Law institute budget fight mostly resolved
Freshman lawmaker orientation could be moved to Montgomery
By Dana Beyerle, Montgomery Bureau Chief Published: Monday, May 16, 2011
Facts
The Alabama Law Institute is an arm of the Legislature located at the University of Alabama School of Law. It helps clarify state laws and revise out-of-date laws. The institute said it is at the school to remove it from political influence. Membership is limited to 150 members of the Alabama State Bar, judges of the Alabama Supreme Court, courts of appeals, and circuit courts, federal judges domiciled in Alabama, full-time law faculty members of the UA law school and Cumberland School of Law at Samford
University.
MONTGOMERY | A legislative fight over the Alabama Law Institute’s 2012 budget appears to have been resolved, but
the institute-sponsored orientation session held every four years in Tuscaloosa will probably be moved to Montgomery.
House Republicans proposed slashing the institute’s funding from $623,000 this year to $50,000 in next year’s General Fund budget. Institute Director Bob McCurley said that essentially shut down the agency, created in 1967 to help the Legislature with legal matters.
House Speaker Mike Hubbard backed away last week from such a deep cut, but did not offer a new figure. He also
said the orientation session held at the University of Alabama School of Law every four years after new lawmakers take office
should be moved to Montgomery.
It has been held in Tuscaloosa since 1974, but it may not return. “To be honest, I think the orientation was a waste,” Hubbard said.
“I think it needs to be held in Montgomery.”
Orientation sessions traditionally feature top state officials and policy makers...
“At the orientation you heard from policy people, and the freshmen didn’t get anything out of it,” he said. “We came back and had our own orientation on, ‘Here’s the chamber, here’s your office, here’s how to vote.’ ”
The institute also gets an Education Trust Fund appropriation. This fiscal year, it was about $266,000, and next year’s appropriation is recommended at about $261,000.
Hubbard and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, met with McCurley after McCurley said the proposed cuts would force the institute to shut down. They told him to submit a finance plan for next year, a year in which most state agencies will get cut.
“We have to make changes,” Hubbard said.
The Senate version of the General Fund budget for next year would appropriate $561,562 to the institute. The budget is in a House-Senate conference committee.
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, chairman of the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee, doesn’t want the institute to disappear. “We certainly are going to deal with that (funding) matter in conference,” Orr said...
McCurley said a legislative orientation for freshmen was planned for Montgomery in January, but the special session on ethics in December waylaid those plans. “This was a nuts and bolts thing just for the new ones,” McCurley said.
McCurley has been with the institute for 37 years. His annual salary is $189,900, according records at the Retirement Systems of Alabama. That is in line with salaries of directors at other legislative support agencies.
The institute proposes law revisions and modernizing, assists the Supreme Court in making minor modifications to criminal procedure rules and operates a capital intern program.
The institute also arranges for additional legal counsel for Senate and House judiciary committees and for the last 12 years has provided legal counsel for all standing committees.
McCurley said the Legislature gets $2 million worth of free legal advice from volunteers in addition to the work the institute has done since 1967.
“I’d certainly like to see the law institute be as solid and successful as it has been in the past, but it’s important to recognize that with a new legislative leadership those individuals have different priorities and when you have new priorities often things happen,” said Rep. John Merrill, R-Tuscaloosa.
Freshman Rep. Bill Poole, R-Northport, is a member of the institute’s board. “I support the Alabama Law Institute being funded,” he said. “I believe the Alabama Law Institute provides a service to the Legislature and to many counties and cities across our state.”
Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, president of the Alabama Law Institute, said the institute is a significant help to lawmakers. “I talked to several members of the conference committee and I don’t see it going down the drain,” Ward said.
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