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VALLEY — At the annual Christmas dinner of the Valley Lions Club, State Rep. Debbie Wood previewed the upcoming session of the Alabama Legislature. The dinner took place inside the community room at Sylvia Word Manor on Monday evening, December 16th.

A large gathering was on hand to hear her speak. The guests present included Lions Club District Governor Tracy Thompson of Prattville.

Wood has been in public service for some time now. She was a Chambers County commissioner for 16 years and is now in her second term representing House District 38 in the state legislature. She presently serves on House Committee on County and Municipal Government and the Legislative Ways and Means Committee.

The 2025 session starts on February 5th. Over 800 bills have been pre-filed for the upcoming session. Around 200 of them will likely make it through the House and Senate and be signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey.

Wood said she’s learned one of the most important things a legislator needs to know – it’s not so much that gets passed that matters; it’s what does not get passed.

She cited an example of a bill that was hotly debated but did not get passed. It was intended to bail out Birmingham Southern College. It failed to pass, and Birmingham Southern closed on May 24th of this year. The 168-year-old college failed to secure a $30 million loan that would have kept it going for the short term. The college has had an operating deficit for the past ten years and has seen a steady enrollment decline from 1,500 students in 2010 to 731 in 2023.

Though Birmingham Southern wasn’t helped, the state did spend a bundle on education in general. The state’s education budget comes to some $9.3 billion. That’s three times more than the state spends on everything else combined.

“A lot will be taking place in 2025,” Wood said. “New people will be running the Senate, but the House leadership will be the same.”

At present, there are 105 legislators in the State House and 35 in the State Senate.

Some cultural issues will be debated. These include banning drag queens from being around children and to define what identifies what a woman is.

“We are now discussing some things I never thought we’d be talking about,” Wood said.

She expects a bill on gaming to start in the Senate and be acted on by the House if it passes the Senate. The House passed a comprehensive bill last year, but the Senate couldn’t get it through.

Legal gambling that presently takes place in Alabama is with federally-protected Native American-owned businesses. “The legislature can’t shut them down, but we can allow them to have different games,” Wood explained. “I just hope that gambling doesn’t take up a lot of our time.”

Wood said she has talked to former State Rep. Bill Fuller on foundation funding for education. “It’s a simple way to to it, but it’s not fair,” she said. “We are looking at a different way to do it. There’s a definite need for English as a Second Language (ESL) education.”

Wood said that discussions have been taking place since last spring on rebranding the state’s education funding. “We need to open our minds on this,” she said. “Some school boards are for it and some are not. There’s some fear associated with this. I think we need to spend our education dollars more wisely. We want boards of education to be open minded on this.”

Wood said there may be a need to make voting more secure. Many of the state’s voting machines are at least 15 years old. “How many people are using 15-year-old cell phones?” she asked. “We are using 15-year-old machines to count our votes. We have an out-of-state vendor selling us machines and programming them.”

Wood also said that voting registrars are underpaid. “They haven’t gotten a raise in 20 years,” she said. “I think they deserve one.”

Wood said there is a misunderstanding about the Choose Act the legislature passed this year. It allows families to apply for financial aid to send their children to private schools. Up to $7,000 per child is available, but the money does not go to the parent; it goes to the school. A family can make up to $90,000 a year in household income and be eligible. Those being home schooled can get up to $4,000 per child.

Proration was once a recurring problem during down economic periods. Wood doesn’t think this is likely to happen again because of the way education funding is budgeted.

The state has some massive problems with incarceration. Simply stated, the state’s present prisons aren’t the best facilities they can be, few people want to be prison guards and there aren’t enough cameras at the state prisons. “We have a lot of people in jail but no place to put them,” Wood said.

She commended the Chambers County Commission for the county’s Stepping Up program, terming it a positive way to get nonviolent offenders back into the work force.

“We have big problems with prisons, and no one wants to talk about it,” Wood said. “We have to have prisons that work, are safe and have a good work environment.”

At present, she said, a high school graduate can get a job making $50,000 a year as a prison guard but the state can’t get enough people willing to do that.