Also this week, the Hous unanimously repealed a provision that was tucked inside the funding bill that reopen the government.

It allows senators like Tommy Tuberville to sue the government for searching their phone records without their knowledge.

The senators can su for $500,000 for each violation.

Probably the most self-centered, self-serving piece of language that I have ever seen in any piece of legislation.

The provision is retroactive to 2022, which would include the investigation into the January 6th Capitol riot.

Tuberville and seven other GOP senators data was seized as part of that investigation.

Tuberville told me he plans to sue.

But on Thursday, he posted on social media that his attention is on those who were leading the January 6th investigation.

His post reads, quote, I am focused on getting Judge Boasberg impeached and getting Jack Smith disbarred and thrown in prison.

End quote.

It's unclear if the Senate will also vot on stripping away the provision.

Reporting on Capitol Hill, Alex Engle, Capitol Journal.

Thank you Alex.

More than a year ago, Thomasville Regional Medical Center closed its doors after having just opened in 2020.

It was the latest casualty in the trend of financial difficulties for rural hospitals.

But local leaders are now engaged in efforts to reopen the hospital and provide that area's citizens with critical care.

Capita journal's Randy Scott reports.

This ambulance is on an emergency run in Lowndes County, Alabama, near the Black Belt region.

Whatever the emergency is, it would take a road trip to get there.

Mainly due to a shortage of hospitals and medical facilities in this are equipped to handle emergencies.

Some, such as the Thomasville Regional Medical Center, are closed.

Every time I pass this facility.

And so what a waste.

State Representative Thoma Jackson represents Thomasville.

He and others living here were pleased to get their new hospital until it had to close a short time after opening its doors.

Jackson and many others in this area are again without close health care.

It's scary.

It's something happened to me.

If I can ask them where I go.

We do have ambulance service now.

We didn't have any service at the time, but sometimes it takes them 2 minutes to get to where you are.

The representativ has had to travel 20 to 25 miles for medical care and further if the situation needs surgery.

While this discussion continues, it leaves facilities like the Thomasville Medical Center in limbo.

I wish that people will sto playing politics and financials will flow in from from a national level, state level and local level where we can get partnership with local, with a financial unit, a facility that will bring this hospital back to life.

Sometimes barriers to health care aren't walls at all.

The roads.

With the closing of hospitals around Alabama, many people had to find themselves traveling to get the health care they need.

And that too, causing hospitals.

You can see why many say this is a growing emergency for the state.

Still, Da Day is the mayor of Thomasville and says getting this hospital reopened is a top priority.

The latest move to do that is getting people talking about ideas to make that happen.

We didn't just plan to build a knock in the box emergency care center.

We wanted it to be a facility that we could attract surgery and so specialty surgery.

Mayor day says a frequent issue in those talks deal with finances and reimbursements for hospital visits and services to help keep its doors open.

Why not extend the credit, at least for a year or more, with some minor changes?

If they want to make some minor changes, so that we can begin opening up the real conversation that needs to be had.

He adds those talks have generated optimism.

There has been some effort over the last couple of years.

Republican and Democrat, I would say bipartisan, looking at that very heavily about what we could do.

And not only does this facility help heal people.

It's an economic engine for this area, providing people with jobs and helping to attract other businesse to this region to operate here.

The wage rate, reimbursement rate for CMS center for Medicaid Services is the lowest.

Now, I do know that they're working on a fix for that.

In Montgomery, Randy Scott, Capital Journal.

Thank you, Randy.

And we'll be right back with Wayne Reed.

You won't want to miss that.

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 on Capital Journal's Facebook page.

The USS Alabama is a World War Two 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 American enough time to scramble fighters and decimate the attacking force.

Later, the Alabama serve during the Battle of Lady Gulf and anchored in Tokyo Bay t unload Allied occupation forces.

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

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

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

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Wayne Reid, executive director of Alabama Public Television.

Boss thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me.

Had been a little bit of a crazy week.

I've been a bit a bit of a week, hasn't it?

Well, that's the thing.

We've, That's why I wanted to have you on.

The commission, the Alabama Educational Television Commission me this week, made some decisions.

I think people were reassured that our public television is keeping with the contract with PBS.

And I think it was a good outcome.

