Political Chatter will be a regular interview with local and state elected officials.

For the first installment, we sat down with Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham. Todd is in her second term as the representative of House District 54, one of the most demographically diverse districts in the state.

In our interview, Todd discusses the frustrations of fighting with her own party, her role as Alabama's first openly gay lawmaker, her push to legalize medical marijuana and what she hopes to achieve during the 2013 Legislative Session.

Q: Who frustrates you more? Democrats or Republicans?

A: Probably the Democrats at this point.

Why is that?

There is no common message, no looking at the problems the state faces and come up with a viable solution. It's all about just attacking the Republicans all the time. That's ineffective. We're all elected to try to move this state forward, not fight with the other party.

You've had a history with the Democratic Party. Are you caucusing with them now?

No.

Why not?

I really stopped caucusing with them about two years ago when they tried to get an amendment to a teacher bill to allow the state to fire teachers who taught homosexuality. Nobody teaches -- I didn't go to a class for that. It was an attempt to kill a Republican bill, and they didn't even have the courtesy to talk to me about it or even think that I might have an adverse feeling to that. So that demonstrated that, if my own party would do that to me, are they really representing my interests?

The reality is that I really think as an independent. I classify myself as an Obama Democrat.

Most people would not classify an Obama Democrat as an independent. Is that the case in Alabama?

I support the president's agenda, but I'm a legislator in Alabama. The reality is that the Republicans have a super-majority and they are the ones who are in control. If I am serious about wanting to get any of my bills passed, I have to work with the people who are in charge. That means compromise, discussion, keeping them informed of what I'm doing, and asking for help when I need it. I've gotten more bills passed under the Republicans than I did the Democrats.

What else do you want to do this session?

Predatory lending. I've got a couple of bills coming forth to regulate payday loans, title loans, pawn shops. They take advantage of poor people. In some cases they'll charge up to 470 percent for a 30-day loan.

So we are going to regulate the interest rate to 37 percent APR. We are going to mandate that someone can rollover or do an installment plan instead of having to pay the whole amount at the end of the period. We'll look at a common database that they all have to look at to see if you have any other outstanding payday loans.

I got enmeshed in this because I have a friend, but also a client at AIDS Alabama, who -- she had been a loyal tenant for a long time, and all of a sudden she stopped paying her rent. I was like, "What's going on with you?" There's a lot of shame around our financial inadequacies. Finally, I got her to tell me that she had five outstanding payday loans, three of which were done on the Internet, which are not even regulated in the State of Alabama and have no legal standing in the state. Working with her, I learned a whole lot about just how predatory these are.

We cannot just cut that off without giving an option. So a lot of the faith-based community is looking at developing something like a credit union for the very low income to use. They will make high-risk loans, because these are high-risk loans.

On the pawn shops, when you pawn your title and don't make your payment date and they take your car and sell it ... Well, let's say they gave you $2,000 on your title. If they sell it for $10,000, they get to pocket the $8,000 difference.

We're going to change that to say, no you can't. You can keep a percentage for a fee, or something, but the difference you have to give back to the original owner of the car.

What other things happening in the legislature are you keeping an eye on?

Expansion of pre-K is a great idea. We all agree to that. I think that is going to be a good step for us. The School Flexibility Act is getting a lot of attention.

What does the School Flexibility Act do?

It allows a school system or school to make applications to the (Alabama) Department of Education to opt out of certain requirements.

I get that much of it. Where I hit the wall is -- the complaint from AEA is that they can opt out of tenure. Then (supporters) say, no, the bill says you can't opt out of tenure. Or they say you can opt out of curriculum standards, and they say, no, it doesn't do that, either. I can't figure out what the application of this means for schools.

The difference of students who are starting school in Mountain Brook are significantly different than the kids who start school in Woodlawn -- different needs. It would allow a Woodlawn to say, we are going to have our school day an hour longer. Or, instead of teaching English by Shakespeare, we are going to do it by something else.

They still have to have the same outcomes, but in my opinion, let's at least try it. Our school system in Birmingham is terrible. I wouldn't send my child to a public school in Birmingham. Why not give it a chance?

Let's see if it works. If it doesn't, we'll pull the plug on it and move on to something else. But we have to try something different. One size does not fit all when it comes to public education. Giving schools flexibility -- let's see if it works.

Is there a question I haven't asked that you would like to answer?

The budgets are a huge concern. I sit on the education budget committee. I don't think that people understand that our budgets combined are about $6.5 billion. What they don't know is that about $1.5 billion is in the general fund. All the rest of it is in the education fund.

What that means to the average person is that general fund pays for state troopers, getting your drivers license. It pays for adoption, children's welfare, DHR. It pays for Medicaid and it pays for corrections, ADECA, lots of things.

There's nothing that fows into that general fund that is a growth tax, so it is going to stay flat with no growth. The ETF (Education Trust Fund) has got all the growth money. That's why that budget is is big. We have to look at that.