David Bronner, head of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, is urging Gov. Kay Ivey to call a special session, to give lawmakers another shot at placing gambling legalization on the ballot. It’s the best bet, he argued, to fund raises for state retirees.
Bronner made the comments to Alabama Daily News on Tuesday following a meeting of the Employees Retirement Board of Control where it approved retirement benefits for nearly 1,400 new state retirees at an annual cost of just over $43.2 million.
During the meeting, board members briefly discussed how efforts to provide raises for Alabama’s nearly 100,000 state retirees fell through toward the end of the recent legislative session, noting that gambling legislation had taken up much of the oxygen in the session’s waning days.