“Well-intended people are working on extending those 3 weeks,” Jim Pratt says.

Pratt, who moves into the president’s role in three weeks, says the county budget shortfall threatens a domino-effect across the criminal justice system if not resolved.

“No way to run a court system. It’s triage for one of society’s most important institutions.”

Pratt also takes exception with critics of the county’s effort to raise new revenue. Those critics contend the county has money in reserve to sustain the county’s basic services and staff.

“It’s just not true,” Pratt says, “I’ve looked at the finances. There’s a $75 million reserve… with one sign of the pen, that 75 million could go away.”

The “one sign of the pen” reference refers to a judge overseeing the lawsuit between the county and Wall Street investors in the sewer debt crisis. Wednesday the Birmingham News reported that a court-appointed receiver for the sewer system demanded $75 million from a settlement agreement with JP Morgan Chase.

Also Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported one leading analyst advised investors to “shy away from all Alabama bonds” because the state has not helped remedy the long-running sewer debt crisis.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blog here.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blog here.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blog here.

The future for Alabama’s Black Belt Region? In a word, Marsha Folsom says… “bamboo.”

“It’s the new cotton,” Folsom told me this morning on FOX6 News Good Day Alabama, “sustainable, ecological, a very environmentally friendly crop.”

An increased demand for bamboo products has created a shortage in supplier nations primarily based in Asia. Research by Mt. Vernon, Washington biotechnologist Jackie Heinricher created Boo-Shoot Gardens. Folsom’s introduction to Heinricher and her research prompted the Cullman county native to promote bamboo as an Alabama (and Deep South) cash crop.

Currently the University of Alabama has an acre of bamboo growing in Moundville as an example of “what could be” for Black Belt landowners. Northport has a downtown project called Black Belt BamBoost. Then there is Bike Lab in Greensboro. The group focuses on building bicycles made of Alabama bamboo.

Sometime Thursday morning Marc OBrien joins three more Bike Lab teammates for a Hale County to San Francisco trek called Ride Alabamboo.

On a political note, Folsom says her family is enjoying private life since Republicans swept statewide races in November, preventing Jim Folsom Jr. from another term as lieutenant governor. Her husband is the son of two-term governor “Big Jim” Folsom, who served in the 1940’s and 1950’s. “Little Jim,” as he is sometimes called, rose from lieutenant governor to governor in 1993 when Guy Hunt was removed from office. Jim Folsom currently works with an investment firm.

When asked off camera if her now adult children would ever consider entering the family business, she laughed and asked, “investing?”

Read more of Rick Journey’s political blog here.

Aside to trying to complete the complicated and politically charged reapportionment process, there are several bills that received much fan fare at one point or another during the session that have yet to move. Here’s a sort of primer on what they are.

• The budgets: Both the Education Trust Fund (ETF) and General Fund (GF) passed both chambers but are now waiting to be finalized by a conference committee with members from both the House and Senate. There are some details that need to be hammered out. Some of the key details on these have to do with bills that are travelling with each of the budgets. The ETF carries with it a proposal to take funds normally reserved for telephone service for the deaf (it’s really revenue from that service) and transfer that to pay for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. With the budgets there’s a bill that would increase how much state employees contribute to their retirement while decreasing how much the state contributes. It would be a 2.5% jump over the next year and a half.
• Ban on 20 week abortions:Rep. Kerry Rich’s bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy moved through the House with some Democratic opposition and it then soared through the Senate health committee. It now sits on the Senate floor waiting for a third reading. That bill is very close to passage. It is modeled after a Nebraska law outlawing abortions after 20 weeks, citing medical research that a fetus could feel pain inside the womb.
• The “tenure” bill, having to do with modifying the termination process for public school teachers passed the Senate in the waning hours last week. It would limit terminated teacher pay on appeal to 75 days as well as eliminate the federal arbitrator from the process. The bill sponsor, Sen. Tripp Pittman, says the bill is simply a new mechanism to give school boards the ability to get rid of bad teachers. He also remarked, “If you’re a good teacher, then you have nothing to worry about.” That bill is now down in the House and the Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard said several hours before Senate passage, “We’re looking forward to getting that bill down here.”
• Alabama’s illegal immigration reform bill is ttthhhhiiiiissssss close to passage. Last week, several hours before the vote on the tenure bill, the Senate approved a substitute to the House version, by replacing it with **the entire text of the Senate version.** I overheard someone say, “This is a Senate bill in House clothing.” It would require any company that handles a state contract to use the Federal E-Verify system to prove the immigration status of each employee. It also has several of the same measures in the controversial Arizona law that has since been challenged and rebuked by a Federal Panel. Alabama’s immigration bill could become law before June 1.

Well there you have it. There are several other bills out there like ones on bullying, a ban on texting while driving, and changing the ERS and TRS boards within the RSA but we’ll try to address those at another time.

For now, happy reapportioning.

Senate President Pro-tem Del Marsh and Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard said they wanted to address redrawing Congressional and school board lines during the Regular Legislative Session in order to avoid calling a special session devoted to the matter.

They also said they will address legislative redistricting in the coming sessions ahead of the 2014 elections. Basically, there is no rush to rewrite legislative districts since the election is so far off.

Alabama is in a much better spot than other states in regard to Congressional redistricting, simply because the state didn’t lose a Congressional District. Having to eliminate a district would have been an enormous political headache and it would be very difficult to avoid Federal intervention from the Justice Department.

