FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Senator Chris Elliott - Jeff Poor Show - March 14, 2025
[MUSIC PLAYING] Way back to the Jet Por Show. And if I'm talking about those 6'5" things, you're sticking around on this Friday, Friday. It's finally Friday morning. The text line, 2513430106, what I'm going to do is text me, and I'll respond. I try not to belabor the responses, but sometimes I get a little long-winded, and it's just my inexperience as a radio host. Still come on the program with a friend, Hunter Johnson, from Tide 100.9, and Tuscaloosa, we'll talk hoops as we head. And two, the SEC tournament to be played this weekend. Speaking of the SEC tournament, he is very kind to move up a little bit. We'll be preempted about an hour from now for Auburn basketball, but our returning champion, state Senator Chris Elliott, joins us on the line. Senator, good morning, how are you? I am doing fine, got to get the priority straight, and I think y'all got your strength. Yeah, this politics stuff, it needs to be secondary sometimes. But hey, how's your week off been? Busy, as you might imagine, it's one of those things. You're away from your business, and you're away from your family, and you're away from your constituents. They are all anxious to see you, and talk to you, and add their two cents about what's going on in person. And so it has certainly been a busy week. Yeah, I mean, I guess the Chattery class doesn't rest for these off weeks, I'll say that. Let's kick it off with this, and this is a story from Laney App yesterday. You're mentioning it in your house counterpart down that way, Francis Holt-Jones. The bill to give the two systems down at the beaches, Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, their share of tax revenue. Oh, walk us through that. What do you think that's, you know, is that like something that could really happen? You know, yeah, and it needs to happen. I mean, this was a bill that was originally-- or the piece of legislation was originally passed in the early '80s that levied a once-in sales tax countywide, a portion of which the portion we're talking of which goes to public education. And, you know, what we've done in Baldwin County is add to two different school systems in Baldwin County. The legislation from the early '80s contemplated only one school system, the Baldwin County Board of Education. Because back in '83, that's all there was. And we simply need to update that to really reflect that there's now more than one school system in Baldwin County and not just the Baldwin County Board of Education. And so I think that's a very simple change to make. And one that is unquestionably the right thing to do. I mean, can you imagine the counter to that, which was you levy a tax countywide, and you only get it to Orange Beach, or you only give it to Gulf Shores, and you don't give any to the rest of the schools in Baldwin County. I mean, that doesn't make any sense. And so we need to do just like what we do so often in Montgomery, which is just a faith statute to reflect what currently exists. Is the Baldwin County public school system that they're not super tender, quoted in the store. They're not very keen on this, as one might expect. But I mean, do you expect that to be a problem? - Well, of course, and I'm very disappointed. I think it's a nice way to say that in the stance they've taken. I mean, it is fundamentally unfair to take tax money for education, for the children out of these districts and not allow them to use it for educating children just because you're mad that they left your system. I mean, that's just a small ball. And unfortunately, I think it's gonna have big impacts for the school system as a whole. I mean, you're aware, I'm sure, as are others, that there are at least three other cities in Baldwin County that are seeing what's happening in Gulf Shores, seeing what's happening in Orange Beach, as it relates to investment in education, in athletic facilities, in new schools, and certainly in just in performance, right, results. And they're interested in their own school system, their city school system. And so I think you'll see that those conversations are already happening and certainly in Fair Hope and in Daphne and in Foley to see if they will do that. So at some point, whether I have the votes now or not, the votes will be there because those representatives will end up doing what I do, which is representing some city schools and some county schools, both of which we want to treat fairly and the kids we want to treat fairly and make sure that they have their share of the tax revenue. It's just absurd to have one system that they should get it all. - Well, the discussion, I guess, you just mentioned it, but sort of the, you know, the Ballet County school system splintering up and it's remarkable that it's lasted as it is as long as it has, just with the growth of the county that you haven't seen more municipalities strike out and form their own school systems. And I kind of wonder like, do you think that's something, like how far away do you think we are from something like that? - I don't think we're far away from that at all. And listen, the Ballet County public school system has done a great job in involving county educating kids and really being a pretty good example of what a county school system can do. I mean, if you go back and rewind here about 10 years here, so they were in big trouble. They were in big trouble with the voters. They were in big trouble with revenue sources, et cetera. And they in partnership with the county commission, which I served on at the time, really laid out a plan for the future, how they were going to innovate, how they're going to be physically responsible and how they were going to continue to address the needs of a growing Ballet County. And they've done that