FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Rep. Jennifer Fidler - Jeff Poor Show - Monday 9-16-24
[Music] Welcome back to the Jump 4 Show on FM Talk 106.5. They just stick it around on this brand new morning. 3430106, you want to be in touch with the program. All you got to do is text me, still to come on the program this morning. We'll talk to Dell Jackson, WVNN. That's about an hour from now. And we'll talk to Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth. That's in the 11 o'clock hour, so please make sure you stick around for that. But joining us here in the Fair Home Bureau, it's been a few weeks, but we're always glad she can make time for us. State Representative Jennifer Fiddler, Representative, good morning, how are you? I'm doing great, Jeff. How are you doing? I'm recovering from an otherwise long weekend. We had the Algop meeting. You and I got the, well, you had the dinner. You didn't have to go to the meeting, right? I did not go to the meeting Saturday. Yeah, it's a little bit of drama there at the very, very end about a gambling resolution. We'll talk about that later, guys. Just kind of a footnote in politics today. But we'll talk about that. Laura Trump, I thought, well, did a pretty good job. I mean, here's how, like, judgy speeches, because not that I've watched Laura Treble a lot, but kind of watching in and taking notes because I'm a journalist or whatever. But, like, you look down at, oh, she's been speaking for 25 minutes. It just happened like that. And then it's over in a half hour. The speaker they had in the winter meeting was Kelly and Conway. And it seemed like it went on forever. I thought, like, just brevity and short. Here it is. It's election time. It's time to get out and go. I mean, I thought she did a pretty good job. Yeah, she was, she, I thought she did a great job, too. I mean, she was point on and she did keep our attention. I really, I don't think I ever looked down. She's, she was spot on on so many different things on so many different levels, entertaining. You know, she talked about carrying her home state of North Carolina or South Carolina. North Carolina in the 2016 election and that her father-in-law had asked her to do that. And she, she did it. And co-chair now of this committee, she, yeah, she did a great job. Yeah, she did a good job and it was really like, like I said, what, one of these speeches that went on and on and on and on, it was just the right length. And we got out of there and went about our business on a Friday night. You know, these things, these dinners can go on for an eternity. But this one felt, it felt like where it needed to be. But that's a little inside baseball for you there. What else have you been up to? Well, manufacturing Alabama was here and point clear last week. So it, a lot of legislators braved the storm and came on in on that Wednesday night, even though we, you know, were faced with these storm, and drove into the, of the hurricane, so to speak. So thank you to everybody who came down. That was a successful conference. Like I know there was a lot of things canceled on that Wednesday due to the weather. But then Thursday evening, the sunset couldn't have been prettier. Alan Seals posted it on his Facebook page and talked about the different types of clouds. But it was just a, it was a great event. The governor came down, she spoke. We had a political analyst that came and spoke. We had a lady who talked about the different generations of millennials and the X generation, Y generation, how come we can't get some of our manufacturing, the manufacturers trying to hire people and young people. And they just think our younger people, I should say. And there's a, the thought processes that between the generations and it was interesting. You know, the whole conference. Well, I mean, you get, and it happens a few times a year as you get a lot of your Montgomery colleagues down into your district to see it. And so like the timing of that was pretty rough though with the weather and the rain. It was, and we had a lot of cancellations, but you know, it was a great attendance. It was a good attendance. And the manufacturer Alabama, they always do a great job putting on that conference. And it's just good to highlight what they do. They were a big proponent of the childcare tax credit. Senator Gudger was able to speak. Yeah, that was a big one. Like he, it doesn't mean you may remember he was in a Fourth of July jet ski accident. I mean, he was a critical condition. And I mean, people are really concerned. He was, you know, that would really be it for him. But back on the stage down a point clear last week. Yeah, near death experience. He mentioned that it was this really great to see him. A lot of prayers have been going out for Senator Gudger. And we're just thrilled that he's doing as well as he is. Speaker Ledbetter was on stage. Director of the Secretary of Commerce, Ms. McNair was on stage. I get certain questions about a lot of, like the childcare tax credit and some of the game plan, those type things. So it's just real informative and educational. What do you, what do you get the sense coming out of that? I mean, what is, what do you think those guys? Well, what's their goal? Or do they, do they have something they got their eye on? Because it goes out of BCA. They were playing in the 24 or 26 elections. And Clay Scofield said, you know, they were going to kind of gear up for that election cycle. And, you know, they were going to get their candidates in place. Did you get a political message or was it more policy? I think it was, I think it, across the board, I didn't get a feel for either one. I mean there was not a lot of policy that was brought out from manufacturer Alabama, like it had been in the previous years. And didn't really hear too much about like political candidates either, actually. It's just a good educational conference that it's a lot more low key than the business council of Alabama. And I, we are, we're just blessed to be in this district that so many of our legislators come down for and enjoy. I'm so glad that they're able to do that. Enjoyed by state representative Jennifer Fiddler here on the