Alabama lawmakers finished what they considered urgent business the first two weeks of the legislative session, passing three bills related to the COVID-19 pandemic with overwhelming bipartisan support, but face more controversial topics in the weeks ahead.

They will first take a week off to evaluate how well efforts to meet safely during the COVID-19 pandemic are working.

If they dont find problems and return as expected on Feb. 23, they will dive into a plan for a lottery and casinos, a major gambling expansion that would raise a half-billion dollars or more a year for state programs.

The money would go to college scholarships for high-demand careers, expand access to broadband internet, support health care and mental health care, and other needs.

The bill is a constitutional amendment that would go to voters for a final decision if it clears the Legislature.

Besides the gambling bill, legislators will consider a range of bills on other timely or controversial topics, including Alabamas overcrowded and violent prisons, election law changes related to last years disputed presidential election, and issues that come up every year, such as gun control laws and medical marijuana.

Bills awaiting consideration would:

The legislative session can last up to 15 weeks, or until mid-May.

Some of the bills are likely to cause sharp disagreements. That will be a change from the last two weeks, when Republicans and Democrats, with just a handful of exceptions, voted for three priority bills to help the state cope with and recover from the pandemic.

On Friday, Gov. Kay Ivey signed the three bills. They will:

House Speaker Mac McCutcheon and Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed said the legislation is an important response to the pandemic, which cut short last years legislative session and killed those bills and others.

I think we accomplished what we needed to do, McCutcheon said. We got the three major bills out between the House and the Senate.

Weve had good progress on our budgets. And honestly, what we have gotten done over these two weeks has just really been phenomenal. Weve done better than I even thought we would do.

Reed sent out a statement saying the session was off to a strong start.

These are trying times for many across our state, and the Legislature, working with the governor, identified these three pieces of priority legislation to help Alabamians recover from the economic hardships endured throughout this pandemic, he said.

While these have been a strong first two weeks of session, we still have a lot of important work ahead of us. I look forward to continuing the bipartisan collaboration we have seen over the past few weeks as we continue to deliver results to the people of Alabama.

The Senate elected Reed as pro tem when Sen. Del Marsh stepped down after holding that post for a decade. Marsh, who is not running for reelection in 2022, said he wanted to concentrate on major legislation during his last two years in office. He is the sponsor of the constitutional amendment to allow a lottery and five casinos that would offer a full range of casino games and sports betting.

The Legislative Services Agency estimated the lottery and casinos could raise net revenue for the state of $450 million to $670 million. Read the fiscal note, which describes how the money would be used.

Senators discussed the bill Thursday but did not vote. Marsh said he expected to make changes to the bill in response to what he has heard from senators, representatives, and others, and would return with a revised version on Feb. 23.

Ive got to determine what is a package that I can truly, one, get through the Legislature and get to the people, Marsh said. And when they look at it they can say, They checked all the boxes. Im comfortable with this. I believe the money is going to the right places.

Alabama voters have not had a chance to vote on a lottery since 1999.

The Legislative Services Agency estimated the lottery would raise net revenue of $194 million to $279 million a year for the state. The money would go to a Lottery Trust Fund that would be used to pay for scholarships to community colleges. The intent is to help Alabama build a workforce needed to fill high-demand jobs in growing industries like automotive plants and aerospace companies. Scholarships would also go to students seeking teaching degrees in math and science, where there is a shortage of teachers.

The Legislature would hammer out more details in separate legislation. Marsh said his intent is to pass that before the amendment goes on the ballot so that voters will know the specifics.

The bill would allow casinos at the states four greyhound tracks in Birmingham, Macon County, Greene County, and Mobile, plus a fifth in northeast Alabama operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.

Senators who spoke Thursday generally praised the bill but some complained that their districts would have no casino and would lose revenue they now receive from bingo. The bill would prohibit electronic bingo except at the casinos.

Marsh said he might change the bill to allow up to two more casinos but said he strongly believed that voters want a limit on the number.

For several years, lawmakers have taken steps to expand high-speed internet access. They created the Alabama Broadband Accessibility Fund to offer grants to help bring fiber connections to areas where providers might not otherwise serve because theres not enough return on the investment. But the funding is a fraction of what is needed. The pandemic has reinforced the importance of broadband, with public schools switching to online classes and many adults working from home.