But this has been a long development.

I was hoping that you could share with our viewers, you know, kind of start from the beginning.

Where did this conversatio start and why are we even here?

Well, I was approached by a few commissioners back in October to investigate.

How quickly could we get out of, PBS content and switch over to solely independent and not have any affiliation with PBS?

Could we do that in a couple of months?

If we do that in 90 days, back in October.

And so I started looking at it, just simply saying, I think this could be very difficult.

There's a lot of things were tied into PBS, I think that came out in the meeting, but really kind of got that tha started as I was looking at it.

And then, about a week and a half later, we had our, commission meeting.

And right before that meeting I was reminded by our CFO that we have our PBS due bill coming due at the end of November.

So that means we if it pays PBS for the 90% of the programing that airs on AP takes a great big chunk.

I mean, I wouldn't even say it's all this programing, it's infrastructure, it's our music rights.

It's a ton of stuff that come within that PBS membership.

So, that that first payment was coming due at the end of the November and not knowing the direction that the commission was kind of leading.

I brought up in the meeting t the commissioner, the chairman.

I said, hey, we need to know if we need to pay this PBS bill at the end of November if we're really going to proceed with you guys want to head this direction, this directio the Commission wants to had to to separate from PBS.

I recommend not paying it.

And one negotiate with PBS on the back end, but I it's better to not give them the money and ask for it back.

So I said, which do you want me to do?

You want to pay the bill or not?

And that's when it kind of came out.

From that conversation, it came out in the commission meeting and then, from there, they voted to have a meeting that we had this last Tuesday to follow up with that and that let me do further investigation as to what it would cost, what were the hard costs, so that everybody on the commission could see what that would look like?

Sure.

But I think what you just sai is an important clarification, because I've been getting all kinds of questions about this, like, why would I do this?

It's not like we concocted this as a staff.

No, but there's a commission that oversees it was appointed by the governor to oversee public television, and it came from a couple of members.

Yeah, a couple of members of that commission.

Had asked me to to take a look at this.

They already, said that there was a strong feeling within the commission that this is the direction maybe we should be heading.

And so hey, let's let's look at this.

And really, how fast could we could potentially do it, make that separation.

So that's.

Yeah, I really didn' come from the staff didn't come or anything like that.

It really came from an investigation.

And it's.

I'm asking from the commission.

Well, what that resulted in because at the meeting and I was there, and I didn't say anything, but I was taking in all of your presentation which was detailed and thorough, about all the financial reasons why it's a bad idea or just it would just be very difficult for apt to even exist without that partnership with PBS.

But even more importantly, well, first of all, that was that was very thorough.

But you also had the governor step in with her letter the day before saying, hold your horses.

You know, before you even consider something like this, you need to have very, you know, documented and, researched, you know, a plan, basically.

I think that made a lot of difference.

I think it did, too.

And I was really appreciative that the governor did step in and say that, and I think she was very valid.

Do we need to listen?

This is taxpayers money and then its members money.

These are all citizens of Alabama that contribute to make Alabama public television what it is.

And I feel lik they should have a voice in that and should be able to express themselves, which they definitely did.

I know if they're anything like us, I know they were probabl inundated with the snap stuff, but as soon as that was over, we were inundated with calls and emails and everything coming in.

And if the governor's office.

So I think any kind of pressure like we did in May been, what triggere the statement on Monday morning.

But I think she gave us a clear direction and path ahead.

The commission voted on Tuesday for me to form a committee, of experts on on variety field, but also bring in citizen as well to sit down and look at, the direction that we need to head and the viability of the best financial plan.

And I think that's the first place we need to start.

I mean, I just recognizing from what I had to put together for this last meeting, the value we get from PBS and the quality of programing that we get from PBS.

We can't come close to that.

And what we would have to pay right to develop it or buy it anywhere else.

And, and the infrastructure and the licensing fees.

I mean, the great thing about that public broadcasting syste and what they've been able to do for the music licensing fee, I talked about how much we pay now which is included in our dues.

I don't know exactly how much that is in the dues, but, we're going to be paying close to $900,000 just for apt, because we have to negotiate as an individual station, as does that as a national thing.

Yeah, yeah.

And those music license fees cover the radio because that was done by CPB.