program. Well, so over the last week and a half, I've become very close with your colleague Ben Robbins. This Haitian resettled bit stuff going on around the state. I don't think we're seeing quite as much of it in this other part of state. I hear enterprises become a hot point. But most of it is Alabama, like central Alabama north. Yeah, you're keeping up with this. Not much, a little bit, but we haven't seen it here that I know of. And I've, you know, we have a new sheriff. I've been to his, you know, we went to his swearing in and wishing him all the best. Sheriff Lowry. I think I would have heard, you know, him saying something. I'm concerned about it. And I haven't had any constituents really reach out. We do have a, I would have taken a migrant problem. If you want to call it a problem or an issue, just let it say problems are experiencing or what we have here with the language barrier, maybe some cultural differences. But certainly like public service not being able to communicate with the influx of people. And that seems to be a struggle. Yeah, and I've reported that before in my school visits that I've done. We have 26 to 30% of our students that are non-English speaking in a couple of our schools in District 94 that seems to be worse. And, you know, my colleagues, districts and in Baldwin County, we have upwards to 40%. If you can imagine 40% and then we may have a teacher that is one, we have one teacher per 100 students that's actually helping these students learn English and transition. So they pull these older students and help get them to help actually teach English to the younger students, which is a great, you know, plan of action. But it just almost seems to be overwhelming for our teachers and school systems here, doing a great job, compeding it in our public school system. But you got to remember those things affect test scores. They affect these score cards. And these lower socioeconomic areas of this county is affected by the immigration. And interestingly, you know, some of the principals, you know, they've, you know, they've been impressed with, you know, we're children and we just want to love them. We just want to take care of them. But they have washers and dryers in their schools washing clothes because there may be three immigrant families living in a mobile home at Mary's trailer park down in Sommerdale. That's what's going on across the state. They get a sponsorship at the border with Aunt Maria or what have you. And then, you know, you have three or four families living in a small, very small place. Do we, I mean, is it as simple as this that the magnet is just a availability of jobs? And the availability of jobs, maybe because, yeah, people here that just aren't going to take these jobs or what we have. We have like an employment deficiency here. I think growth is a balance. We have to be balanced when we grow. And if you grow too fast or faster than your, you know, employee rate can keep up, then it's, and that's what we're seeing here. We've brought in many, many jobs, higher paying jobs. Well, people are leaving lower paying jobs to go to the higher paying jobs. They've been here. They've had more experience. So you're seeing that change. And with that, the lower paying jobs are, they're just more abundant. So I think we're not, there's a balance. We don't have, we're not, we're, we're just not balanced. It's kind of a crazy situation, Baldwin County, because, you know, just not throwing this around. The economy is very diverse, right? It's, it's, you got a service sector, a tourism sector, you have an ag sector. You have, you have all these different parts of pieces, because the county's so big, too, that a lot of counties, they are very heavy in one or another. Here, you have a big pie, but it splits so many different ways. And I could see like that being a problem. Like, okay, well, which track do you going to take? Where do you want to work? What do you want to do? And at the end of the day, I mean, it's like musical chairs, and sometimes it's going to be without. I don't know. I think that gives everybody an opportunity to do to find, you know. I guess you don't have enough people here, too, right? Well, that's, I mean, it's a challenge because we've grown. I think pretty fast. And we've filled all these, you know, starting to fill these, uh, prepaid jobs. And then we... People like me who work from home and bring their job with them, right? Yeah. So, so it's, it's that. And the, well, while you have this population growth going on, um, the, the problem is like, and they're employed people, but they're just not, these jobs are opening up because of the growth, right? Hey, they are. I mean, that is why they're coming here. This is why we're seeing, because when you talk to the people in Escambi County or in Keneca County and in our rural sectors, you're not going to hear them tell you that they've got 30% of their schools that are non-English speaking. I've talked to the superintendents. They do not have those issues. It is more of the more populated areas where the people can find work. The immigrants can find work, um, you know, uh, uh, you know, cleaning houses, cleaning condos, landscaping, construction, uh, you know, those type of very strenuous type labor jobs that are, if you talk to these folks that are in those businesses, they're having hard time finding employees that are, you know, really produce quality work. I mean, it's a very different set of circumstances than Talladega County or Marshall County or any of these, I mean, I didn't even think of Barbara County where you are familiar with where you have a chicken processing plan or whatever it is, comes in and they have these jobs and there's maybe the population is not as interested in taking them. There's other ways they can make a living or whatever, but the deal is so they just bring in that labor because the people there argue they don't think it pays enough for for every reason. They're not taking those jobs here, people taking jobs, but it just continues to be this problem. It's like, uh, an appointment problem where you just don't have the bodies to occupy these spaces. Yeah. I mean, you can, I mean, you look at our unemployment rate and it tells you when you're as low as we, what are we still? I'm not sure exactly where we were, but we, we were at like 2.3 percent. Not sure where we are today. Two six or something. I think. Yeah. It's pretty low. It's actually like Shelby County's in the ones, but everywhere else needs to be in the twos and higher. Wow. Shelby County's in the ones. Wow. It's like high ones. I think. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. But part of the problem is represented that they just people stop looking for jobs so they can stop getting counted in these surveys. So they don't really, they don't really give you a true sense of what's going on, but I guess the point is like the available workforce, it's there in some places and that's, that's these trigger processing plants that they just paid more probably to get these people up off their couches. They come work for them, but here I don't know that that's necessarily the remedy because I feel like there are a lot of really high paying jobs that people just are having a hard time with in Baltimore County filling. Yeah. Yeah. I just, and I, we've got a very low unemployment rate. That's where a lot of our immigrants are coming to try to feel some of those labor, the labor risk jobs that hopefully you wish for the best. We'll get to this on the other side where you talk about some of the things coming up. I, I, I taught the Mary cell in the show last week about this upcoming legislative session and you know, it's still got a big question mark. I don't know if you're paying attention to the Alabama Republican party over the weekend, but a faster resolution against gambling. I don't think that's a concern until the next quadrennium and maybe you know otherwise, but the question is kind of like what are we, we knew it this time last year, we would have ethics, we would have gambling, we would have school choice, we would have all these hot buttons and now heading into this session and it's, you know, it's September. So we got some time, but what's going to be the big issue. Damn, our platform committee is coming together in about a week and I think our, you know, our, my colleagues are submitting, you know, what's important to the people. Right. So we're listening. All right. We'll be right back. This is the Jeff pore show with FM talk. What, oh, six five. All right. Let's take it on. Let's take it on to have some muscle shows through the caters. Mm. Right. I focus Spanish for it into my home town, Mr. Team. Welcome back to the Jeff pore show. And at the talk, one of six, five, eight, you're sticking with us on this Monday morning, two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six lots of tax there. We will talk Trump assassination attempt and whatever else is dealing with the president going out with the presidential race here in the next few segments. But for right now, one more segment with our, our, well, my state lawmaker, Jennifer Fiddler, a couple of things to hit on here before we got to cut it, cut it off. Peanuts. You guys, I brought Jeff some peanuts in here from Fiddler farms, Sean Sullivan. The last time I, he interviewed me on the radio. He asked me how the peanuts are doing. The peanuts are fabulous. We've got bull in Cajun at the farm and I brought Jeff roasted Cajun and bull. But I hear that he may not like what's going on with that. You don't like pulled peanuts? Your wife does that. Who told you that? Well, most people get really excited whenever they see me bring in the peanuts. Well, don't, don't, don't mistake my lack of enthusiasm for a, for a dislike. Okay. The farm has got peanuts. I do want to make sure everybody knows that because I do get asked that a lot. And I wanted to mention another in my mind agricultural related event that happened. We had a, uh, we celebrated the seafood labeling bill, which is going to label seafood of place of origin, where your seafood is actually coming from. And we feel like that's going to help our shrimp, our seafood industry, uh, the mayor of balabatry, uh, cooked, I bet you 50 gallons of shrimp for the people to come out and celebrate the bill and the passage of that bill. So anything we can do to help our local, our shrimp industry, our local seafood industry. Well, it's more than that. I mean, like this, this Asian soy that's show it up at every restaurant. And I mean, nobody wants that, right? Well, we're worried and this is a real concern how this, these different, who, the farming of these shrimp and to see food and how the practices they're actually, how are this houses food actually farmed, they don't have the standards or the, the, the sanitary conditions that we have here. I mean, they just, exactly whatever, whatever goes, exactly. And it's downright disgusting when you look into it. So the consumer needs to know where their food is coming from. And I was a big proponent of that super proud of my colleague, representative Chip Brown, um, Senator David Sessions for carrying that. I said we had that event, uh, last week, I guess, the Meyer Bible battery and whenever they did that. Well, that was, I mean, you go in these, you look at these like, I don't know, like you go to buffet and they got fried fish, this is high likelihood. It's not any from anywhere you want to eat here. Right. So to me, I think this labeling thing is, is a real service because you've got to know those practices overseas, they just, they just don't, I mean, not that we have real stringent here, but compared over there. Yeah. It is. And the next bill that's coming up that representative Brown again is sponsoring is a fee or more of a heavier license fee on or permit, uh, on foreign seafood coming in. So that's going to be, that's already pre-filed if anybody wants to go look at it, but that's going to be a good one. I think as well. It's an agricultural inspection there, uh, representative always appreciate you coming in and we'll do it again a couple of weeks. Thank you, Jeff. Good morning everybody. Thank you for the PETA still mistake by a lack of enthusiasm for anything other than that. We'll be right back. This is F.F. Talk 10065. Thank you. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