Marshs bill would apply almost half of the revenue from casinos to broadband expansion until that total reached $1 billion. A companion bill would set up a new state agency, the Alabama Digital Expansion Authority, which would develop short-term and long-term plans to expand broadband and enable the state to issue bonds for that purpose. Read the summary.

The gambling bill would also direct money to rural health care. Marsh said Ivey wanted that to be part of the plan because she wanted to help rural hospitals.

Funding would also go to mental health services. Marsh said that was the result of discussions with House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter, who has led efforts to expand mental health care.

If the plan is approved, the governor would enter a compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians that would allow the tribe to offer the full range of casino games at their electronic bingo casinos on tribal land in Atmore, Wetumpka, and Montgomery.

The plan would also authorize betting on sports events at the casinos and online.

Marsh said he wanted his bill to be as close to a final document as possible if it passes the Senate but said he understand the House will probably want to make changes.

House Speaker McCutcheon did not commit to supporting the bill or speculate on it. McCutcheon said the comprehensive nature of the bill -- with the lottery, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the four greyhound tracks, and county-based bingo all included -- is an important stating point.

It would be too early for me to start making a comment about what I would support and what I would not support, McCutcheon said. I do know, and Ive said this from the very beginning, is that weve got to bring all of these different entities together where we can sit down at the table and not fight against each other but try to look for the things that bring us together so that we could have a hope of passing something.

Prisons are a major topic. The Department of Justice sued the Alabama Department of Corrections last year, alleging that the state violates the constitutional rights of inmates by failing to protect them from violence. Alabamas prisons hold far more inmates than they were built for and their supervision suffers from a severe shortage of correctional officers.

The House Judiciary Committee has approved about a half-dozen bills related to the prison problems. They would give judges more discretion in sentencing parole violators; allow some nonviolent offenders to petition courts for shorter sentences; promote community corrections and other programs that divert offenders from prison; and temporarily create a second parole board to help relieve a backlog of inmates eligible for parole hearings.

McCutcheon said he expects those bills to receive consideration in the House.

Ivey has signed lease agreements for two new mens prisons and is negotiating a third. The leases do not require legislative approval. Legislators have said they are worried about the cost, projected at about $3 billion over 30 years. McCutcheon said the House has a backup plan to the lease agreements, but no bill has been introduced.

At least two bills propose changes to a law that prohibits cities and counties from moving historical monuments that are 40 years old or more from public property. The Legislature passed the Memorial Preservation Act in 2017 in response to Confederate statues coming down in other states. The law imposes a $25,000 fine for removal of monuments. Still, Birmingham, Mobile, and Madison County all took down Confederate monuments last year.

The House Judiciary committee did not approve a bill by Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, that would repeal the Memorial Preservation Act and allow cities and counties to move monuments to parks, cemeteries, or similar sites, or transfer ownership to other cities, counties, or a state agency. But the bill is in a subcommittee and could still be considered.

Another bill takes the opposite approach, making it harder to move monuments by increasing the penalties for removal. Rep. Mike Holmes, R-Wetumpka, is the sponsor.

McCutcheon said he did not want to speculate on what the House would do but said he expects representatives to debate the issues.

I think that there is a good possibility that that issue is going to be addressed. And I think theres a good possibility there may be some changes. To what extent that will be, I dont know, McCutcheon said.

The speaker said Givans bill had some merit because it would increase local control but did not endorse it.

A lot of the members have talked about thats a positive, they would like to see more local control because every area is not the same in the state. But, there again, the bills got to go through the process, McCutcheon said.

A Senate committee approved a bill that would prohibit puberty-blocking drugs, hormone treatments, and surgeries for minors seeking transgender therapy. The House Judiciary committee held a public hearing on a similar bill but did not take a vote.

A bill to legalize and regulate the production, sales, and use of medical marijuana products won approval by a Senate committee and awaits consideration by the Senate. It has passed the Senate the last two years but died in the House.

See the article here:

Gambling bill tops list of tough issues when Alabama Legislature returns to work - AL.com