It's a longer term contract that's already there.

So it's thousands and thousands of stations that are negotiating for these music rights, which makes it a whole lot cheaper than on an individual station.

Yeah.

And I made the, comparison like every all these college football fans the other day or a couple of weeks ago were furious when YouTube TV and Disney couldn't reach an agreement.

And so, so people couldn't watch SEC football, right?

Right.

Well, that would essentially be what would happen if some, you know suddenly PBS was in AP weren't.

And, you know, for the streaming services which I think is like more than almost 50% of our audience.

Yeah, I mean, people are doing the streaming, the MVP mvpd the prices.

People are doing YouTube TV and Hul with live and sling with live.

It's really taken over and it's it's close to 50% of the marketplace now.

Yeah.

And the way you look at the way we do TV now and broadcast, we talk about multi-platform because we're putting stuff on social media.

We do reels, and people consume media so differently now than they did before.

And, and, you know, for us to stay up and to keep current with what's going on, streaming, it plays a huge, huge role.

And we've got to make sure we stay on there.

If we lost that, we would lose half of our audience availability in the state of Alabama.

And that's just excuse me, it's too big of a risk.

Sure.

Well, another thing, you know folks showed up to the meeting.

There were some, you know, kind of a little demonstration outside of saw, like a Cookie Monster and things like that.

But what I really appreciated was there was an opportunity during the meeting for those that showed up to talk and to share their stories.

The reason I thought it was so meaningful is, you know, you're hearing from our audience, our audience about their, viewership, their experience with PBS and APT.

Yeah.

The shows that they depend on I mean so much about PBS kids.

You had your parents have children saying, we depend on this, right?

You had, folks saying, look, I've been an apt viewer for 50 years and all this and I, you know, that was to me and I'm relatively new to this.

That was really something.

So I think that also made a bi difference with the commission, because that was demonstrated and how they voted.

Right, because there was not a dissenting vote on moving forward with that plan.

Yeah.

I you know, the guy there was a guy there who sai he moved in 1955 to have a Bama, I think it was in Gadsden and started watching apt.

Then it said that you can probably the longest viewer, there was a lady there who I think taken off work, an autistic child.

I don't know if there's a dry eye in that room.

By the time she got done about how big Daniel Tiger was in his routine, it was really super thankful that, Senator, well, there was Sue Smitherma and Coleman Madison right there.

Both from that Birmingham area, talking about how important it was for their districts.

You know we had people come from all over and it was really great to hear, you know, the stories.

And I, you know, the education was really the big thing.

There was a couple educators there talking about there's a difference between cartoons and the difference between what PBS puts out in their quote unquote cartoons, their educational.

They're designed to teach kids how to be prepared for pre-K.

When you look at Disney and you look at Nickelodeon and any of those other things, those are all about marketing products to kids, right?

And and and that's entertainment.

That's not an entertainment.

That's not education.

And that's the big difference in what PBS has to offer and what we can do through PBS to repeat that educate.

Plus, it's free, it's over the air.

And there's a lot of places here in Alabam where you can't get streaming.

There's the high speeds coming.

I know the governors did a fabulous job of, you know, getting that out to the state and we're getting there, but they're still area that they can only pick up stuff over the air.

And so for us to be able to offer that out to the kids and the families that are ou there, I think is is wonderful.

So, yeah, one and that's another thing because, and it it struck me that I think it was like 20% of the audience is still you know, it's it's broadcast.

Yeah.

Meaning antennas.

Yeah.

Right.

Not cable, not any.

That's it's that broadcast.

That number has gone up because when I got here, when I got to Alabama in 2011, it was like 7%.

It had been shrinking.

And now with streaming and internet over, the broadcast has picked back up.

Yeah.

So I think I think the commission learned a lot.

I think we all learned a lot.

And what I also heard was a need for reassurance that that let's reassure our members and our viewers that we're going to be here.

But also there is a funding challenge, right.

And I heard some commitmen from those in attendance saying, hey, we'll we'll be there for you as long as we know that you're going to be around, right.

We'll be there as members will be there, as you know, funders of PBS.

So talk about that.

Will there be efforts to, you know, have membership drives and thing like that to make up that there?

Because there is that delta o funding since the recession cut.

