On Monday afternoon, four Democratic members of the state Legislature who represent parts of Tuscaloosa spoke to several dozen constituents at Shelton State Community College, a town hall hosted by the Tuscaloosa County Democratic Party and the local NAACP.
State Reps. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa), Curtis Travis (D-Tuscaloosa) and A.J. McCampbell (D-Demopolis) and state Sen. Bobby Singleton (D-Greenville) each discussed the recent legislative session for about 10 minutes and then took questions from the audience.
One big story was the death of a gambling bill in the state senate after it fell one vote short.
McCampbell told the audience:Whether we want to admit it or not, gambling and betting are already thriving in Alabama, and much of it is currently illegal.He argued that revenue from legalized gambling “could be used to improve education and health care here in Alabama.”
England also took the time to address one of his objections to the way the Legislature handled gambling bills last session. “There is no such thing as a clean lottery bill,” he said. “It doesn’t exist. It’s a unicorn. It’s not real.”
“If someone tells you they just want a clean lottery bill, understand that they just want to give Native Americans a gambling monopoly in Alabama.“ England continued, “In his opinion, “clean“ The lottery bill will never come close to raising the desired revenue.
All four politicians also spent time addressing other contentious issues that have come before the state Legislature this year, and while none reported being satisfied with the outcome of the last legislative session, all said Democrats played a key role in watering down some of the Republican proposals.
“I like [legislative] process,“ Singleton said. “But this year, I was happy when it was over, because the first five weeks of the session, Republicans beat us to it. They started attacking DEI in the Senate. Then there was ballot harvesting. Then came libraries.“
Singleton added that when the DEI bill was first introduced, “It was almost like saying “Black people go back to Africa.”‘But thanks to Democratic efforts, he argued, it ultimately passed “almost in name only.” He made a similar argument about the ballot-harvesting bill.
Democrats credited Republicans for forcing compromise, but one clear Democratic victory in the recent session was the passage of a law allowing families to once again access in vitro fertilization following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling.The ruling was not touted as a complete victory.
England still has restrictions on IVF “It’s getting too expensive‘Unattainable in Alabama“ He said he personally believes the bill passed by Congress may be unconstitutional.
School funding is a priority in all four states.‘At the end of his 10-minute speech, England implored the Tuscaloosa audience to vote in favor of a Sept. 23 referendum to raise property taxes to provide more funding for Tuscaloosa schools.
The CHOOSE Act, which would fund the school choice voucher program, has come under fire multiple times. Curtis said the bill “What they are doing is cutting this funding directly from the education budget.He also said,$500 million impact on public schools“ It wasn’t given enough consideration.
Singleton, speaking after Curtis, explicitly linked the CHOOSE Act to attempts to censor public libraries. “Those who want to give parents the right to choose where their children go to school‘I don’t want to give other parents the right to let their kids read whatever books they find in the library.“
After the panel discussion concluded, community members gathered were able to answer questions about voting rights, local infrastructure, the mental health crisis and more.
