MONTGOMERY — Alabama lawmakers continued their budget-focused, abbreviated session Thursday, sending the General Fund budget to Gov. Kay Ivey's desk and getting one step closer to final passage of the education budget. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — After private wrangling between the Legislature and Gov. Kay Ivey over the authority to spend nearly $1.8 billion in federal coronavirus relief money, Ivey on Thursday publicly ceded primary responsibility to lawmakers.
“I have never desired to control a single penny of this money and if the Legislature feels so strongly that they should have that authority, I yield to them both the money and the responsibility to make good decisions – in the light of day where the people of Alabama know what is happening,” Ivey said in a written statement to reporters Thursday afternoon.
But, she said, she will not call the Legislature back into special session until it publicly releases a detailed list of how the money will be spent. And it better not include $200 million for a State House, she warned.
That proposed expenditure was on a wish list of spending circulated at the State House this week and obtained by Alabama Daily News. Legislative leaders disavowed any knowledge of the proposal. Read more.
Also in the Legislature:
House Passes Education Budget, General Fund Goes to Ivey
Gov. Kay Ivey’s “safer-at-home” order allows doctors to resume elective medical and dental procedures. For some patients, that’s good news. Read more.
The rate of increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths is trending upward in Alabama, which is not good news as the state enters a period of relaxing restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the pandemic. Gov. Kay Ivey and state health officials took the first step toward opening up Alabama Thursday evening and now are considering whether to further relax restrictions before the current COVID-19 order expires May 15. As of late Wednesday night, the figures posted by the Alabama Department of Public Health on its COVID-19 web page show that 8,691 people have tested positive, and 343 deaths have been attributed to the virus. Read more.
A House committee Wednesday approved the Senate-passed $2.38 billion General Fund budget, putting it and the $7.3 billion education budget in line for final passage by Saturday. House leadership on Wednesday afternoon said it will not be taking up bills that aren't directly tied to the budgets or local to members' districts, effectively killing some senators' proposed legislation. Read more. Also in the Legislature on Tuesday: Senate Passes General Fund Budget, Stakes Domain Over Coronavirus Funds Push for No-Excuse Absentee Voting Likely Going Nowhere
Alabama has allowed many retailers to reopen at limited capacity, but businesses such as gyms, nail salons and barbershops remain closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Some sheriffs said they won’t enforce the statewide order. Read more.
The number of COVID-19 deaths in Alabama climbed to 315 Tuesday, the Alabama Department of Public Health reported. The number of those testing positive for the virus rose to 8,437 by the end of the day, up 325 cases in the past 24 hours. Read more.
Alabama ended the day Monday with 8,112 cases of COVID-19, up more than a thousand from when the month began Friday. Deaths stood at 298, with 26 people dying from the disease in the past four days, according to Alabama Department of Public Health data. The state has documented 103,302 tests conducted to determine whether people had the novel coronavirus, but that number is incomplete because some commercial testing labs have not reported negative test results to the state, according to the Health Department data. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Legislature resumed Monday a legislative session that looks much different from when it began three months ago. Wearing masks and sitting apart, lawmakers gathered without lobbyists in the hallways or members of the public in the galleries, kept out of the State House over coronavirus health concerns. In the House, many Democrats stayed home Monday in protest, saying lawmakers shouldn't be meeting or passing budgets yet. While passing the General Fund and education budgets are the stated purpose of resuming the session that must end by May 18, they're not the only bills in play. The Alabama Senate on Monday considered local bills and formal resolutions but also passed Gov. Kay Ivey's bond issue proposal borrowing $1.25 billion for school construction and capital improvements. Senators on Tuesday could consider legislation giving them and their House colleagues significant say in how the state’s nearly $1.8 billion in federal coronavirus relief money, and future funds, are spent. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — The Alabama State Senate on Monday passed legislation to authorize a $1.25 billion bond issue to fund school construction and other capital improvement projects. Senate Bill 242 passed 29-0 in the Senate and now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration. First proposed by Gov. Kay Ivey in her State of the State address, the bond issue would help K-12 schools and state colleges pay for capital improvements, from construction projects to technology upgrades. Read more.
