An attorney in Northport, Tuscaloosa native and acting municipal court judge, Bryan Brinyark says he wants to put his legal and business experience to work for the people of Alabama House District 16.
Brinyark was elected as the newest member of the Alabama House on Jan. 9, a special election needed after former Rep. Kyle South left the Legislature to become CEO with the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce.
“I’ve got 30 years of being a lawyer, 23 years as a municipal judge, 15-plus years mediating cases, and I’ve got grown kids now,” Brinyark told Alabama Daily News. “I think those kinds of things give me some experience in life and in the world, having my own business since 1997.”
He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Alabama. The latter he used to practice law with a focus on business, estate planning and divorce law. Brinyark also opened his own law firm – Brinyark & Frederick – in 2014, and serves as a municipal court judge for the cities of Tuscaloosa, Brent and Centerville.
That experience, Brinyark told ADN, led him to adopt what he called a “classic conservative Republican stance” on a variety of issues, namely on education and taxes.
“You point to any tax, I want it lowered,” he said.
When it comes to expanding school choice, which looks likely to be heavily discussed and debated in the upcoming legislative session, Brinyark said he was in full support of programs like school vouchers and education savings accounts, programs that allow parents to put a share of tax dollars earmarked for public education toward private or home schooling.
“I’m for school choice and being allowed to take your tax money with you with a voucher, I think that’s something that could improve competition between schools,” he said.
“I think it would be something that would give parents an option to be able to get to a better school perhaps, and I just think it would be better all the way around for our kids.”
Other legislative priorities Brinyark mentioned were improving infrastructure, particularly in the state’s rural communities, of which there are many within his district.
“Our district is very rural; we’re a small town, we’re country, and we don’t have things like the fiber internet,” he said.
“That’s coming, and that’s something that’s starting to happen now, but getting that around to the entire district would enable the businesses to be able to compete better, and perhaps allow us to attract industry. It’s hard to get somebody to bring a new plant in where they don’t even have good internet, so we’ve got to make sure that we take care of basic infrastructure, and help our small and existing businesses compete better.”
As an avid hunter, Brinyark also noted a passion for preserving Second Amendment rights, and said he wants to streamline the process by which Alabamians may receive hunting licenses.
Regarding health care access in the state, which has worsened over the past several decades, Brinyark said he didn’t know the immediate solution, but that the issue was an important one to him, and would work to explore solutions with his legislative colleagues and industry.
“I’m for finding some way to make sure that we’re able to get hospitals back open that serve these rural communities and provide them with the services they need,” he said.
“I’m hearing about people over in Pickens County having to call ambulances from Tuscaloosa to come over there for a car wreck… it’s not good. You have a heart attack right now in Pickens County, you’re in a world of hurt, and so I don’t know the specific answers right now, but I’m for anything that would be able to provide for those hospitals to remain open.”
As for committee assignments, Brinyark told ADN that he felt his experience would suit him well to be appointed to the Judicial Committee, given his decades of service as both a lawyer and a judge. He also said that in his first year in office, he would take a “steady-as-she-goes” approach, and work to learn the ins and outs of what it means to be a state lawmaker.
“I know that I’ve got a lot to learn; I don’t even know what I don’t know yet, so I don’t want to go down and embarrass my district by doing something ridiculous, so I’m going to feel my way in,” he said.