Alabama lawmakers convened this week for the start of the 2022 regular legislative session, one widely expected to be shaped by two forces: a statewide election cycle and a wide-open race for House leadership positions that have gone unfilled for years.
Gambling policy is once again expected to surface as a major topic. A comprehensive gaming bill from State Sen. Del Marsh failed to advance past a second reading in the House last year, and the year before that, the session was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic before Gov. Kay Ivey convened a study group on gambling policy. That group estimated a combination of a lottery, casino gaming and sports betting could generate between $510 million and $710 million annually for the state’s general fund.
Alabama voters have not approved a statewide gambling expansion since rejecting an education lottery proposal in 1999, and more than 150 gambling-related bills have died in the Legislature since then. Outside of the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which opened the door to casino gaming on tribal lands, and a handful of narrow constitutional amendments allowing dog racing and electronic bingo in specific locations, the state has made little legislative progress on the issue.
This year, State Sen. Greg Albritton is taking a different approach than Marsh’s all-in-one bill, opting instead for a piecemeal strategy. Albritton said he plans to file legislation creating a statewide gaming commission first, followed later by separate bills proposing constitutional amendments that would need voter approval to authorize a lottery and expanded gaming. “Everything I am proposing has already been talked about before,” Albritton said on the eve of the session’s start in Montgomery. “I want to set up the gaming commission right away without a constitutional amendment. That way, we can take control of the gaming that is occurring right now [sports gaming, online and on-site gaming] in Alabama. It doesn’t expand it, it doesn’t validate it, other than the point it just gives the government the power to govern it, capture it and tax it. After that, subsequent bills would include constitutional amendments to establish a lottery and gaming, to require a pact with [the Poarch Band of Creek Indians] and clear authorization for the gaming commission to start controlling this industry.”
Albritton said he believes there is enough legislative support to get the measures through both chambers. “I think we already have the votes in the House and Senate; we just have to get through the politics on the floor to get to the votes,” he said. If the gaming commission bill succeeds, Albritton has also proposed redirecting a portion of future gaming revenue away from broadband expansion and toward the state’s mental health care system. “Broadband is getting funding from a number of sources, but one of the things we’ve never really done well as a state is provide a continuity of mental health care,” Albritton said. “We have to have a place to house mental health patients and a place to treat them. And I’m not talking for 10 days, I’m talking long-term. A lottery or gaming would be an ideal revenue source for mental health care.”
Alabama Press Association Governmental Affairs Director Brad English struck a more cautious tone about how much the Legislature will accomplish this year given the political calendar. “We expect it to be a short session,” English said during a conference call with APA members. “It’s an election year and legislators want to collect money and run for reelection. The next two weeks will likely be a special session devoted to how the Legislature will spend [American Rescue Plan Act] money.”
That prediction lines up with Gov. Ivey’s own priorities. During her State of the State Address, Ivey emphasized allocating the roughly $580 million in unspent federal ARPA funds still available to the state, including proposed allocations of $80 million for hospitals and nursing homes, $79 million to shore up the Unemployment Trust Fund, and more than $225 million for emergency water, sewer and matching grant projects, along with additional funding for health care, volunteer fire departments and broadband. “We must be smart with this one-time money and commit to the people of Alabama that we will wisely invest — not just casually spend — these dollars,” Ivey said. The Legislature previously allocated more than $400 million in ARPA funds toward new prison construction during a special session last year.
English noted that if a special ARPA session begins as expected, it could wrap up around the same time as the Jan. 28 candidate qualifying deadline for the November general election — a timing question that has fueled speculation in Montgomery. “People speculate [Ivey] may do this to keep gambling and other controversial bills off the table until then,” English said.
Albritton, for his part, expects a different source of drama to dominate the session: an open race for the Legislature’s top House leadership posts. House Speaker Mac McCutcheon announced last year he would not seek reelection in 2022, and the same is true for Speaker Pro Tem Victor Gaston and House Rules Committee Chairman Mike Jones, who is instead running for a state Senate seat. “One of the things that will be interesting to see will be the campaigning for House leadership seats and how that may influence legislation,” Albritton said.
State Reps. Nathaniel Ledbetter and Steve Clouse have already announced they will seek the speakership, setting up a contest that could color floor debate throughout the session. “Those are the top three positions,” said State Rep. Chip Brown, who represents part of Mobile County, adding that he expects both candidates to put the good of the chamber ahead of the race. “It could get bitter and it could get nasty, but I think they are both individuals who will put the race secondary to the overall good work of the House of Representatives.”
Brown also pointed to the House Republican Caucus’s newly published legislative agenda, dubbed “Standing Tall for Alabama,” its first such platform in years. The agenda includes bills to allow constitutional carry, ban the teaching of critical race theory in public schools, create new criminal definitions for assaults on first responders and rioting, bolster “election integrity” measures, and expand incentives for farmers, teachers, public employees, service members and veterans. “I would expect with the supermajority we have, most if not all of these bills will be easily passed,” Brown said.
On the budget side, Ivey has proposed a 4 percent pay raise for state employees and public school teachers as part of a $2.7 billion general fund budget. The proposed education budget for the coming year totals $8.2 billion, up from the current $7.6 billion.
Separately, English said the Alabama Press Association is drafting legislation aimed at rolling back protections the Alabama Supreme Court extended to law enforcement agencies in a recent ruling involving a newspaper’s public-records dispute with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office. The court found that body camera footage and other law enforcement records can be withheld from public records requests. “The danger is the decision was so broad-reaching that any record that law enforcement deems to be an investigative record — which could include simple accident reports and incident reports if they wanted to — they could say that’s part of an investigation and they would not ever have to release it,” English said. “It has far-reaching implications and it’s something we have to look at.” A broader rewrite of the state’s Open Records Law is also facing resistance from municipal governments concerned about compliance costs.
Baldwin and Mobile County lawmakers have pre-filed a wide range of bills ahead of the session, which must conclude by April 25. State Rep. Shane Stringer of Mobile County has filed measures to expand permitless concealed carry, while State Rep. Chris Pringle has proposed restricting how public schools and universities can teach concepts related to race and sex, including critical race theory. Rep. Chip Brown has filed bills covering a sales tax exemption for commercial fishing equipment, parental opt-outs for school mask mandates, parental consent requirements for minors’ vaccinations, support for volunteer fire departments, and insurance fund transfers to the Strengthen Alabama Homes program. State Rep. Matt Simpson of Baldwin County has introduced legislation to reimburse first responders diagnosed with PTSD for treatment costs and to protect child witnesses during criminal trials.
Other pre-filed measures include a bill from Rep. Napoleon Bracy to allow digital distribution of legislative documents, proposals from Rep. Barbara Drummond addressing underground gas storage regulation and diversity on county boards of registrars, an early voting bill from Rep. Adline Clarke, a Stapleton Landmark District annexation measure from Rep. Harry Shiver, and an election-tie procedure bill from Rep. Sam Jones. In the Senate, Chris Elliott has pre-filed bills on coastal conservation funding and protecting the display of the Alabama state flag on residential property governed by homeowners associations, while Greg Albritton has proposed establishing a university-based Center for Risk and Insurance Research.
Taken together, the flurry of pre-filed legislation from the Mobile and Baldwin County delegations underscores how much local priorities — from coastal conservation to public safety to school policy — will factor into a session already expected to be shaped by statewide political maneuvering.