So yes, we we will be reaching out.

We will ask people for for donations.

And, and I feel certain the people out there respond, but I understand that they need that reassurance.

And right now we are going to be funded.

We know we're funded through through June.

I am like I said I want to move rapidly on trying to get this committe put together to be able to work through the financials and have them do the studies if we need to, and everything that we need to do to be able to come back with a recommendation for, for the the commission and for the governor.

And I think to make sure the governor's happy as well.

But I would love to be able to try to move rapidly so that we could reassure everybody by the end of the year.

By the end of January, we got a longer term relationship with PBS, and there's no reason tha we're going to make any changes.

Yeah, and I think that would help.

I think everybody feel a lot better about the membership that they give us.

We raise over $3 million fro people giving us extra dollars through our membership drives.

Viewers like you were just like you, and they get the passport and everything.

And so all those services will still be there and available for them.

Yeah.

Well, look, it's I know it's been quite a, experience for you.

Thank you for what you've done.

Like, I just learned a lot through this whole experience.

And behind the scenes so many lawmakers reached out, so many people reached out just asking what's going on?

I know that so much communication happened.

So I appreciate you coming on to explain some of this, to answer some of these questions.

I'm glad I could do it.

Thanks, Tom.

Thanks for.

We'll be right back.

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Learn something new every da with Alabama Public Television.

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Fort Toulouse site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

The day known as the Fort Toulouse Jackson State Park, during the colonial period, Fort Toulouse acted as a commercial, religious and diplomatic frontier outpost for the French from 1717 until 1763.

It was one of a series of fort built by the French to protect their holdings and French colonial Louisiana from British and French during the 18th century.

Fort Jackso played a major role in the Great War of 18 1314, when General Andrew Jackson and the U.S.

Army used Fort Jackson, buil on the old side of Fort Toulouse on August 9th, 1814, after their defea in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Upper Creeks surrendered to the United States and the Treaty of Fort Jackson, effectively ending the Great War.

19 million acres of cree lands were open for settlement, resulting in Alabama becoming a state only five years later.

You're watching Alabama Public Television celebrating 70 years of service to Alabama.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Sonny Brasfield, executive director of the Association of County Commissioners of Alabama.

Sonny thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me.

I appreciate it very much.

Been a while, but I certainly want to have the county's perspective, especially on this issue of some simplified sellers and used tax, the online sales tax, because we had Mayor Walt Maddox on here last week giving his perspective.

He's bringing a lawsuit to the state.

It's kind of being litigated at the moment.

But his point, you know, about unfairness to cities.

I wanted to give you the opportunit to get your side of the story, because I actually brought u the fact that you did, you know, you woul probably have a different view.

So tell me your view about this lawsuit and just the suit in general.

Sure.

Let's talk about this issue for a minute.

I've been involve in this process about 25 years.

This isn't a new issue.

The la of the land for years was a case that involved, believe it or not, a catalog company.

And and that law, or the ruling from the U Supreme Court is known as Quill.

And in that in that case, the Supreme Court said if a business isn't physically located in your state, then you violate the commerce calls.

If you try to require that company to collect used tax on behalf of the customers in your state.

So really, in about 1999, this the organizations that represent government, nationally pulled together and started something called the Streamlined Sales Tax Project.

The idea was to streamline or simplify sales tax all over the country, and then convince Congress to allow us to charge sales tax and use tax from these out-of-state companies.

I was one of Alabama's delegates to that program, and we started participating in 2002.

So we've been trying to figure out what to do to allow us to collect this tax for a long, long time.

So, Alabama's tax is carefully crafted.

The Supreme Court in 2018 really two years after we passed this issue t created a set of restrictions, but a way to allow for the tax to be collected.

Our process, now known as this issue, was passed very carefully to make sure we stayed withi those Supreme Court parameters.

Okay.

So wha if this lawsuit is successful?

If it if it goes away, with the I mean, the legislature have to, you know, reassess this or change it in some way.

Well, you know, I'm not sure, what would happen if something happened on the lawsuit.

And really, that's that's what the courts to decide.

The the counties are really not defendants in the case.

The Department of Revenue is, you know, but for but for us, if we start looking at how could we change our society if we were starting over, what would we do?

