By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

HOOVER– An in-depth preview of what to expect in the upcoming legislative session was held during the Shelby County Chamber’s 2025 Legislative Preview Luncheon on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at Jefferson State Community College and two topics were at the forefront—gambling and education.

The luncheon featured a number of subjects, with large focuses put on gambling and the lottery, education and school choice, cell phones in schools and even new dangerous substances.

House Chair Arnold Mooney spoke on how Shelby County is excelling at this point in time, consistently making strides of improvement on many fronts.

“There are so many people here who have made Shelby County what it is, not just the County Commission,” Mooney said. “This county has become the flagship in our state from the standpoint of fiscal responsibility in relation to how the county is run on a cash basis and the process of how they make decisions and the well-being of our people. In every measurable category that there is in our state, and I think I’m confident in saying this, the county that is at the top is Shelby.”

During the meeting, Sen. Jabo Waggoner of District 16 discussed the long-standing gambling issue, talking about how it is expected to be one of the hot topics in the session and that people can expect to see at least a lottery bill presented.

“The last session, we had a pretty intense debate on gambling,” Waggoner said. “It was not just lottery. Table games were mentioned but they never were brought up. Casinos was an issue that passed the House substantially but failed in the Senate by one vote. You’ll see the gambling issue come up. It’s a hot issue, it’s a controversial issue.”

Waggoner also reflected on last year’s session, stating the severity of the effects the introduced bill would have had as a reaffirmation of just how controversial this topic is.

“If what we introduced last year had become law, it would’ve meant $600 million to our education and general fund budget, substantial new revenue,” Waggoner said. “At the end of the day, the people of Alabama, if it passes the legislature, will have an opportunity to vote on it.”

He briefly mentioned the educational budget as well, which has skyrocketed to $9.3 billion. He noted that the budget has grown substantially over the years, saying how it was less than $1 billion when he arrived at the House.

Jim Carnes took the stage representing House District 48, which includes both Jefferson and Shelby counties.

On the issue of gambling, Carnes believes that a lottery bill that is presented will not pass in its pure form, stating it will have to be more encompassing for it to complete its journey.

“A lottery is $170 million. That’s not a lot of money compared to a $9.3 billion education budget,” Carnes said. “There’s a lot of residual problems with the lottery. There are a lot of benefits, a lot of folks enjoy doing that. That battle will be fought out. I don’t think we will ever see a lottery-only pass because of the gambling interests that have comprehensive gambling at the forefront of anything they want to do. Even if a lottery bill starts, I don’t think it will number one pass as a pure lottery, and if anything passed, it would be with lottery and casinos and a lot of additional gambling procedures.”

State Sen. April Weaver is over State Senate District 14. She discussed bills for this session that will relate to the topics of child pornography and sextortion, which were created based off of a sextortion situation that came up in her district.

“I have one (bill) that is going to be educating children,” Weaver said. “In a couple of schools, we’ve already done some test programs on how to educate children on how to watch out for these things and what to do if you are involved in something like that.”

Weaver also made a point to say that there will be a great amount of focus placed on things that deal with drugs, citing the increasing fentanyl issue and increasing intelligence of drug dealers as the reason for pushing that front.

In addition, she talked about a current hot item on the market called galaxy gas, which is similar to nitrogen laughing gas, saying that she wants to look more into that and focus on it after learning about it at the Iron Bowl in 2024.

Finally, Weaver stated her vow to focus on the issue of porch pirates after having faced a lot of issues in her district with gifts being stolen, especially around the holiday season.

Russell Bedsole then took the microphone representing House District 49, which encompasses Shelby, Bibb and Chilton counties. He began by discussing in a broader sense how there were currently 121 pre-filed bills, most of which will originate in the House and will relate to criminal justice. According to him, they are centered toward the state’s top priority of creating safe communities to live healthy and smooth lives.

Bedsole then switched to the topic of education bills, discussing how it is a big goal of the legislation to make the most of the money that is being spent on Alabama’s educational environment.

