Senate leader blames governor for failure of key bills

Sen. Del Marsh

The leader of the Alabama Senate has blamed Gov. Robert Bentley for killing several key bills, saying the governor broke a commitment on the education budget and forced his hand on an abrupt end to the session.  Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh of Anniston said bills to close loopholes in the state’s Open Meetings Act, create a database to enforce a debt limit on payday loans and keep secret the suppliers of lethal injection drugs all died because of Bentley.  Throughout the day Thursday, the governor said that if sent legislation that would allow it, he would return an executive amendment to the Legislature calling for a 2 percent pay raise for teachers, forcing an up-or-down vote on the issue.  Marsh said he moved to adjourn the Senate and end the session with the key bills still pending to block such an amendment from reaching the Senate floor. Marsh blamed the governor as well as the timing of when the House passed the budget and related bills.  Marsh said The governor’s actions destroyed the open meetings law,  possibly the death penalty bill, the (payday loan) database.  Marsh and the lawmakers who chair the education budgets say Bentley made an agreement with them on the education budget two weeks ago. The agreement, they said, was to put enough into the Public Employees’ Health Insurance Program to keep educators from paying more out of pocket for health coverage. They say the agreement did not include a pay raise.  Bentley disputes that, saying he hasn’t changed his position on a pay raise since he called for one during his State of the State address in January. The House passed the education budget about 7 p.m., sending it to the governor. It passed two other bills that Bentley could have sent back with the pay raise amendment if the governor had time before lawmakers ended the session.  After passing those bills, the House adjourned for the session. The Senate was still meeting. Marsh said he got word that the pay raise amendment was on its way from the governor’s office. He said he was told that procedurally, with the House already gone and the Senate still in session, that if the Senate had received the amendment it would have taken effect. He said the Senate could not have overridden it with the House already gone.  So Marsh said he moved to adjourn the Senate before the amendment arrived and with important bills still in play.