County Commission | The Magazine February 2017 | Page 7

FROM THE COVER
House Speaker Mac McCutcheon
and his wife Debbie with
grandchildren Lizzie and Jake.
IN PROFILE
House Speaker
Mac McCutcheon
O
n a quiet day at the courthouse, would you ever let
your grandchild try out the chairman’s gavel?
Would you do the same thing in the Alabama House
of Representatives’ chamber?
If you were House Speaker Mac McCutcheon,
you would. That’s just the kind of man he is, and six
months into his term as speaker, he seems unfazed by
his influence.
He spent his first few months realigning committees
and instituting his style of leadership, which meant
more time in Montgomery. But he’d still rather camp in
his RV on the Alabama River than rent an apartment in
the Capital City.
First elected to the House of Representatives
in 2006, McCutcheon has held progressively larger
leadership roles since Republicans won a majority
in 2010. He was chairing the powerful House Rules
Committee, responsible for choosing the legislation
considered on the floor, when his
colleagues elected him speaker.
He calls the unincorporated
Monrovia community home and
serves a district that includes portions
of Madison and Limestone counties.
McCutcheon, who has farmed in
the past, retired from the Huntsville
Police Department with 28 years of
service. He’s also a preacher, known
to officiate at weddings for legislative
colleagues and part-time House staff
members alike.
He took over the gavel last August
during a high-pressure special session
dominated by a state budget crisis and
controversial gambling legislation.
These and other tough issues –
overcrowded prisons, crumbling roads and bridges – have
carried over into 2017.
The year has also brought new optimism that the
Trump administration’s changes at the federal level will
help the state with Medicaid, environmental regulations
and infrastructure.
“The entire country is in need of a major overhaul
of our infrastructure, including Alabama,” said
McCutcheon, who in 2016 sponsored an ACCA-
supported six-cent per gallon fuel tax increase. It did not
become law.
He has spent a large part of the last few years
focused on transportation, as a member of the Alabama
Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement
Program (ATRIP) committee and chairing the
Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee. In that
role, he convened a series of regional hearings that
focused attention on badly deteriorated transportation
infrastructure as well as its consequences for the state’s
economy and Alabamian’s quality of life.
Funding is the central issue. “We’ve made some
significant progress by educating the public and the
Legislature on the situation we find ourselves in,
and I would like for us to continue that debate and
discussion,” he said.
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