I'm not sure we do anything differently.

It is, we have a very narrow pathway.

We navigated that in the Supreme Court ruling in the Wayfair case, which was a 5 to 4 decision, by the way not a slam dunk to authorize us to collect taxes from companie that are outside of the state.

But in that ruling, they said, okay, states can do it.

But here are some guidelines you have to follow.

And we carefully tried to navigate that.

And they're complicated things that people probably don't want to listen to.

On, on this program.

But there are a couple of details that, that are important for for a second.

The first thing in the rulin from the Supreme Court is, yes, you can collect from these companies, but first you have to hav an exemption for small sellers.

The idea tha the Supreme Court, issued to us is that companies that are small shouldn't have to collect and remit the ta until they meet some threshold.

Now, in our society, it's a state wide tax.

So the threshold is $250,000.

So any company that has sales of that much inside Alabama is required to remit the tax.

If we move to something called destination sourcing where we try to allocate the sales tax revenue back to each city and back to each county based on where the delivery is made, then we have to apply that small seller's exemption in every jurisdiction.

What that means is $250.

Yeah, 200,000.

That's right.

Now we could lower that.

In some states, the threshold is 100,000.

So even if we lowered it to 100, in those jurisdictions where an internet based company doesn't have $100,000 of deliverie into that specific jurisdiction, they wouldn't know tha jurisdiction any money at all.

I understand, but doesn't the doesn't mayors have a point though here in that?

I mean, if the sale happens right there when the home at the point that that that you use the Walmart app and then I go into the store and pick it up, then the city doesn' get the sales tax off of that.

That seems, I don't know, unfair.

So don't they have a point?

Is there any kind of common ground?

Sure.

Let me explain the Walmart issue.

Okay.

If you get on Walmart's app or any of the other national chains, have them and you're ordering paper towels.

They hav the paper towels at the store, but you order them on the app and go pick it up.

You do pay sales tax on that.

You absolutely do.

Is required by Alabama law.

And that's what happens.

But if you're not getting paper towels, let's say you're getting a special television that they don't hav at the store when they ship it.

Then that is this issue because it was not physically at the store.

And that's been the law in Alabama long before, suit was passed.

I do understand the concern.

You're trying really to put a square peg in aroun how those sales tax and use tax are not the same thing, and to try to make use tax, which is tax on products that come from another state, to try to make that into sales tax, I think is missing the whole point.

From the litigation and the efforts that have gone on for more than 25 years to get us to where we are.

Such is not perfect.

Okay.

It's not, every city i every county does not get back exactly the amount of money it would get back if this were a perfect worl and we could wave a magic wand.

Maybe we're 5% off.

Maybe we're 7% off.

But I don't think it makes much sens to throw out the entire program.

Throw out 90% chasing te and that's really our concern, is that we put the whole program at risk, chasing some small amount of money when we know what we're doing is within the constitutional constraints.

Well I really doubt this is going to be revisited this upcoming session but we'll follow the litigation because I think it would probably take that, to, to make the legislature act but certainly we'll follow it.

Well, speaking of the session it'll be here before we know it, just two months away.

What other issues are on your plate in terms of all 67 counties?

Sure.

Well, you know, this is an election year session.

And so we spend a lot of our time during the first three years trying to tackle, you know, some of the things that are more significant.

And I think many groups will be working on some cleanup issues, and we will as well.

Some changes to business license, some changes to, the bid law.

But significantly, we're very concerned about emergency medical services in rural Alabama.

We have counties all over th state wrestling with, the cost, the lack of availability, o of paramedics and the equipment.

And so we're, we're working o legislation that would increase the reimbursement rate.

For medical services, and ambulance services under Alabama's insurance programs.

And we think that would help keep us, at least moving forward a bit on trying to address what is a huge problem in rural Alabama.

There are plenty of places that I travel and that you travel, when we're on the road, you don't think about it, but if you have an accident, it might be 45 minute before an ambulance gets there.

In rural Alabama.

And that's that's a major issue for us in the coming session.

Well, that's on top of the hospitals closing as well.

That kind of compounds the issue.

Well, relatedly, I know mental health is on the minds of a lot of people, including the mayor.

He talked about this.

Talk about y'all's.

