I’ve written about or lobbied the Alabama Legislature for almost 50 years and witnessed the good and the bad over that period of time.

As a part of my duties I spent most of my 28 years with the state court system dealing with legislators and legislative issues. Prior to that time I spent eight years reporting about the legislature, among other matters, as a writer and editor of what was then The Florence Times/Tri Cities Daily; and following state employment, publisher of The Montgomery Independent and The Millbrook Independent.

So I’ve seen a lot. I’ve witnessed Democrats in control stifle meaningful Republican participation and for the past four years the opposite. I have argued for at least two decades that we need to end political party designation for the legislature, and more importantly, for the judicial branch of state government.

That won’t necessarily end political divides but it would allow candidates to participate in a more equal setting. Then, at least in the lower chamber, we need to reduce the numbers we send to Montgomery to enact our laws. And most important, we should require legislators to work full time and prohibit them from holding other paid positions. Lastly, we should increase their pay to at least the average pay of other fulltime state legislative positions. We already pay them around $50,000 for their part time service and the lobbyists provide additional thousands in gratuities.

Those of you in political power who realize or should realize the futility of the process we now have, ought to consider this idea.

The recently ended session; what passed, what didn’t

Abortion: The legislature passed new regulations for abortion clinics requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals; make it a felony for nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants to dispense abortion-inducing drugs; and require major expansions for existing clinics.

School Accountability: Besides the tax credit for parents of children in failing schools, the controversial bill preserves its initial purpose — allowing schools to apply for waivers from certain state education laws. It also permits the creation of “scholarship granting organizations” to allow qualifying students to attend private schools. Individuals and companies can deduct donations made to those groups out of the Education Trust Fund.

Budgets: The Education Budget, aside from funding schools, provides teachers and other school workers 2 percent pay raises; which also includes a 50-percent increase in pre-kindergarten funding and $40 million to absorb the costs of the Accountability Act.

The General Fund: Problems remain in the $1.7 billion General Fund budget, which funds most non-education services in the state. State employees, who have not received a pay raise of any sort since 2008, will not get one next year.

Guns: The legislation already signed into law expands where guns can be carried, makes it easier to obtain a gun permit, requires a sheriff to issue a pistol permit within 30 days, allows people to store a firearm in their vehicle on work property if they meet certain conditions, and allows people to transport a pistol in their vehicle without a permit if it is out of reach and unloaded.

Consolidation: The Legislature passed and Bentley signed a proposal that consolidated law enforcement functions from several state agencies under the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency and created a cabinet-level position to oversee it.

One of the surprisingly more controversial bills of the session was one that would have provided legal protections to spay/neuter clinics that only offer those services. It died when the Senate failed to act on the House legislation.

The bill got caught up in all the final-day cluster and opposition by a small but loud group of veterinarians who strongly opposed the bill, mainly because they see the low-cost, nonprofit spay/neuter clinics as competition.

“It was such a good bill, the state’s largest vet organization, the Alabama Veterinary Medical Association, supported it,” wrote Josh Moon of The Montgomery Advertiser. That association has over 700 members. It was also such good legislation that it garnered the support of House Speaker Mike Hubbard and a significant majority of House members.

Bob Martin is editor and publisher of The Montgomery Independent. Email him at: bob@montgomeryindependent.com