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State Senate Majority Leader Steve Livingston - Jeff Poor Show - Monday 7-08-24
and welcome to the Jeff Moore showed up and talk 106.5. They stay with us on this Monday morning. Texts like 2513430106. Joining us now has been a bit but in his new role as well. But he's now the majority leader in the Alabama state senate. Good friend Steve Livingston senator. Good morning. Are you? Good morning. Jeff. Hope you're doing well today. Do it well. Thanks for making time. Thanks for coming by. Um, well, let's kick off here since we haven't really talked a whole lot since you've been there. But how's that been going for you? You know, we had a good session this last time. We managed to get through some good, uh, good red meat, Republican bills and came down to some other issues dealing with near the session with the workforce and whatnot. And then we ended the session with a kind of a wham. Right. Well, and talk about that. I mean, is it? It seemed a little bumpy between the house and the senate there, but is that going to kind of resolve itself before next year you think? Oh, absolutely. It's probably already has resolved itself. You know, they send us stuff and we change it and we send them stuff and they change it. That's what happens. That's one of those two bodies. Right. Well, it's, uh, and then we send it to the governor and she changes it. The executive amendments. Yeah. It's an interesting process, but, uh, it just it gambling was kind of the anomaly where it felt like the house and the senate weren't on the same page. Everything else, though, if you look before the halfway point before the softball game, you know, kind of just the first two weeks in the house, they had gambling, but everything else seemed to kind of work is very well, very well, violent staff, other than that one issue, I think. Yeah. Well, uh, so what do you think this going forward? None of that's in the rearview mirror. Not gambling. I think I don't know. I may be wrong, but it doesn't seem like it's going to come back, but once left, it's quadrennium. Uh, there'll be some issues come up that we did not get to this last year. Obviously, um, some that we that we did and the house didn't do come back next year. Um, this, I like dealing with with the, um, library boards and then. Uh, also with, um, our archives folks that and some others that were did not get cleaned up totally. They'll be back and always some changes to be made in economic development and that's, and that workforce package that helps us get folks back to work. I mean, you feel pretty good about the accomplishments as far. I mean, I was talking a lot of members, senator, if y'all quit at halftime, it still would have been a pretty fairly decent session, right? If we'd quit at halftime, it'd been a great session. You know, those 10, 10 bills, I guess that we ran through, including the in virtual and virtual fertilization. Any one of those items inside a legislative session would have been a really big lift and, you know, to, but to do the eight or nine or 10 of them that we did. Uh, including having that thrown long, said the last, kind of the last minute to take care of. And, you know, that's an issue that may be back next year. Who knows? We all were very nimble being able to do that and the curveballs that we're throwing at you. I guess it's just part of the job. Jack being able to be quick. Well, um, beyond statewide, we haven't talked in a while, kind of coming up to get part of the state. What's ever going to happen to Belfast? Uh, Belfast has been obviously, you know, the TVA opted not to sell it and it got put into their, um, put back into their inventory program. They are looking at TVA is looking at some sort of power generation out there in the future, really. Um, it may be what they would classify as small, modular, nuclear reactors, SMRs. Um, we'd love to see some combination of something happen out there. They, they're a little bit behind the curveball. So back when, uh, Alabama Power of Southern companies was investing, what, some 15? I think it's 15, is it billion dollars? They were invested in, in Vocal 3 and 4 that started in 2008, 2009, 2010, you know, TVA started scaling down. They were, they were not looking for any future generations at that point in time. And, uh, while Southern company had the foresight to go on and knowing that was coming and, of course, you get into the late 2000, 18, 1920s, and you got all the growth coming in Tennessee Valley here. They're, they're, they've got to do something for power generation for the future to take care of our, our needs. That's, that's fascinating. And, but, for the sake of our listeners at a mobile, Belfront for, for the Carter administration goes all the way back to the, what, 70s? In 1974. Yeah. Well, the before the Carter administration, before I was born, um, did they, did this nuclear power plant and it kept, was on again, off again, on again, off again. And then finally the last, I'd say last 10 years, there was some discussion about a public, public, private thing and then that fell apart. But they built, they built it up. The cooling towers are there. If you drive through Jackson County, if you drive down 72, like your head to Chattanooga, you see it. And it looks like a nuclear power plant, but it's just kind of a ghost town, right? It is a ghost town. There's not much activity going on out there. They do, they do some training out there, military training and FBI, I think does a little training out there, but they really, um, it was basically 85% complete. When they walked away from it, they had an opportunity to sell it to a private investor and have an investment with a private investor and they tried to make that happen and it didn't happen for the last minute for multiple reasons. But in the meantime, you know, the valley's sitting there with this eyesore. Yeah, well, and so I, for a summer, I lived up there and my college roommate was from Scottsboro, but that was like, that's what brought him to that area. His father was a nuclear physicist. And they just kind of wound up staying there the whole time, but like people's lives were like, were really impacted by this and what