As the 2006 regular session of the state Legislature opened Jan. 10, several bills with patriotic and religious overtones peered out of the pile as potential hot-button topics for the new year.
“Between 500 and 600 bills were introduced, and we are monitoring several of them closely,” said Dan Ireland, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP).
“With it being an election year, [representatives and senators] do not want to branch out too far and jeopardize the re-election process — they will be cautious and careful about some things.”
But, Ireland added, some of the topics could “draw a lot of ire” — thus he anticipates a tug-of-war between parties on some issues.
A sampling of the bills Ireland said could potentially become issues to watch in 2006 include:
- SB7 — Legislation dealing with the rights of unborn victims when a pregnant mother is killed. The legislation seeks to make the murderer guilty of a double crime when both the mother and unborn child are killed. This is similar to Laci and Connor’s Law, passed in 2004 by the U.S. Congress.
- Multiple bills dealing with the regulation of alcohol.
- HJR66 and HR67 — Legislation providing for Bible classes in the public schools.
“This is something that would mandate the curriculum that would be used, and that would bring on a lot of discussion,” Ireland said. “What if others in the Legislature who are of different religions decide they want equal treatment of their religious books? It could get interesting.”
- HB250 — Legislation that says a doctor who performs an abortion must have local hospital-admitting privileges.
- Amendments on eminent domain.
“We have a good strong civil law, but we need a constitutional amendment on this,” Ireland said. “We want a law that says you cannot demand people to turn over their property to you because of a more lucrative profit-making business — property cannot be arbitrarily condemned for profit.”
Recently the plight of churches in eminent domain struggles has drawn attention on the national level, so a law of this nature would help protect Alabama Baptist churches that could face this issue in the future.
- Legislation that would mandate that legislative sessions would begin with the Pledge of Allegiance.
In his State of the State address, Gov. Bob Riley also outlined other topics that would be on his list of priorities for the year.
One plan he unveiled was the budgeting of an extra $1.01 billion for education this year and next year, including a $500 million school building program.
Riley also asked the joint session of the Legislature to help him stop the spread of gambling in the state this year.
“We need to redefine what sweepstakes and bingo are because if it looks like a slot machine, sounds like a slot machine and acts like a slot machine, ladies and gentlemen, it’s a slot machine,” he said.
“And we should close the loophole that allows it to be called a sweepstakes game or bingo,” Riley added.
Ireland said at this point, there are no hard-core gambling bills in the works, and he will be interested to see if any come into serious consideration.
“I don’t know how far they will try to go on this issue in an election year, and I imagine with all Milton McGregor has going, there won’t be much licensing or trying to promote [gambling] this session,” Ireland said.
At press time, a court hearing over the legality of video-gambling machines at McGregor’s Birmingham Race Course was scheduled for Jan. 17.
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