Alabama Legislative session ends with gambling bill among swath of dead bills

Gambling legislation died Thursday in the Alabama Senate after members expressed doubt that it will get another vote in the closing hours of the legislative session.

Supporters have been unable to break a stalemate in the state Senate after the measure initially failed by one vote last week. Supporters had hoped to get the bill back for another vote but said that seems increasingly unlikely to happen as the session winds down.

“I think it's dead, probably,” Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton said on Wednesday. Singleton was a member of the conference committee that had worked on the legislation. “They don't have the appetite for bringing it up. Can't get anybody to talk about it," he said.

Republican Rep. Chris Blackshear, the bill sponsor, had said it looked like it would take a “miracle of Biblical proportion” to get the bill taken up in the Senate.

“I just hope the senators that voted no and couldn’t get on board take time to drive around the state and see for themselves, the problems we have in all 67 counties,” Blackshear said Wednesday.

The conference committee proposal would have authorized a state lottery and allowed “electronic games of chance” including slot machines and video poker, but not table games, at seven locations. The Alabama House of Representatives voted 72-29 for the conference committee proposal, exceeding the 63 votes required to win approval in the 105-member chamber. The measure failed by one vote in the Senate, where 21 votes were required.

Republican Sen. Garlan Gudger, a member of the conference committee, said Tuesday evening that the outlook was increasingly “gloomy.”

“I don’t think it’s coming back up,” Gudger had said.

The conference committee proposed the compromise after the House and Senate approved different versions of the bill. The sweeping House-passed plan would have allowed a lottery, sports betting and up to 10 casinos in the state. The state Senate scaled back that proposal.

Supporters were aiming for the first public vote on gambling in 25 years. Voters in 1999 rejected a lottery proposed by then-Gov. Don Siegelman.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday signed legislation that would put response deadlines in the state's weak open records law.

Alabama’s public records law says any citizen has the right to inspect and take copies of public writings, except for those exempted by law. However, until the new law, it did not provide deadlines for public entities to respond to a request.

The new law will require a public records officer to acknowledge the receipt of a simple request within 10 days. The public records officer would have to “provide a substantive response” saying the request is being fulfilled or denied within 15 additional business days, although time frame could be extended in 15-day increments.

Public entities would be given more time to respond to requests that would require more than eight hours of work to fulfill.

The new law takes effect Oct. 1.

Civil lawsuits would continue to be the only avenue for settling disputes. The bill sets out time frames for when a request is presumed to be denied because of a failure to respond, allowing a person to move forward with a lawsuit.

A 2007 comparison of state open records laws conducted by the Better Government Association and the National Freedom of Information Coalition ranked Alabama at the bottom of the nation. While the review gave 38 states, including Alabama, an “F” grade, Alabama tied for last place in the comparative rankings.

Felicia Mason, executive director of the Alabama Press Association, said the organization thanked Ivey for her work on the bill.

“Any citizen has the right to receive an acknowledgement and a timely response when making a request for a public record," Mason said in a statement.

The bill does not address public access to police body camera video. A Senate committee rejected a separate bill to require public release of the video.

Alabama lawmakers voted on Wednesday to stiffen penalties for making a false report to law enforcement, legislation that follows a kidnapping hoax that drew national attention.

An Alabama woman falsely claimed this summer that she was abducted after stopping her car to check on a toddler she saw wandering along a suburban interstate. Her story captivated the nation before police said her story was fabricated.

False reporting to law enforcement authorities is a Class A misdemeanor under Alabama law. The legislation would increase that to a felony if the false report “alleges imminent danger to a person or the public.” The legislation would also make it easier to order restitution for law enforcement costs.

“The goal of this legislation is to create a deterrent for those who blatantly lie in reporting a crime, so that those who do, experience the full force of the law,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.

The Senate voted 32-0 for the bill. It now goes to Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature.

Carlee Russell, who admitting her kidnapping story was a hoax, pleaded guilty in March to misdemeanor charges of false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident. She apologized for her actions.

A proposed revamp of Alabama's ethics law died in committee Wednesday. Its sponsor said the state still needs to clarify the statute.

“It shouldn’t be that complicated that nobody knows what the laws are in Alabama, and it’s just a matter of gotcha,” Republican Rep. Matt Simpson told colleagues.

The Senate Judiciary Committee opted not to vote on the bill, meaning it cannot get final approval before the legislative session ends. The decision came amid opposition from both the Alabama attorney general’s office and the Alabama Ethics Commission.

Simpson also said it's a misconception that his legislation would weaken the current ethics law, which covers 300,000 public state employees and officials. He blamed a “turf war” over control of ethics enforcement for dooming the bill. “This has everything to do with power,” Simpson said.

Simpson said the current law was hastily approved in a special session called by then-Gov. Bob Riley after Republicans won a legislative majority in 2010.

Sen. Will Barfoot, the chairman of the committee, said conversations will continue about the legislation next year.

Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday gave final approval to legislation to provide state tax breaks to businesses that help their employees afford childcare.

The Alabama Senate voted 31-0 for the bill that now goes to Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature. Supporters said that childcare costs are a barrier for many parents considering returning to the workforce. House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels said the goal is to help families afford childcare and to help businesses that are struggling to find workers.

“It gets workers back into the workforce,” said Republican Sen. Garlan Gudger of Cullman during the Senate debate.

The bill would set aside $15 million in tax credits that could be claimed by companies that provide childcare stipends, on-site day care or reserved spots at licensed facilities. The tax credit program would begin in 2025 and end on Dec. 31, 2027. After evaluating the cost and effectiveness of the program, lawmakers could choose to extend the tax credit.

The proposal also would provide tax credits and grants to providers, with incentives aimed at expanding the availability of care and improving quality.

The legislation would provide up to $25,000 in yearly tax credits to childcare providers who participate in the Department of Human Resources’ Quality Rating Improvement System, which provides ratings to programs that meet defined program standards. That part of the program would cost up to $5 million per year.

It would also provide $5 million in grants that nonprofit providers, including church facilities, could seek to help improve quality or expand capacity.

HB111/SB92: This bill would have defined certain sex-based terms like "male" and "female", allowed public entities to establish single-sex spaces, and update reporting requirements require infants identified as "male" or "female" at birth except in certain cases.

HB130: This bill would have "prohibit(ed) certain classroom instruction in kindergarten through the eighth grade related to gender identity or sexual orientation in public K-12 schools; and prohibit(ed) the display of certain flags and insignia in public K-12 schools." Originally, the grades listed were kindergarten through twelfth. The existing law prohibits this instruction in grades K-5.

HB385: Similar to HB425, this broad bill sought to expand what is considered material that is harmful to minors and expand the definition of "sexual conduct".

HB425: This bill would have redefined "sexual content" as it relates to various library materials (physical, digital, or audio) and made librarians and library employees subject to legal action if they allowed minors access to this material. It would also have withdrawn state funding from any library affiliated with the American Library Association in any way.

SB4: This bill would have made it a misdemeanor to display an "unapproved flag" on publicly owned property.  Among the approved flags: the U.S. Flag, the flag of any nation or state that controlled territory in Alabama before it became a state, any other U.S. state, territory, or district, Boy Scout and Girl Scout flags, Red Cross flag, Ex-POW flag, POW/MIA flag, Freedom Flag, and "any other flag, standard, colors, or ensign approved by the entity in control of the property."

SB57: This bill would have placed restrictions on where, when, and how people could peacefully protest. It also would have outlawed "swatting".

SB312: This bill would have allowed inmates to participate in a parole hearing virtually.