Alabama speaker of the house Nathaniel Ledbetter made a special stop in Dadeville last week.
He was invited to be the guest speaker of a recent Lake Martin Dadeville Area Kiwanis meeting, and he said Alabama’s future is looking bright.
“If you look at what we've done as a state over the past few years, Alabama has been blessed,” Ledbetter said.
Alabama is the No. 1 exporter in automobiles in the country, and he said in 2025 the state is expected to export more than a million cars. Alabama is also No. 1 in building commercial airlines thanks to companies like Airbus. The state is in the top five with ship building and soon will be getting into the submarine industry. Alabama is also making waves with having one of the fastest growing research hubs.
“We should be proud of our state,” Ledbetter said. “We really should. We should be proud of what we've accomplished.”
Part of Ledbetter’s role is serving as chairman of the Southern Legislative Conference. As the chairman, he brings the convention to Alabama so leaders from 15 other states get to see the great work being done.
“In the last few years, the incentives that we've offered in Alabama have grown over 80,000 jobs with investment of over $50 billion,” Ledbetter said. “We have offered those incentives to towns just like yours. We have got a program called the SEEDS act, where industrial development sites can be added on to or can be expanded, or utilities can be put in there, that's making a difference in rural Alabama.”
Last year, the legislature also passed the Alabama Workforce Pathways Act, which makes it easier for students to pursue technical school or workforce development. Another good piece of news for Alabama’s education is the state’s tests have gone up. In reading, the state has risen from one of the bottom scores to 39th, and in math, the score has risen from 47th to 34th in the country.
Going into the legislative session, there are a few more bills coming through that will continue to make Alabama a great place, Ledbetter said.. There is a package of nine bills that aims to make Alabama a safer community by supporting local police officers.
One of the bills is to do away with the Glock switch, which can essentially convert a regular gun into a machine gun. Another concern is retaining police officers. One of the incentives the state is hoping to implement is a scholarship opportunity for children of police officers.
Ledbetter added Alabama State Rep. Ed Oliver has done a wonderful job as chairman of the Veterans Affairs. The Veteran Affairs committee has a bill coming up to ensure veterans have access to mental health resources.
“Over the past few years. Alabama was in deficit in mental health, and I worked extensively on mental health,” Ledbetter said. “We now spend over $400 million on mental health, more than what we did just five years ago. We've opened crisis care centers, seven of them all across the state. We got 15 mobile units. We got mental health coordinators in every school system. We did the Step It Up program. We've done peer-to-peer programs. It's been amazing what we've been able to do, but we were so far behind, and we have a long way to go.”
The 2025 legislative session started Tuesday.
