Legislators set for ‘aggressive’ regular session
- Feb 21, 2008 - comment
A quick glance at some of the legislation to be considered by Alabama’s senators and representatives this year might cause some to wonder exactly what the legislators are up to. More gambling, harder liquor and the opportunity to purchase sex toys are some of the topics that have already surfaced. And the regular session of the Alabama Legislature just opened Feb. 5.
Yes, legislators must agree on and pass a General Fund budget as well as a Education Trust Fund budget before the session ends in May, but some moral watchdogs fear the other topics will capture the majority of legislators’ time and energy.
Dan Ireland, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP), said, “This is going to be an aggressive session as far as pushing expansion of gambling in the state.”
Gambling at issue again
“Last year, the push was for legalizing and isolating electronic gambling machines at the Birmingham and Mobile racetracks,” Ireland said. “This year, the push will again be for legalizing electronic gambling machines at certain tracks. Greenetrack lobbyists helped defeat the 2007 legislation that did not include them, so we are waiting to see which tracks will be included in this year’s bill.”
The argument for the passage of this bill is that it would limit casino-style gambling to certain dog tracks and thus keep it out of local markets, gas stations and other venues, Ireland explained. But there are already laws limiting electronic gambling machines, he said. “The laws just need to be enforced.”
One concern is that allowing this form of gambling at the dog tracks would not be the end of the expansion of gambling, Ireland said.
In fact, in 1980 when the Alabama Constitution was amended to legalize charity bingo in Jefferson and Madison counties, Ireland said he predicted various forms of gambling would follow. “I knew then that we were opening Pandora’s box, and ever since, gambling has steadily expanded in the state.”
While the anticipated legislation on gambling at the racetracks may be the bill to watch, there are at least two bills already filed that oppose gambling.
Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Alabaster, has filed Senate Bill 17, which would “prohibit the operation of video poker machines and video sweepstakes machines at racing facilities and would provide for civil sanctions for violations.”
Sen. Charles Bishop, R-Jasper, is sponsoring a bill that would outlaw electronic gambling machines in Walker County, where electronic bingo halls have saturated the county.
Gourmet beer bill
Another bill ALCAP will be monitoring this year deals with gourmet beer, said Joe Godfrey, associate executive director of ALCAP.
The legislation would allow raising the alcohol level in this beer to 14.9 percent, he said, noting this would more than double the 6-percent alcohol limit in beer that is currently allowed by the state.
“It would be wide open (as far as sales are concerned),” Godfrey said. “It could be sold anywhere that regular beer is sold.”
ALCAP leaders are concerned about teenage drinkers having access to the higher alcohol content beer.
But according to Godfrey, proponents of this legislation — Free the Hops, a group out of Vestavia Hills — say young people will not pay the high price that will be placed on this type of beer.
Still Godfrey said the price does not matter because “studies show that the primary suppliers of alcoholic beverages to teenage drinkers, whether they know it or not, are parents who keep alcoholic beverages in their homes.”
The bill was also introduced in the 2006 and 2007 legislative sessions but met with defeat.
While Ireland and Godfrey predict a strong push on the gambling and liquor fronts, they also anticipate a lot of attention coming from another bill ALCAP opposes — HB 12, which would legalize the sale of sex toys in the state.
Sponsored by Rep. John W. Rogers Jr., D-Birmingham, the bill would repeal the law that bans the sale of sex toys. The current law, which was passed in 1998, only allows the sale of these products for medicinal purposes.
“To buy these products, all you have to do is sign that they are for medical purposes,” Ireland said. But the businesses that sell the products are supposed to keep them discreetly placed and are not supposed to have large billboards and signs advertising their products, he noted.
The law has been challenged in court and the court sided with the state law, Ireland said, noting the U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn the law in October 2007.
One bill that has ALCAP’s endorsement is Sen. Vivian Figures’ (D-Mobile) legislation that would ban smoking in all public buildings in the state.
Figures, Ireland and others have been working on this legislation for more than a decade. “Sen. Figures has really made a difference in the Statehouse,” Ireland said. “I feel like we will do well this year.”
Alabama’s current law bans smoking in government buildings and requires some businesses, such as restaurants, to have designated smoking areas.
Ireland and Godfrey encourage all Alabamians to stay informed on what bills legislators are sponsoring, debating and voting on. To find out who your state senator and/or representative is and to keep up with the bills ALCAP is monitoring, visit www.alcaponline.org.
“As with all these bills, we will be studying them and reading them thoroughly,” Ireland said. “We have to read and assess every aspect, because the devil is in the details.”
This article is reprinted from the February 7, 2008, issue of The Alabama Baptist, the newspaper of the Alabama Baptist State Convention.
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