MONTGOMERY, Ala. – As Alabama voters decide who the state’s next lieutenant governor will be, they will also have the opportunity to weigh in about the future of the role itself on Tuesday.
On the ballot is a constitutional amendment reworking three elements of the lieutenant governor position: how to fill a vacancy in the office, how legislative officers are paid and who gets to approve senators’ travel expenses.
Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville, introduced the amendment during this year’s legislative session via Senate Bill 271.
Statewide Amendment 1, which will appear alongside three education-related ones, needs only a simple majority vote to pass.
History of the role
As has often been discussed in the lieutenant governor’s race, the role of the state’s second-in-command has been waning over the past few decades.
The lieutenant governor’s primary responsibilities include sitting in wait in case something happens to the governor, presiding over the Alabama State Senate and appointing people to various boards and commissions.
The Senate, during times of control from each party, has slowly carved away some of the lieutenant governor’s authority and redirected it to the Senate president pro tempore, who is elected by the Senate body.
Following this trend, parts of the proposed constitutional amendment would move responsibility directly from the lieutenant governor to the pro tem.
Othni Lathram, director of the Legislative Services Agency, said the tightening of the lieutenant governor’s role and shifting power dynamics began in 1998 when Republican Steve Windom was elected and then presided over a Democratic Senate.
“There was a real power struggle amongst the body of how much power do we want the lieutenant governor to have who’s a different party than the majority of the Senate,” Lathram said.
After 2010, when Republicans took control of the Legislature for the first time in more than a century, Lathram said there was a “loosening” because the Senate was comfortable expanding the lieutenant governor’s power because they represented the same party.
But recently, Lathram said there’s been another shift as elected members of the Legislature look to empower the leadership they choose in their chamber, not the lieutenant governor.
“Now you’re kind of seeing again a philosophical shift where the Senate is looking at this from a standpoint of, sure the lieutenant governor is the presiding officer constitutionally, but he or she is not in our branch of government and is not a member of our body,” Lathram said. “I think you’re starting to see kind of a reevaluation again of what should their power be and how far should it seep into the legislative process, even though they’re not a member of that branch of government.”
Replacing the lieutenant governor
The Alabama Constitution currently has a provision for replacing both the governor and lieutenant governor in a situation where both offices are vacant at the same time. But it doesn’t consider a scenario where the lieutenant governor’s seat is vacant because he or she replaces the governor, dies, resigns or is removed from office.
Gov. Kay Ivey took over for former Gov. Robert Bentley in 2017 when he resigned after allegations of an affair with his senior aide prompted impeachment proceedings. The office was vacant until 2019 when after Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth was elected.
The proposed amendment would create a mechanism to replace the lieutenant governor if the office becomes vacant in the first half of the term.
It would allow the state to select a new lieutenant governor in a presidential election year so long as the office becomes vacant more than 60 days before the election. Alabama elects all of its state legislators and statewide constitutional officers during the midterms, or non-presidential election years.
Lathram said the amendment would allow voters to select a replacement without an additional expense for the state.
“Historically, if the lieutenant governor’s office becomes vacant, we just don’t worry about it,” Lathram said. “It just stays vacant for the whole rest of the term, and so this would change that. It would change it only in those circumstances where we could hold that special election, without the cost of actually holding a statewide special election because it would piggyback that already existing statewide election.”
Pay of legislative officers
If enacted, the amendment would also authorize the Legislature to set the salary of the lieutenant governor and other officers of the Legislature – like the House speaker, House speaker pro tempore and Senate president pro tempore – by joint resolution.
Under a 2012 amendment, all legislators’ salaries are tied to Alabama’s median household income. The lieutenant governor and House speaker earn a supplemental expense allowance, which Lathram said is about $10,000, but the president pro tem does not.
“In today’s world, again the pro tem is more the equivalent of the speaker,” Lathram said. “The pro tem has a lot of duties that regular senators do not, and so the idea being to give the ability from the Legislature to set the pay of the speaker and the pro tem and their officers rather than to continue to perpetuate the lieutenant governor being on parity with the speaker.”
Travel expenses
In addition to their salaries, members of the Legislature are reimbursed by the state for expenses generated by travel to and from Montgomery and on official business.
The House speaker approves travel expenses for representatives, but the lieutenant governor – not the president pro tempore elected by the Senate – is currently in charge of the same for senators.
The amendment would shift the responsibility from the lieutenant governor to the pro tem.
“Under the theory that in the House, the speaker approves travel of other House members, so it’s a member of the body, and of course, the lieutenant governor is technically a member of the executive branch, not the Legislature, and so the idea being, it would be more appropriate to have parity between those two bodies in terms of who approves travel,” Lathram said.
The general election is Tuesday. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.