David Bronner wants special session on Alabama gambling legislation

Retirement Systems of Alabama CEO David Bronner said he would like to see Gov. Kay Ivey call a special session to try again to pass a proposed constitutional amendment on gambling that failed by one vote during the annual session that ended in May.

Bronner, speaking to reporters after Tuesday’s quarterly meeting of the Employees’ Retirement System Board of Control, said he is concerned that leaner times are coming and the state will need revenue to sustain progress in education and other areas.

Bronner said the revenue from a gambling package could help offset tax cuts passed the last couple of years and the cost of a new school choice program, the CHOOSE Act, which will allow parents to use $7,000 in tax dollars to pay for private school, money that would otherwise support public education. Bronner said that could be a problem in a state that already lags behind most other states in school funding.

“That train is coming down the track,” Bronner said.

Alabama lawmakers spent more than a year developing a plan for a lottery, casinos, and sports betting that in its initial form would have generated more than $900 million a year in net revenue for the state, according to estimates by the Legislative Services Agency.

The House of Representatives passed the plan, then later passed a compromise version with no sports betting. The compromise plan fell one vote short in the Senate. Approval would have put it on the ballot for voters, who have the final say on gambling legislation.

It was the closest the Legislature has come to putting a lottery on the ballot for voters since 1999.

For several years, Ivey has advocated for a statewide vote on the gambling issue, including during her State of the State address in February. She supported the plan that passed the House this year.

“Governor Ivey has been on the record for years saying the people of Alabama deserve to have their say on gaming,” Gina Maiola, communications director for Ivey, said in an email in response to Bronner’s comments Tuesday. “In fact, she commissioned a study group in 2020 to help the Legislature and the voters make the best decision with all the facts. Since then, Governor Ivey has been engaged in every legislative effort and even supported multiple attempts this past session. While she remains supportive of legislation to address gambling in Alabama, she has made it clear that she has no plans to call a special session at this time.”

Bronner, CEO of Alabama’s pension funds teachers and other public employees since 1973, said he believes Ivey could use her influence as governor to change votes in the Senate and put the gambling package on the ballot.

“She’s the one that’s got the leadership ability to say, ‘I didn’t lose by half the Senate,’” Bronner said. “‘I lost by one vote. I know I can get one vote, like three or four or five that could get on this thing if they want my help the next two years.’”

Bronner praised Ivey and House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, who spearheaded support for the gambling package in the House, where it had died in previous years. Bronner said Ledbetter reminded him of Joe McCorquodale, who was speaker from the mid-1970s until the early 1980s.

“I think you have the first and best, toughest speaker I’ve seen since I was a youngster and I came here and Joe McCorquodale, I mean, he ran the place,” Bronner said. “You’ve got a guy that’s running the place now and he’s doing unbelievably good things. You’ve got a good governor, you know, compared to a lot of other ones.”

But Bronner said he did not want to see what he considers strong initiatives started in the last few years fall to the wayside because of funding problems a few years down the road.

“What you don’t want is have the next governor come in and all the good programs that Kay did, all the good programs that the Legislature did, catch hell, and say, oh, now we’re broke again,” Bronner said. “I have seen that about three or four times.”