was going to happen. And then you and I would always talk about it. When I first started radio at 19 in Huntsville, it was like, well, this would be such a big economic driver, but they just, whatever reason the powers that beat didn't want it to happen. Um, TVA has a little bit of an issue with debt limit. They have a congressional debt limit set and they don't have the money to complete the project they are now saying that some of the scrap stuff they've taken out, they can't be replaced and all the above. So it won't, the plan itself, as it is there, won't come back as a nuclear facility. They could take small, modular reactors or maybe even the model that, um, that, um, saw the company used down at Vocal 3 and 4 of the AP-1000s and come back in. Cooling towers in shape, they could be used. Some of the, everything, but the, um, the reactors probably can be used out there. They just have to be rebuilt in some capacity. Well, I mean, you're still just going to play out, but I'm glad to hear that something's going to happen out there. I mean, there was all kinds of speculation what could happen, but, you know, that's 5-6,000 jobs when they're building out there for probably 5 years consecutively. It'll ramp up and ramp back down, but, you know, that's a huge economic investment there. You know, enjoyed by State Senate Majority Leader Steve Livingston here on the program. Back to what's going on, kind of in Montgomery. Um, well, first, the, I guess we'd be remiss. I talk about gambling, but, um, what happened there, you think, did you see the way that played out coming? The, you know, the Senate pretty well did not have the votes to pass the house plan when it came up. Uh, we sent them back a, uh, something that we could pass, and I think we only passed it by one vote when we sent it back. Um, and we went to conference committee and, uh, we just could not come to an agreement that, that both, both bodies could agree to, to be honest. So, uh, came down to the last minute. And it was the last, uh, attempt at the, at the very last of the session to revive it. And, and the votes just were not there. Folks were just not there. Yeah, well, it, it'll come back again. It's becoming back all my life. It'll, it'll be back, it'll be back again and probably stronger than ever. So, uh, we'll see what we can put together in the next few months. I don't know that it'll be back next year or the next year, but it'll be back in the first year of the next Quadranium, for sure. Uh, national politics, kind of a crazy time right now, and we'll get election in November. What do you, what do you, you know, I mean, Alabama's gonna do what Alabama's gonna do. We do have one competitive congressional race in the second congressional district, but, um, the Joe Biden and then what's going on in the country and it's impacting Alabama directly. I mean, what do you think? Um, you know, I think President Trump will have a huge show in Alabama this next time. And I think that will reflect very positively on, on CD2. Uh, I think Caroline Dobson down there will, will have a, uh, very good vote. Uh, she's got a strong opponent and she'll marry figures. But I think this is gonna be one of the courts, uh, might have left, should have left long when they, when it happens. So we'll see. You think that's gonna be revisited, like, because you, you were part of that, the reapportionment effort. And, like, I know there was some drama there, but I talked to Jerry Carl and I talked to, I mean, they think that something else has gotta happen and it's gonna be sent back to you guys eventually. Uh, you know, we take that case to court in February of this next year, 25. So we'll see what, see what that three judge panel does to, to that. Again, uh, there's been some things that have happened in the 11th, and the 11th circuit, it makes a little different. Also, and, uh, in the South Carolina recently that changes some things. So we'll see where we are in February with that. It'll be a good time. Uh, the Senate has, you know, it's, the Senate's case will be held in, in November of this next year. There's two seats that are, uh, a question there. Senate, Senate District 7, Senate District 25. So we'll see what the court says about that. And that's down to a one, one judge panel in here. How did you ever get into the, uh, portion of my business? Like, you know, this, it's just sort of, how did you wind up? Did you, you didn't seek this out, did you? Uh, the pro team asked me to do that and I did. Fair enough. Yes. So here we are today. Yeah, here we are today. Uh, it's, um, not a joke, but it's the gift to keep it on giving. Yeah, well, uh, best to look there. Last question, we'll get you out of here on this, uh, leader. The, uh, this event, it's been going on nine years now. So talk about how it came to be, um, everything that, you know, now it's, it's growing and growing and growing every year. Yeah, you know, Nathaniel and I were, uh, appeared one year at the potato festival. And we, I think after the first year we were elected, we started riding together in the parade. And we were doing that and we just came up with a concept. He said, well, what if we had some, what if we cooked breakfast for everybody before the parade? And the next thing I know, you know, we, we did it. And like he said a little earlier today, we were a little, uh, organized that first year. I think we had the coffee ready at 730, but that was about it. Um, we got, got some folks volunteered to help us and really took over and made it, made it quite a show and we'll probably feed close to 300 people today. Well, the speaker's talking about it and like it's like an old timey political event. I mean, it's 4th of July and we're celebrating the, uh, the birthday of the country. But like our system of government, I mean, politics is just such a part of it. All politics is local and it can't get any more local than right here in Henoger, Alabama today. Yeah, well, thanks for having us and, uh, let's catch up again soon. I appreciate it. Thanks, Jeff. Hey, stay set. Majority leader, uh, Steve Livingston, uh, here are with us. We're gonna get a break and you'll be right back. This is the Jeff Pore show. What if it talked? 1 0 6 5.