Category: Alabama Legislature
Birmingham Mayor, Council Pushing Two Separate Wish Lists in Legislature
This year, the city of Birmingham is sending two sets of lobbyists to Montgomery — one from Mayor Randall Woodfin’s office and one from the City Council.
Councilors made that decision last month, claiming they’d been excluded from planning the city’s legislative agenda, and on Tuesday they approved a legislative agenda of their own — one that only slightly overlaps with Woodfin’s priorities.
The primary area of agreement between the two agendas is about bolstering city revenue through fines. Both the mayor and council are pushing legislation that would increase penalties for littering, dumping and weed abatement. Both also want to tie parking tickets to car tag renewal, providing a built-in enforcement mechanism for a ticketing system that currently lacks one.
Woodfin and the council also are both pushing for an increase in the maximum number of entertainment districts allowed in a municipality. Birmingham has four such areas — Pepper Place, Uptown, Five Points South and Avondale — where people are allowed to drink alcohol outside, though they must have purchased that alcohol from a restaurant, bar or venue in that district. State law caps the number of entertainment districts a city can have at five; Woodfin and the council both hope to raise that number to 15.
The similarities mostly end there. Read more.
Ivey Declares Monday Supermarket Employee Day
MONTGOMERY — Gov. Kay Ivey proclaimed Monday Supermarket Employee Day in Alabama as a way to honor grocery store workers who continued to work throughout the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more.
Report Shows Lower Recidivism Rates in Community Corrections Programs; Legislation Pending
Criminal offenders who served their sentences in programs in which they stayed in their own communities under supervision were on average significantly less likely to commit new felonies than other offenders under the Alabama Department of Corrections oversight, a recent study found.
But some community correction programs had recidivism rates much higher than others and varied in the fees offenders had to pay. Meanwhile, the programs for non-violent felony offenders aren’t available in some areas of the state.
“The better the program and the better managed it is at the local level, the lower the recidivism rate,” said Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur and chairman of the Alabama Commission on Evaluation of Services. Read more.
Citing Census Data Delay, Lawmakers Seek to Move 2022 Elections
Police Jurisdiction Bill Gets Public Hearing
Bills Would Allow Student-Athletes Compensation for Likeness
MONTGOMERY — Bills in the Alabama Legislature would allow student-athletes at Alabama institutions of higher education to be compensated whenever their name, image or likeness is used in promotional material. Read more.
More About the Legislature
Bill Would Create Sexual Assault Survivor ‘Bill of Rights’
Leadership Pleased With First Two Weeks of Session
Bill Would Create Sexual Assault Survivor ‘Bill of Rights’
MONTGOMERY — Legislation moving through the Legislature would create a sexual assault survivor “bill of rights” and set a requirement for how long law enforcement must preserve evidence from sexual assault cases.
Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, is sponsoring House Bill 137, which is scheduled to be considered in the House Tuesday.
“My whole purpose of this legislation is to try and protect sexual assault victims and help bring perpetrators and criminals to justice,” Brown told Alabama Daily News.
Read more.
Leadership Pleased With First Two Weeks of Session
MONTGOMERY — House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, says he is pleased with what has been accomplished so far in the legislative session and expects the same amount of productivity when lawmakers come back in a week.
“What we’ve gotten done over these last two weeks is phenomenal,” McCutcheon told reporters upon the House’s adjournment Thursday. “We’ve even done better than I thought we would.”
Three priority bills — renewing and revamping economic development incentives, untaxing COVID-19 relief funds and providing limited liability to businesses, schools and organizations from COVID-19 related lawsuits — all passed in short order and have been signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey.
Increased safety precautions, including limiting public access to the State House, will still be in place when legislators come back, McCutcheon said, but there could be a loosening of restrictions as time moves on. Read more.
COVID-19 Makes Kindergarten Requirement Bill ‘Priority’
MONTGOMERY — A bill to require Alabama public school students to attend kindergarten or take an assessment to go directly to first grade received its first vote of approval, passing the House Education Policy Committee Wednesday.
Bill sponsor Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee, said her goal is to offer a complete education to students.
“Pre-K is not available for every child in the state of Alabama, so if there is a child who misses pre-K and kindergarten, that child is not ready for the first grade,” Warren said. “So my whole thing is in support of the student being completely ready to go into the first grade when they get there.” Read more.
Also in the Legislature Thursday
House Approves Improved Benefits for Newer Teachers
Legislative Briefs: Alcohol Delivery, License Plate Data Among Bills Gaining Approval
Earlier This Week
Tax Reform, Economic Development Bills Sent to Ivey
Broadband Expansion Bill Passes First Vote in Legislature
School Funding Change on the Move in the Legislature
PTSD Coverage for First Responders, Wiretapping Bill Passes House
Read more on the legislative session.
Tax Reform, Economic Development Bills Sent to Ivey
The Alabama Senate on Wednesday gave final passage to bills preventing the taxing of federal relief funds and revamping the state’s economic development incentives, sending the first two of three priority bills to Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature. Read more.
More from the Legislature this week
Broadband Expansion Bill Passes First Vote in Legislature
School Funding Change on the Move in the Legislature
PTSD Coverage for First Responders, Wiretapping Bill Passes House
Read more on the legislative session.
PTSD Coverage for First Responders, Wiretapping Bill Passes House
Several Bills Were passed in the House on Tuesday. Read more.
Wide-Ranging Gambling Bill Introduced in Legislature
MONTGOMERY — A wide-ranging gambling bill in the Alabama Senate could allow state voters to institute a lottery, expand casino gambling and legalize sports betting.
The proposal, introduced Tuesday by Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, comes after an extensive report from Gov. Kay Ivey’s study group on gambling showed such proposals could bring in hundreds of millions in revenue and that voters favored expanded gambling.
“I feel good about where the bill is right now,” Marsh told reporters in the State House Tuesday. “This takes a lot of the (study group’s) input into the bill. I think the people of the state are ready to address this issue and want to.”
Read more.
School Funding Change on the Move in the Legislature
Read more on the legislative session.
