Alabama Farm Center legislation approved, ending two-day drama over gambling and lottery politics

Alabama lawmakers approved legislation Wednesday that creates a tax-exempt body to oversee the construction and operations of an approximately $160 million regional agricultural center in Jefferson County, ending two days of legislative drama that linked the bill’s passage to a stalled gambling and lottery provision.

The Alabama House voted 92-7 to concur with a legislative conference committee on SB219, which establishes the Agriculture Exhibition Center Corporation to operate the Alabama Farm Center in Warrior. The legislation now goes to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature.

“This is an economic boom for the state of Alabama,” said Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham. “It will create over 1,000 jobs initially. For all the Birmingham and Jefferson area, and the State of Alabama, this is huge.”

The approval came less than a day after the bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, vowed to hold up passage of any House bills that advanced to the Senate over what he said was an effort by House members to block advancing SB219 because of the Senate’s vote last week to defeat a lottery and gambling measure.

Those connections continued on the House floor, with Rep. Chris Blackshear, R-Smiths Station – the sponsor of the gambling and lottery package that passed the Alabama House – questioning the Legislature’s support for the high-cost venue while lawmakers prevented opportunities to raise new revenues.

“I was looking at it from a state budget perspective,” Blackshear said, before voting in support of the legislation. “We’re very blessed. I learned in my few years here that it’s easier to deny people’s request for money when you’re broke. The more money you have, the most often the hands are up. We will have to have serious conversations to fund things … the days of increasing are (ending). We’re going to have to decrease if we don’t find other revenues coming in.”

Other lawmakers frowned upon the legislation saying the House was approving a bill the Senate wanted while the Senate was not willing to consider the same for the House.

“We need to unify as one,” said State Rep. Mary Moore, R-Birmingham. “We need to do the same things to them as they do to us. How many of our bills they are holding hostage up there? We are just as powerful and as equal as they are.”

Shelnutt, following a filibuster in the Senate Tuesday, blamed gambling interests for what happened to SB219 initially. Shelnutt is among the senators who voted against a constitutional amendment that would set up an Aug. 20 special election for voters to decide if the state should authorize lottery and an expansion of casino gambling statewide. The constitutional amendment bill was defeated by a single vote on April 30.

The Senate could reconsider the gambling and lottery bills, which they defeated by a single vote on April 30. But they have to vote on the package before the end of Thursday, which is the expected final day of the spring legislative sessions.

The Alabama Farm Center project is being developed in partnership with the Alabama Farmers Federation, a strong opponent of gambling.

The Senate and House passed SB219 without a dissenting vote in April. But because the House made some changes to the bill, it went to a conference committee of three representatives and three senators to try and reconcile the differences.

Approval of the conference committee version required signatures from at least two of the three members from each chamber, but that did not happen on Tuesday as only one House member signed onto it – Rep. Danny Crawford, R-Athens. Crawford is the bill’s sponsor in the Alabama House.

The other two members – Rep. Sam Jones, D-Mobile; and Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest – were part of an ad hock committee that developed and supported gambling legislation in the Alabama House. Neither of them signed the bill Tuesday.

Whitt showed up to a committee meeting on Wednesday to sign the bill. Asked by reporters about his absence Tuesday, he said it was unrelated to the fate of the gambling legislation but was a matter of not receiving notice about the meeting until eight minutes it occurred.

With the legislation’s approval, the Alabama Farm Center will be built to support barns and livestock shows, the site to host an annual fair and feature facilities to attract year-round events such as horse shows to home and garden exhibitions. The project is expected to have an annual economic impact of $40 million to over $50 million.