10 lines from Gov. Robert Bentley’s special session press conference to make you say “what?”

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Gov Robert Bentley bill signing
Robert Bentley

Friday morning the Governor held a press conference to talk about his call for a special session. Here are some key take aways.

From the “makes you think” file courtesy of Gov. Robert Bentley

  1. “I truly believe they [legislators]are ready to solve the problems with this state” (This is in spite of both the Speaker and the President Pro Tem releasing statements saying they aren’t)
  2. “I just listened and nodded my head.” (On leadership “across the street” calling for an Aug. special session.)
  3. “Even though the people of the state are not in favor of many taxes and increase in taxes they are more unfavorable of cuts.”
  4. “Called for two reasons: I believe the legislature is ready… to take the pressure off the membership of the legislature related to the gambling issue.”
  5. “If they fail in this session we’ll come back into another one.”
  6. “We actually have not finalized the bill yet.”
  7. “I wanted to basically surprise. This in an element of surprise,”
  8. “They’ll have to override my veto” (In response to the question “What if they send a budget back like the last one?”)
  9. “Let me say, that it’s a little hard to explain because most people do not even understand what FICA is. They do not even realize that it comes out of their checks each month.” (Did he just say people don’t know they’re paying social security taxes or don’t read their pay stubs?)
  10. “You know the Senate has not been quite as ready as the House.” (In response to Sen. Del Marsh saying he will adjourn when called in on Monday.)

Bonus technical stuff worth noting:

  1. “Expressly exclude gaming in this call.”
  2. BP money will be used to pay off debts.”
  3. Says his idea is not to include taxes to water and juice as we have previously reported.
  4. Ideas you may hear including combining budgets and unearmarking.

Watch the whole video on WSFA.

The text of the call can be found here.

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