With e-bingo one of the remaining major bills with a chance of passage in the final two days of the legislative session, House Majority Leader Ken Guin (D-Carbon Hill) says he would prefer to not bring it up if the votes are not there.

Rep. Marcel Black (D-Tuscumbia) says he is still working to secure the 63 votes needed to send the e-bingo bill to a November ballot. “Fluid” is the way he has described vote counting in the last 24 hours.

A bailout of the state’s pre-paid college tuition program and a billion dollar road and bridge building bond remain in conference committees today with meetings still to take place.

This morning on FOX6 News Good Day Alabama, Senate President Pro Tem Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) and Senate Minority Leader Jabo Waggoner (R-Vestavia Hills) predicted passage of both plans. Smitherman says he believes a 2 1/2 percent tuition cap for PACT students opposed by the Auburn University and University of Alabama Systems will be removed in the final measure.

Rep. John Rogers (D-Birmingham) confirms that is part of the agreement still being worked out in the conference committee. About the PACT plan, he says the conference committee is “almost there.”

Rogers, who also serves on a conference committee for the road and bridge bond, has pushed for more dedicated funding for projects in the Birmingham, Huntsville and Mobile metros.

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Filed under: Legislature