You have some kind of specific things here because thinking about county jails and some of these crisis centers, the commitment law, they get changed a few years ago.

How are the counties dealing with the mental health challenges that we're facing these days?

Certainly, you know, it's one of those issues that touches all of us.

And it's also one of those issues for which there's not a solution.

There's not a magic bullet of of one thing we can do in Alabama.

I think we have to do a host of things.

We did make some changes in the commitment law.

I think that's improving a bit, but.

But only a bit.

We have a whole lot of work left to do.

We're we're one of the national leaders in a program called Stepping Up.

It's a national initiativ to put a mental health official in every county jail, to assess every inmate that comes in, put them in touch with people once they're released to make sure that they continue to get services.

We're working to get som additional money in the budget so that the last few counties that are not in that program can, can join.

And that'll be one of our focus, efforts in the coming year, so that we can get those program in every single jail in Alabama.

Such a large percentage of th inmates just has the mayor said, that are in county jails come there with an issue that directly related to mental health.

Yeah.

And they need treatment, not just, you know, convictions and deaths.

Right?

We're out of time.

Sonny Brasil, 67 counties, one voice.

You.

I appreciate you sharing that here on Capital Journal.

Thank you very much.

Thanks.

We'll be right back.

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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The quilters of G span are world renowned for their traditional quilt designs.

The inhabitant of the small Alabama River town are mostly descendant of enslaved African Americans.

Gee's bend has demonstrated a persistent cultural wealth in the vibrant style of its quilts.

Quilt making has a long history in Alabama, and there are no finer examples of this art form, and the motifs and craftsmanship of the quilts of G spanned.

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All of those programs have helped me achieve this goal.

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I was able to graduate debt free by the Pell Grant, the pilot program, and also the scholarship.

I actually had friend tell me about the program, the pilot program.

And so then also spoke with the SST, an instructor at our school, and she told me to contact the cruise center, and I was able to set up an appointmen and fill out their location and all the prereqs for that, with the following program providing for my scholarship to school along with the Pilgrim.

That all gave me opportunities that I wouldn't have been able to reach my goals and be where I am today without these programs.

You don't just have to stay in povert because you was born in poverty.

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Just because you don't have the money doesn't mean that you can't get there.

There's a lot of opportunities out there.

There's scholarships, there's programs, there's people.

You just have to show that you're willing to do the hard work.

I was determined.

I refused to allow anything to stop me.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Kim Lockett, the chief operating officer of Feeding Alabama.

Kim, thanks for coming on the show, Todd.

Thank you for inviting us.

Yeah.

Well, i making the drive up for mobile.

Yes.

So I really was excited to have you on the show because you've had a tremendous, a lot of activity recently.

But let's start with this.

Can you remind our audience about Feeding Alabama and your role in managing the food banks in the state?

Absolutely.

So Feeding Alabama is the partne state association for the eight Feeding America affiliated food banks in Alabama.

There's eight food banks serve all 67 counties in our state.

Each of them have a service area.

So we are part of the Feeding America network.

And what that means is every county in the United States is assigne to a Feeding America food bank.

We work then with our food bank to get food in.

That food can be donated.

It can be food.

We purchased, or it could be commodity products that come in from our government partners.

That food comes in, and then we break it down and send it out to our local pantries in the state of Alabama, there's local pantries, soup kitchens are schools that help us run backpack and school pantry programs.

There are 150 of those across the state.

Wow.

I always tell people we're a little bit like the Amazon model.

So our food banks are essentially distribution centers.

They're very large, warehouses that get in truckloads of food every day.

They're smaller.

Okay, here we go.

Yeah, yeah.

So these are our food banks and the, they get that food and just like the Amazon distribution centers and very large quantities on very large trucks, and they break that food dow and put it into smaller packages and get i to their local partner agencies.

So those local partner agencies are like the Amazon delivery drivers that then get that food to our neighbors in need.

In Alabama.

That is a lot more sophisticated than I think people realize it is.

So we have over 500,000ft of warehouse space in the state of Alabama between those eight member food banks and collectively, they pay $65,000 a month in power bills.

So there's a lot that goes into them being able to take in food, keep it safe, keep it fresh and get it out to the neighbors in need, through those smaller partner agencies.