well. There have been cities, though, that have as is their right decided, no, we want to do this differently. We want to chart our own course, whether that's academically or because they want to put more money in their particular system. And so the county, I think, really laid this plan out, the county school system itself, when it came up with these tax overlay districts, right? And you saw referendums in each one of these areas that said, "We want a three mill tax overlay district "in Spanish 4, it's our hope and death. "We get Robert's sale." We want to do that so that our schools have more resources. And what they found was people seem to be much more willing to invest their resources in their particular school system and not some big county-wide school system. They want to know it's going to their school. And so that's what you've seen in these city schools is people being much more willing to invest in their school system as opposed to a larger, you know, bureaucracy of a county-wide school system. And so yes, I think you'll see continued efforts at city schools around the county. - Yeah, 'cause, you know, they've held that at bay. Like I said, a lot longer than I would have anticipated and what the feeder systems and the taxation there, how long until somebody says, "Hey, well, what are we doing here?" You know, like, why aren't we just going at it on our own as the beaches have? It's just, it's kind of fascinating that we haven't got to that point. - Well, I think you're going to get to that point and it is important to note that's not something that the legislature has any involvement is, right? That is something that is a decision that's made at the city level, either by the city council in concert with the mayor or through a referendum. However, they decide to handle that. I just think it's important that whatever the future is, we don't have county-wide tax revenue going to just a few schools. And instead, it needs to be split up, you know, to the children involved in county as was originally intended. - Well, and it's, you know, we talk about oil-free distribution. I got to think those beach municipalities, they raise a lot of sales tax and they're having to send it out of their system. I mean, that is, it's not just unfair. I mean, there's a, it's robbery. - Well, and that's what bothered me about Superintendent Tyler's comment in particular was that we were taking from the needy children of the children that need it most. And this is not, this is not a needs-based. I mean, it is not a robinhood approach, guys. I don't know how he can justify that. And say, well, we need it more, therefore we will take it from you. That's ideologically opposed to where I am, I think. If you're levying that in your municipality, it's levying in your municipality for the purposes of education, then you ought to be seated for the purposes of educating our kids. And not simply because somebody else needs it more. Otherwise, we'd be sending it to Sumter County by that logic. - Yeah, it's just a very hollow argument. And it's not an argument, Senator, that I, you know, that doesn't sound very Baldwin County in the tradition of the politics here that you could really get away with. Actually, it just seems insane to me. But anyway. - But that might be why you're seeing some of these city schools wanting to split it off. - Yeah, well, I mean, you don't think we're that far away, but what does, I mean, is our way to quantify that? - Yeah, I think you'll see activity on this within a year in Fair Hope. And I think that you probably will be talking about that in less, you know, less time than now. I see, you know, maybe two years or so into AFNI. And then you have to really look at this from a, you know, county wide scale. Okay, well, then what are the kids? Where do the kids in Barnwell go to school? Okay, if they're outside the city, where do the kids in Point Clear go to school? If they're outside of the city. And so what, what cities are seeing this as is an opportunity for annexation, right? Then they have a scene that people want and then they're more interested in annexing in. So it's a, you know, it's a 3D chest type of situation. But at the end of the day, you know, the argument I'm making is simple. And that is the taxes raised for the kids. That means all the kids involved in county, not just some regardless of the health, superintendent dollars, you know, filled, they needed. - Well, what about some of these schools that are like, like charter schools and, you know, that are, I mean, obviously would remain under county control, but they've been like geographically placed in places that would probably, they would have to move them, what would think? - Well, most of the charter school funding operates, you know, exclusively in local funding. And so this local funding could, could and would, if we change this, talk about, you know, public school systems in a municipality, et cetera. And so we don't have any charter schools in Baldwin County in particular. And this is a local piece of legislation. So I think we'll start that particular issue. - Joined by state senator Chris Elliott here on the program. Well, that, I can imagine this will be a fight with this, this, taking these sales taxes, but it's, they don't really have a, a cogent argument. So I, I don't know, I'm eager to hear from the other side on this one. Back to matters statewide. We, you get back next week, we were talking to Todd Stacy a little bit about this earlier. - I'm gonna be a relatively subdued week next week for you guys and then, you know, the week off. And then I think that's when you really start cracking your knuckles and that's when you're gonna start to see the, the gray hair start to show the bags under the eyes. Like that's, you start to see a little bit of that last week, but you know, a three, two, three