“We enjoy the extreme pleasure in Shelby County to have great school systems in our community, and also as a parent that participates in homeschool programs, we also have some great homeschool communities that further and make the depth of our education in Shelby County tops in our state,” Bedsole said. “I don’t think it’s any surprise as you see many areas and corners of our state striving to improve our education system, that a lot of our bills that we are seeing filed in Montgomery are related to education.”

He discussed the decrease in the amount of educational budget due to the passing of a grocery tax, as well as a bill regarding income tax on overtime for employees, which was passed at the beginning of 2024 and now costs the state about $230 million.

Bedsole went on to mention that there were gaming bills being pre-filed, but that they are very minor. One bill pertains to strengthening penalties for illegal gaming activities, while another concerns helping charity bingo games in churches and other locations.

He finally discussed his intent to bring on a few bills related to mental health and a cancer death benefit bill for volunteer firefighters, aiming to extend the benefits for them as they make up 80 percent of the firefighter population.

Kenneth Paschal represents House District 73 and, as he puts it, compares each legislative session to a tornado, never knowing what direction it will go. Paschal is focusing much of his time on mental health, specifically for veterans. During the last session, Paschal created a committee to look at the mental health of the military members when they return home. In April, the committee is set to report back to give Paschal a summary on how they can better limit veteran suicide numbers.

Even while waiting, Paschal has been raising money to help out veterans as many of them go through life-altering situations upon return.

“This past session I was able to work with a bunch of chairs among our delegation and get almost $500,000 for a billboard campaign,” Paschal said. “As you travel on (Interstate) 65, you’ll see billboards from north to south Alabama and it states, ‘Bigger than this moment: Veterans Crisis Line 988.’ If you press ‘1’ you’ll be routed to a trained counselor that understands the experiences that our men and women and their families go through… I just wanted to take a moment to share that with you because you may know someone that’s struggling.”

Susan DuBose serves House District 45, which is over Shelby, Jefferson and St. Clair counties. She shared her passion for school choice and how it will help the state of Alabama’s public schools, providing how much of a popularity it is becoming throughout the state in the young year.

“We are a leader in the whole country, in the nation in school choice. We were only the 11th state to pass universal school choice, which means that every student will have an opportunity to choose which school they want to go to through this program,” DuBose said. “Our applications opened Jan. 2, just a few days ago. Out of approximately 16,000 slots available, we’ve already had 11,114 students apply to participate in school choice. That shows the demand is there, the need is there.”

She went on to discuss how they will be able to do this statewide, but will not see a lot of it in Shelby County due to the quality of education.

DuBose is also making a large effort to raise the age of medical majority in Alabama, citing how Alabama is the lowest state in the nation in that facet, while also discussing how the state does not have the same medical and legal age of majority. She desires to turn that around.

Finally, Leigh Hulsey, who represents House District 15, discussed her three-q bill that came into session in 2024, but died on the last day of the Senate. She anticipates that it will pass this year, pre-filing it to the way it was amended last year.

In this issue, Hulsey discusses how kids are not truly learning how to read words, but instead just identifying them, mentioning that this is a limitation in education.

“It’s looking at a book and attempting to figure out, they’ll put a sentence there with a blank, and you look at a picture, and that’s how you figure out what the word is under that blank to put it in its place. They’re not learning how to read that word, they’re learning how to identify it,” Hulsey said. “We have done nothing to help that child, absolutely nothing. That is a disservice and it should not be happening.”

She also harped on the overtime income tax bill and how it is beginning to cost the government in terms of paying the bills. She hopes, however, that they can make it work.

Hulsey’s final topic of conversation addressed a bill that she killed last year because she did not have time to see it through. The bill, from her perspective, is focused on mental health and addressing bullying by banning the use of cell phones in schools. She cited that while she may not be a winner with this bill among many, she hopes it will improve productivity and self-esteem among students in schools.

“We started looking at the impact of phones in schools on students, and y’all, it’s detrimental. I don’t think we really realized it,” Hulsey said. “We are the ones doing it. It is our job to protect them, period. These kids, they don’t know any better because it’s what we’ve always allowed.”

More information about the legislature can be found at Shelbyal.com.