Talk about the issue of hunger in general, because I think a lot of us an especially around the holidays, it's important to remind of them.

We probably take it for granted because, you know, I'll go to the grocery store just, you know, it's kind of no big deal, but it isn't really an issue i Alabama and across the country.

Talk about the issue of hunger and how the food banks are meeting that need.

Absolutely.

So in our state, there are about 750,000 Alabamians that rely on Snap.

1 in 6 adults is facing food insecurity, 1 in 12 seniors.

And when we look at the stats for children, it's 1 in 5.

Kids are food insecure.

So what we do as our food bank network is work with our local communities in identifying those neighbors in need and making sure they're connected with the food resources they need.

One of the really big pushes that we've had recently, and I think just across the country, everyone wants to make sure we're connecting.

Those food banks are connecting the neighbors in need with access to healthy food.

There's been a really big push with produce, fresh produce, local produce from farmers in our state.

So those are some new partnerships that we've created since Covid, when the supply chain was a little wonky.

We needed to be able to source food locally and get tha to the communities in Alabama.

So there's are ways, some innovative things meeting people where they are.

And I think that is that means we're doing things on nights.

We're doing things on weekends.

As far as distribution at th local and the food bank level.

Yeah.

Let's talk about the government shutdown.

Because.

All right.

And Randy Scott is done a great job covering the food banks here, especially locally.

Okay.

You had the governmen shutdown for, I guess, 45 days.

And, you know, people's Snap benefits were were beginning to lapse.

So I mean, that just puts you all into a whole, you know, a big situation.

Talk about I mean, beginning to end.

What what was the shutdown like for food banks across the state?

It was, tremendously stressful.

I will say that I'm very proud of the work that all eight of our members have done over the past two months.

Everything started very quietly.

We were working with those federal employees, with some of the TSA offices and military bases, as they began losing paychecks in October.

We wanted to make sure that the 62,000 federal employees in our state had access to the food they needed.

Those are not peopl that are normally in our lines, and there's a lot of them are people who volunteer or donate to the food banks all of a sudden maybe found themselves in need of them.

So we began a lot of that work very quietly in October.

And as things continued in November, what we saw, especially this was the first time there was an interruption with the Snap program and the history of the program.

Because the shutdown went so long, it did.

So, there had never been a disruption of benefits like this before.

And our network is one of the major disaster response partners for Alabama EMA.

And one of the things we know through the Mass Care and Feeding Task Force is that if there is somethin like a hurricane or a tornado, there's a specific area that is impacted.

And then what we see is the food banks that are surrounding that area that serve it directly help, but then food banks from other areas in the country or around the southeast come i and provide additional support.

That's the great thing about the Feeding America network is its compounding effort.

And what the shutdown did is it put every food bank on the front line of the disaster area specific.

It is not area specific.

It's everyone trying to serve their people.

So there were no backup drivers.

There were no backup media support for the 20 plus news interview we were asked to do every day.

There is no one to come in and help with additional food or volunteers for distribution.

So what we saw, was very stressful.

I think our food banks handled it gracefully.

And I do think a lot of that was because of the community support from the top down.

Governor Ivey and Commissioner Buckner, quickly coming in and allocating funding to the food banks.

Talk about that, because, yeah, that was I mean, I guess right at the deadline or whatever.

She said, we know we're going to try to step in here and help.

But when you see that number what did that $2 million mean?

It means around 500 truckloads of food into our food banks.

That's the buying power.

And that we talk about when you say when you talk about the Feeding America network and our food banks are able to take that funding by from, others redistribute it at no cost to those neighbors in need.

I was wondering if maybe there was a silver lining to this, because I've never see more coverage of the food banks.

I've never seen more people.

I mean, I have friends with kids that were there, schools were volunteering, you know, going to the food banks.

You know, again Randy's covered a lot of this.

Could there be a silver lining in terms of is more awareness of the feeding Alabama, but also local food banks, have you have you seen any of that?

A do you think, it was an extremely difficult time getting and, and knowing for us, for every meal that snap, you know, food banks provide one meal for every nine snap provides.

So we were never meant to be the front lines.

We were really the last line of defense for families and Alabamians that are experiencing food insecurity.