weeks from now, it'll, it'll get a little more contentious, I assume. - Well, I think you're right. And there is, there is some merit in, you know, making sure that the machinery of the legislature, you know, is, it works and is oiled and the gears are turning out. The things that we need to turn out, right? The sunset bills that need to pass in order for, you know, these entities to continue to exist, right? If you simply don't take up the sunset bill, then the entity stops existing altogether. Now some of them, I might be okay with that on, but it's a great way to shrink government. But all in all, you need to deal with those bills one way or the other. And then of course, we have confirmations, you know, the governor's report confirmations are all of these different entities to serve on boards, you know, whether it's the board of trustees at the, you know, at a university down to the, you know, massage therapy board and everybody in between. And so we need to work through those and get some of those out of the way. We're going, we're gonna get started on the budgets here. I know the budget chairman have been working on that over the break. And so we'll be working on that. And then I think you are, you know, you're correct. Once we move through all of those things this week in the interim, then it's gonna be time to get back to tackling tough issues that we have not gotten to yet. And so whether that's dealing with PDM, whether that's dealing with the conversation between alpha and blue cross. And then of course, you know, Senator Gudger, I think it's wisely, you know, charting a pass, you know, here to how to deal with things and when to deal with things. I think there's an opportunity to deal with some things that maybe our colleagues know the other side of the aisle previously have expressed displeasure with. - Oh, well, we won't, in case anybody out there is listening in the Montgomery intelligentsia that likes to go tattletale, we won't get into that too much. But the PDM issue, it looks like that's got real wind in its sails. And I know that there's like some very powerful lobbies that are pushing back, but if you look around the chambers, I don't know that that's really working for them. - No, I mean, look, at the end of the day, we are certainly elected to deal with the issues that are important to our constituents, right? And sometimes they're broad and sometimes they're narrow. And this is a fairly narrow one. It's impactful across a broad group of people, but it's fairly narrow. And so I think what, again, many that have been negotiating this, I think the present proton is handling this well, is trying to find a sweet spot where we can provide some relief for these pharmacists who are currently having to pay more to purchase the prescription themselves than they are able to sell it for or being reimbursed for, is just an untenable business situation. And so what they're trying to do is figure out a way to fix that situation, but without completely upending health insurance costs and prescription-driven costs. And so I think it's a very scalpel approach. Obviously, the big PDM folks and the bigger entities in the state would like for things to stay just as they are. And it's much harder to get something done in Montgomery than it is to stop something from getting done. And they may ultimately be successful, but I think the path that our leadership in the Senate is starting for us is to try to find something that will find that sweet spot, address the pharmacist, the independent pharmacist concerns, the community pharmacist's concerns. And then, but not in a way that causes everybody's health insurance to increase. - Last one, speaking of health insurance, the Alpha Blue Cross Blue Shield saga. They've been running ads, the opponents of the Alpha Health Plan on the station. But what do you, I don't know, it's hard for me to find fault. Other than that, I guess he's out the insurance plan or whatever he'll call them, health plans, get to operate on a different set of rules than everybody else. - That's correct. And that's the big rub, right? I mean, I'm a free market guy and I think you ought to be able to sell what somebody will buy, you know? And if it's health insurance, that's fine. Is it important to realize that what is being discussed and being sold by Alpha is different from what's being sold by Blue Cross Blue Shield? Yes, it's different. Do I think that some of my constituents, if we approve this, are going to have a rude awakening one day when they find out they do not have the type of coverage that they thought they had when they purchased a cheaper product? Yes, but at the end of the day, I think it is right to allow to get government out of the way so that you can make informed decisions on your own. And if they are court decisions, then they are your court decisions. - Right. - And so, you know, I'm sorry, but at the end of the day, that's the market. - Well, not that I mean, we're running along here, but I want to get to send there is a real deficiency there. We want to keep a vibrant ag community in Alabama, but if Jeff Moore or Chris Elliott go out and stake out to be farmers, what do we do for health insurance coverage? And, you know, it's cost prohibitive. There's got to be an option on the table, and I don't know what that is. - Well, look, I sometimes, and, you know, and I've done it before, I buy a cheaper use truck that's not a space and doesn't get as good a mileage. And I do that because that's what I can afford. And I look at this the same way. - Senator, we always appreciate having you on. We'll catch up again next week. Thanks for hopping on. - Thanks, Jeff, you'll have a great weekend. - Stay Senator, Chris Elliott there. We got to get a break here. We'll be right back. This is FIT Talk 10065. (upbeat music) ♪ The first thing I remember ♪