Public hearings on redistricting will be held this week in Huntsville, Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery, and Selma where the public is invited to weigh in on the process.

Speaker Hubbard said he hoped the process wouldn’t be a very partisan, noting the GOP will be the party in control of the process for the first time in a very long time.

Democrats proposed their own plan to Speaker Hubbard and President Pro-tem Marsh to appoint a group of citizens to run the process instead of the committee on reapportionment in the legislature. We don’t have a response yet from GOP leadership but it is likely the GOP will go ahead with its own plan for reapportionment given the fact Democrats had controlled the process for so many years.

There is no use in speculating what the new Congressional or school board lines will look like. The legislature will draw the map and it is very possible the initial map they draw could be the final version. Combine the two facts that Republicans control supermajorities in both the House and Senate and that Governor Robert Bentley is a Republican, a veto of the map is unlikely.

It will be interesting to see what lawmakers come up with as the new Congressional and school board maps. GOP leadership have said the goal is to complete redistricting by the end of the legislative session.

Members of the Alabama Senate are talking about whether their pay should be cut – or perhaps prorated like state budgets when economic times are tough.  Sen. Paul Sanford, (R – Madison) favors the option of prorating salaries as needed.  He says repealing the 60%  pay hike approved by lawmakers in 2007 could force him and others to leave the legislature.  “If you cut this pay back to ‘07 then I believe myself and many other legislators are going to be put in a situation where we’re going to have to resign,” said Sen. Sanford. “And if I’m going to have to resign then the state’s going to have to have a special session.”

Lawmakers base pay is fixed by law.  But they’ve been able to get around the rather modest amount by increasing their “expense allowance.”  Currently they earn about $52,000 in total compensation annually….up from about $30,000 prior to 2007.

Veteran lawmaker, Sen. Gerald Dial (R – Lineville)l favors repealing the raise…going back to the pre-2007 level.  He says the lawmakers were aware they had the power to raise or lower their expense pay. ”Every legislator knew when he or she was elected they could change that,” said Sen. Dial. “They could come down and increase that a hundred percent or reduce it a hundred percent.”

The senate leadership created a new senate subcommittee devoted exclusively to dealing with the legislative pay issue.

As for the upcoming legislative session, we’ve heard now many times from three of the state’s most powerful men that job creation in the private sector will be the unrivaled top priority.

Senate President Pro-Tem Del Marsh (R – Anniston), Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Hubbard, (R – Auburn) and Governor Robert Bentley have told reporters for some time that creating jobs is of paramount importance.

Speaker Hubbard has gone so far as to form his own commission of private citizens to spark ideas and thoughts about creating jobs. The new commission will consist of business owners and leaders from all over the state.

At the press conference announcing the new commission, Hubbard said ‘There is no single issue more important to me than putting Alabamians back to work and growing our economy.”

He went on to add, “Everything that we do in this session needs to be about creating jobs. If it doesn’t create a job then it kind of needs to go down a level because that’s what we need in this state.”

With those statements, Hubbard put a major onus on the entire legislature to propose bills that will stimulate job growth or give the small business community and larger industries incentives to hire.

There is talk about several measures as we’re only about 2 weeks from the legislative session which on the surface have nothing to do with job creation.

House Education Budget Chairman Jay Love, (R – Montgomery) is proposing a bill that would offer liability insurance for teachers, possibly as an attempt to limit more of the Alabama Education Association’s influence. A question I still have is, “Does teacher’s liability insurance create a job?”

If lawmakers address illegal immigration, would that create some sort of task force that would create jobs?

Hubbard even said himself that government doesn’t create jobs and that growth in the private sector should be the state’s focus, not more government.

Outside of passing General Fund and Education Trust Fund budgets, if the legislature doesn’t immediately address  job creation and takes up other issues instead, it could make lawmakers look like they didn’t back up their rhetoric.

Strange, who took office two weeks ago today, appeared this morning on FOX6 News Good Day Alabama.

The Republican says he and Gov. Robert Bentley are “working hand and hand” on the case and he sees no reason to back out of the lawsuit filed by his predecessor, Troy King.

“I think it strengthens our hand, and the fact that the US government is in the case now, really there is no way Alabama should drop out.”

Strange also says he has met with attorneys for Greentrack about the future of e-bingo at the facility.

Last week, city leaders in Bessemer expressed a desire for guidance from the attorney general as that city considers an e-bingo ordinance.

“We made it very clear. In my opinion, gambling going on at these large casinos is illegal slot machines,” Strange told me today on Good Day.

“If they like to test these machines in court, they can have their day in court.”

Read more of Rick Journey’s blog here.

After a long period of stagnant job growth in the state, Alabama has now faced 2 straight months, December and November 2010, of an increase in the number of unemployed Alabamians.

For December 2010, Alabama’s unemployment rate climbed a tenth of a percent to 9.1% of Alabamians.  According to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations that translates in actual numbers to more than 194,600 people out of work.

Last month’s rate is an increase of more than 2,300 people from November.

During his inauguration day address Governor Robert Bentley said that private sector job creation in Alabama will be his top priority while in office. He even pledged not to take a salary until the state reaches what economists define as “full employment” which he says is widely defined as 5% unemployment.