There's federal programs were established to be that front line.

And when that went away, the charitable Food Network was never going to be able to fill that gap for the state of Alabama.

I think it was around $140 million a month that the Snap program was bringing in.

Yeah, you're not going to find that.

You're not going to find that.

And what it meant was that then our food banks had to very quickly figure out how to get food to people who were used to going out to the store and purchasing it themselves.

And we had to shift what we were doing.

We had food banks that were getting doing mass distributions every day, so they were doing pickups to their agencies that would maybe just come once a month or once every two weeks.

They were doing daily.

They were putting out daily wha they used to put out in a week to get the food to the community pantries that needed it.

We also had to start doing direct distribution, which would not have been possible without the number of donors and supporters and volunteers that came out to help us do that.

If you were down in mobile I know they handed out hundreds of food boxes at Ladd People's Stadium recently.

Our Birmingham, our Huntsville, Montgomery.

Every one of our food banks has been engaged and doing holiday box distribution because that's our normal line of business.

This time of year is getting that food out to the families that need it.

And then on top of that this year, was getting through to those families impacted by the shutdown.

So we shifted and it the silver lining was and something I think, really important that we learned through this is that Alabamians really care about each other.

And that started, that jus wanting to help their neighbor.

So volunteering, donating, coming out to those food drives and helping put boxes in cars or helping direct traffic and helping sor and stuff boxes at the foodbank.

So we saw so much support from that.

Some quietly, some very loudly.

And, we're grateful for all of that because our network could not have done it without all of those in Alabama who came in to help us.

So like like Fred Rogers said, look for the helpers.

Yes, we had a lot of helpers, stuff we did.

Well, all right.

Thanksgiving's coming up.

Christmas after that.

It's the holiday season.

What is that like for the food bank network?

I would imagine there's a something of a demand come Thanksgiving.

Yes.

And all the wor for that starts in the summer.

It is logistics.

It is getting that food ordered.

An end to our food banks having days that our volunteers can come in on weekends and after hours to pack those food boxes, getting them labeled, pairing it with fresh products, or frozen turkeys that come in, and then having th distribution days to families.

So sometimes the food banks doing that directly, they're hosting a mobile pantr drive and giving that directly to the client.

Other times that food is going out to that local community pantry, and they're putting it into the hands of those who need it.

Well, well, look, I know I ca just feel the audience right now wanting to know how to how to help.

Yes.

How to if I want to get involved at my local food bank, we want to find out.

I want to give, food, you know, how do we do that?

You know, I guess your website feeding Alabama.

So feeding alabama.org/hunger.

Okay.

That will take you to the page.

It has a lot of Alabama specific stats what our neighbors in need are facing, how to find your local food bank and connect with them.

How to support and volunteer with them.

And then how to carry th message of those that need help and what our food bank network does.

Yeah, well, it is so heartening to see and to hear your story and to see people stepping up to help.

Like you said, our neighbors in need.

And, thank you for your work.

I know it's been a lot, but please pas that along to your team as well.

It's so important we take it for granted too often.

But thanks for coming and sharing the good work of feeding Alabama.

Absolutely.

And we just want to say a very special thank you to all of those who came out and helped our network, specifically Governor Ive and Commissioner Buckner, who, do you think when you talk about silver linings, that is one of them, how quickly they acted once the government shutdown ended to get benefits out to support our food banks during that, to all of the donors, foundations, volunteers.

And we could not have done it without them.

So thank you.

To all of those people wh came out and helped our network through the shutdown and continue to help us through this holiday season.

Absolutely.

We have a feeling they're watching right now.

Thanks again.

Yes.

Thanks, Todd.

We'll be right back.

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Harpe Lee is best known as the author of one of the most affecting and widely read books of American literature, To Kill a mockingbird.

The native Alabamian drew deeply from her coming of age years in he small hometown of Monroeville.

The 1961 Pulitzer Prize winning novel explores the dimensions of prejudice, hate, loyalty and love through the eyes of a young girl as she awakens to the complexities of human nature and its capacity for both good and evil.

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Lee was widely recognized throughout her life, including the presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 and the 2010 National Medal of Arts.

That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We won't have a show the week of Thanksgiving, but we will return the following week at our normal time.

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

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.