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Screenshot by Leah Ingram Eagle.
Former Sen. Cam Ward, left, and Rep. Corley Ellis spoke during the Lunch with the Leaders, presented by Leadership Shelby County, on Jan. 27.
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Screenshot by Leah Ingram Eagle.
Former Sen. Cam Ward, left, and Rep. Corley Ellis spoke during the Lunch with the Leaders, presented by Leadership Shelby County, on Jan. 27.
Leadership Shelby County recently held a Lunch with the Leaders event via Zoom, featuring former state Sen. Cam Ward and state Rep. Corley Ellis.
Both are former graduates of the Leadership Shelby County program. The two discussed specifics related to the upcoming legislative sessions in Montgomery.
Ellis began the presentation saying there were bills that didn’t get passed during the last session that will be added to the bills to be passed this session.
He discussed the extra COVID-19 safety protocols that have been put into place. There will be 58 members will be in the chambers and 34 in the gallery above the chamber. Just outside the gallery are two rooms that will hold six and seven members, respectively, to reach the total of 105 members in the House of Representatives. A software program has been ordered that will allow members to vote from tablets.
Regarding the state of the education budget amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Ellis said there is good news. At the end of FY2020, revenues were up 2.9%, which includes eight months of COVID-19.
“The fact that they were not down, I’m celebrating,” he said, adding that an extra $209 million in unallocated funds came in.
Pre-COVID, revenues were up 7.54%, and post-COVID, they were down 1.06%, but Ellis said he is glad for the number to only be down slightly, as it was expected to be worse.
“We budgeted for FY21 a $7.2 billion budget, and I’m extremely optimistic we’ll be able to hit those revenue projections,” Ellis said.
He believes the best thing the Legislature ever did was pass the Rolling Reserve Act. During good times, a portion of funds are put back into the budget stabilization fund to be used if necessary. That fund can be used to keep from going into proration if revenue projections are not met. Ellis said the state has not gone into proration since that act was passed in 2011.
The technology fund is up to $499.6 million, so the vast majority of that will be allocated during the upcoming session.
Ward, former state senator for District 14, was named the agency director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles in December after 19 years of service in the Legislature. This was his last interview as a state senator.
He said 2021 will be a heavy legislative session and will create a huge backlog of bills and issues to address, which could create some logistical problems.
He has been asked why the Legislature doesn’t hold its season virtually and said that the Alabama Constitution states it must meet with open doors and in the seat of government in Montgomery.
Ward believes the challenges ahead of us include Medicaid and the corrections budget. Also, COVID liability is a concern, as people are suing businesses if they contract COVID-19 after visiting them.
What he calls “Groundhog Day bills” that come back year after year include the Department of Corrections, educational technology, Medicaid and the unemployment fund (which had a good reserve before the pandemic and has now almost been depleted).
“Looking at the budgets, we don’t have it nearly as challenging as other states around us,” Ward said. “The dark cloud is the uncertainty that none of us know what COVID is going todo in 2021. Last year, we thought surely it can’t get any worse. We will continue to play it safe to make sure if COVID doesn’t drag us under as a state. We will continue working together so we can move [Shelby County] forward.”
