It’s a real struggle right now. We have a total lack of leadership in Montgomery.”Sen. Paul Bussman
CULLMAN – Sen. Paul Bussman, R-Cullman was the guest speaker at Tuesday night’s Cullman County Republican Women meeting. Bussman spoke about the current lack of leadership in Montgomery and his optimistic outlook on the future of Alabama politics.
“We have a tremendous problem in the state of Alabama,” Bussman began. “The Republican Party has lost its focus; they are worried about their ‘brand.’ They’ve lost that ‘brand.’ The supermajority has had many opportunities to do things that would improve the state and make the state a better place, and they balked at it. The Republican Party has asked the legislature to do several things for them; close a precinct, close the primaries, that sort of thing. They simply get blown off by the leadership of the legislature. It’s a real struggle right now. We have a total lack of leadership in Montgomery.”
Bussman addressed the recent failure of Governor Robert Bentley’s prison plan, which would have meant borrowing up to $800 million to build four new prisons. He also talked about the $950 million BP oil spill settlement, with $50 million each year from 2016 until 2018 and $53.33 million each year from 2019 until 2033 going to the state’s General Fund.
“In my opinion we should have set that money aside, we should have put that money into a trust fund or we should have done something so that we have something to show for it at the end of the time.”
Bussman talked about “the failing school systems” in Alabama. He said he has asked the state school board to give him a plan that’s going to improve the school system in Alabama before they come into session next time. If they don’t come up with something that will work, he said, he will start cutting their funding.
“We’ve got an elected school board we send a tremendous amount of money to. It’s time for them to do their job, and I made that very clear at the end of the session. It’s their (Alabama State Board of Education) responsibility to make the school systems the best in the country, not mine.”
As far as the next election goes, Bussman said there’s got to be a change in leadership. The governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and other positions will term out, which opens the door for several leadership changes. He said it will be critical who moves and who stays. “We need some new blood in leadership.”
In the end, Bussman said he is optimistic; that one day a light is going to come on and people are going to say, “We can’t do it this way anymore.
“I’m always optimistic that we have a core that is strong enough to hold the line; we’ve got a core strong enough to move into some leadership positions as the years go by so we can make some changes we need to make.”
After a lengthy question and answer session, the night ended on a good note. The evening turned out to be very informative. Many of the guests gathered around the senator afterwards to chat before leaving for the night.
The next meeting of the Cullman Chapter of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women will be on June 14 at 6 p.m. at VFW Post 2214 at 112 Veterans Drive SW. June’s special guest speaker will be Cullman County Circuit Clerk Lisa McSwain.
