By Savannah Tryens-Fernandes
The Alabama House Democratic caucus today announced its agenda for the 2023 session, a platform that includes proposals on taxes, education, healthcare, voting, and criminal justice.
The caucus proposes exempting groceries from the state’s 4 percent sales tax as part of their agenda, as well as a bill to exempt overtime pay from the state income tax.
The Democrats are calling for a repeal of the abortion ban Alabama passed in 2019, a law that took effect when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels of Huntsville said the Democrats will introduce a bill to allow abortions for pregnancies caused by rape and incest, exceptions that the Republican-led Legislature chose not to include in the abortion ban, called the Alabama Human Life Protection Act. Daniels said a bill on those exceptions has been drafted but said it was not yet decided who would be the sponsor.
The Democrats are calling for Medicaid expansion to increase access to health care for low-income working families. Alabama is one of 11 states that has not expanded its Medicaid program as allowed under the Affordable Care Act, also know as Obamacare. Democrats support efforts to keep rural hospitals open.
The caucus named its agenda, the Plan for Prosperity.
“This is how we can move in a smart and strategic way to move our state forward,” Daniels said. “Too often we can become distracted by the cynical and controversial issues of the day. But we want to remain strong and remain focused on the issues that really have a direct and meaningful impact on the state of Alabama.”
The legislative session starts Tuesday. The Democratic caucus needs support from Republicans to pass any of their proposals because the GOP holds 77 of the 105 House seats.
The Democrats said they would oppose vouchers that allow parents to use taxpayer money to send their children to private school, proposals that Republicans plan to sponsor this year.
Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, a retired teacher, said the priority should be providing more support for underperforming schools instead of supporting a program that will divert money from public schools.
“This ends up leaving rural students behind because in many places there may be only one school in their entire community,” Hall said.
The Democratic caucus will support legislation to allow early voting and to allow all voters to cast absentee ballots, as well as automatic voter registration at age 18, and curbside voting.
Rep. Kenyatte Hassell, D-Montgomery, said the low voter turnout during the last election cycle was a call for change.
“This is why it’s so important that we make voting easier and more accessible rather than making the process more difficult under the pretense of preserving election integrity or preventing non-existent voter fraud,” Hassell said.
Republicans in the State House have generally opposed early voting and have opposed changing Alabama law to allow absentee voting without an excuse. Currently under Alabama law, voters must declare that they will be out of town, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to get to the polls in order to cast an absentee ballot. Two years, GOP lawmakers passed a bill to outlaw curbside voting, an issue that came up because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On criminal justice issues, the Democrats want to reinstate Alabama’s requirement for a permit to carry a handgun concealed or to carry one in a vehicle. The Republican majority in the Legislature spearheaded a repeal of the permit requirement last year. And Democrats want to pass a state law against Glock switches and other trigger activation devices that enable a semiautomatic gun to work more like an automatic gun and fire more shots more quickly. The devices are already illegal under federal law and by state laws in most states.
“I want to be abundantly clear for the cameras and for those that say we are trying to take away guns,” said Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery. “That is absolutely not true. It’s an attempt to take away a device that’s only used to traumatize and kill more people.”
The mayors of Alabama’s 10 largest cities have said a ban on trigger activation devices is one of their top legislative priorities.
Ensler said the Democratic caucus would support legislation aimed at improving Alabama prisons, which face allegations from the Department of Justice of violating the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment because of the dangerous conditions in men’s prisons. That includes bills by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, calling for sentencing reforms and changes at the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, which rejected parole for 90 percent of eligible inmates last fiscal year, the fifth straight year of decline.
Another bill by England would require a unanimous decision by a jury to impose the death penalty in capital cases. Current law requires a 10-2 vote by the jury during the sentencing phase of a capital case.
Ensler said the caucus would support removal of Confederate memorials and emblems from public property, and a bill to end recognition of Jefferson Davis’ birthday as a state holiday, and changing that to a holiday to recognize state employees.
