This is an opinion column.

No matter how far Auburn (not very) and Alabama (not as far as giddy Tide fans hope, but to the Final Four) go in the NCAA Tournament, the madness in Alabama will linger long past March. In Montgomery.

The 2023 legislative session began last week and was quickly hijacked by a special session spending spree. Gov. Kay Ivey and her surrogate Republican lawmakers are makin’ it rain.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives quickly and overwhelmingly (102-3) approved a plan to gleefully dole out $1.06 billion in federal American Rescue Plan cash—the second trough of free COVID-19 relief money from an administration Ivey and her minions incessantly despise and disses (while salivating and eagerly checking direct deposit).

Dole it out like moon pies from a Mardi Gras float.

Like Oprah givin’ away cars.

You get a million! You get a million! You get millions!

Like they did it on a napkin.

It’s gotta be hard being a Democrat in the room. All that cake being handed out as you hope to get crumbs.

Like being at a party where no one really wants to dance with you.

Republicans hold lopsided supermajorities in the state House (76-28) and Senate (27-8), which they can party like rock stars while Dems hope someone asked them to dance.

House Minority leader Anthony Daniels of Huntsville—Superminority Leader, if you want to be real—has the unenviable task of ensuring Dems in the lower chamber matter, seeking allies across the aisle not hellbent on creating bills that are “solutions” in search of a problem, not targeting vulnerable populations, or blowing smoke at folks more concerned with how their kids feel about American history than whether all kids in Alabama are eating.

“It’s challenging,” Daniels told me. “But what’s critical is making sure everyone’s voice is heard.”

In August 2021, AL.com colleague Cameron Smith and I teamed up to chronicle how bipartisanship actually happened in Alabama during that year’s session and what was accomplished.

The effort was strategically crafted by Daniels and Republican Rep. Danny Garrett. They are two men, I believe, who are focused on the greater good, not the greater personal gain.

Here’s my 2021 column on their alliance, if you’d like to remember those fond times.

A lot’s happened since then in Montgomery—unfortunately very little of it in that cooperative vein. In the vein of greater good.

Of course, the Alabama Dems’ biggest problem is staring them in the mirror. Its own leadership dysfunction is why the party can’t make inroads beyond districts that are heavily Black and progressive (i.e., sensible and compassionate). Or beyond a few safe pockets that may soon be weathered with holes if the Republicans’ gerrymandering, I mean, redistricting plans are blessed by this frighteningly right U.S. Supreme Court.

Oh, the Dems put on a good face. Put up a good fight. What choice do they have?

State Rep. Rolanda Hollis, a Birmingham House member since winning a special election in 2017, told me being a Dem in Montgomery is “GREAT” (Her caps, not mine). “Sometimes,” though, she added, “it gets hard being the minority (outnumbered).”

Before the 2023 session began, the Dems shared their agenda:

• Taxes They want to repeal the state’s four percent grocery tax, which may actually have some legs, finally),
• Education Is this not on anyone’s agenda in a state whose kids are perennially at or near the bottom? They oppose vouchers the Republicans’ shell-game plan to allow parents to use taxpayer money to send their children to private school.
• Healthcare Republicans have wrongheadedly ignored or resisted Medicaid expansion, choosing rather to withhold access to quality, affordable healthcare from thousands of working-class families in the state because it was conceived by Obama.
• Voting (See the gerrymandering plan we piously argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last fall) Early voting matters, for all.
• Criminal justice (Don’t get me started; can we get past “law and order” being a Republican solution that doesn’t solve anything?) Ideas include regulating Glock switches and other devices that transform semiautomatic weapons into the stuff of video games.
• Abortion They’ve already introduced a bill to allow abortions for pregnancies caused by rape and incest. Makes too much common sense for the staunch right to embrace.
• And more. See it all here.

Just to be clear: The bill that skipped through the House Tuesday is chock filled with worthy spending. Struggling hospitals and nursing homes would get relief. Long-delayed infrastructure projects—especially the inhumane sewer issues throughout the Black Belt—could finally be repaired or built. Public employee insurance programs would be shored up. And more Alabamians should have access to broadband internet access—which is as essential clean water.

Lawmakers want us to feel good about the $55 million allocated to be spread among community-based programs statewide that are doing the work. Doing it to address our too-long neglected ills; to fill food banks, to support child welfare, and domestic violence victims, to treat mental health matters before the suffering dissolves into realms from which they cannot climb, to give all of our children a dang chance, finally with summer learning programs.

Fifty-five million sounds like a lot. Sounds like an amount Alabama Dems and empathetic Republican lawmakers should be grateful for.

It is not, and the Senate’s handful of Dems should ask for more. Remember the big number is $1.06 billion. And we’ve got big problems.

It’s still early. Early in Montgomery madness. Early enough to still have shining moments.

If Republicans turn the music down and listen to the voices.

More columns by Roy S. Johnson

Gov. Ivey’s legacy: Prisons? Medicaid? Your choice

Alabama Republican’s ‘parents’ rights’ bill smells like ‘states’ rights’; I’m holding my nose

Early release of the 369 is the most compassionate, smartest thing Alabama prisons have ever done.