Bill to bring major industry to Colbert stalls

MONTGOMERY -- The only physician in the Senate on Tuesday tried to ease the gridlock that threatened economic development bills, including an important one for Colbert County, with a lighthearted diagnosis of stubbornness.

Sen. Parker Griffith, D-Huntsville, related a conversation he said he had with Gov. Bob Riley who last week pleaded with senators to pass an economic incentive bill designed to help lure a major steel plant to southwest Alabama.

The bill passed, and some senators believed relaxed tensions would carry over when the Senate reconvened.

Those hopes were dashed as the Senate only allowed introduction of a few local bills before resuming partisan bickering over the rules.

Commenting about the renewal of a session-long disagreement, Griffith said senators suffered from cranial ostosis, an "abnormal accumulation of calcium in the cranium.''

"In Louisiana, we call them boneheads and (Riley) said we call them boneheads in Ashland,'' Griffith said. "It turns into TBH ... terminal bonehead.''

Sen. Bobby Denton, D-Muscle Shoals, a member of the majority of 18 senators, admonished his own side over lack of progress in passing three of his bills designed to lure a major industry to Colbert County.

"We were this close to passing economic development bills for Colbert County,'' Denton said after

the Senate adjourned until 11 a.m. today.

His legislation includes sales taxes for Colbert and Lauderdale counties to support the new Shoals Industrial Development Committee, which would offer incentives to an industrial project known by its code name, Project Tiger. It's identified as a rail car plant.

"We have a plant coming into Colbert County that is just-as important to us as the steel mill,'' said Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville.

"The boxcar plant in Colbert County ... is 1,800 good, high-paying jobs,'' said Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe. "You people over there want to sit over there and hurt the people of north Alabama. You ought to be ashamed, you ought to be ashamed, you ought to be ashamed.''

The Senate action, or lack of it, almost is surreal because a member of the minority of 17 senators said the economic development bills eventually will pass.

"I called the governor and asked him if there's a time limit on this and he said no,'' said Sen. Bradley Byrne, R-Montrose.

Dana Beyerle can be reached at (334) 264-6605 or dtb12345@aol.com.