Now fully in the swing of the 2023 legislative session, legislators from Mobile County are readying their priorities for the next few months.

Only one legislator in the group is new: state Rep. Mark Shirey, a Republican, who replaced retiring Rep. Victor Gaston as the representative for House District 100. But, following the redistricting process, some legislators—such as state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures and state Rep. Shane Stringer—have to grapple with representing different people, whose priorities may differ from their previous districts.

Of the legislators the Lede spoke with, a few common priorities arose. Like their counterparts in Baldwin County, economic development incentives were a high priority. Both state Rep. Chris Pringle (R-Mobile), and Shirey said that renewing the state’s economic development incentives, such as the Alabama Jobs Act, was a priority. Both cited a high return on investment as the reason to renew the jobs act, which is set to expire this summer.

Education

Both Republicans and Democrats in the Mobile County delegation said that education was a priority for their districts. Last year, eight schools in Mobile County were listed as “failing” by the Alabama State Department of Education, which lists the schools that rank in the bottom 6% of the state as “failing.”