Government

Birmingham City Employees One Step Closer to Receiving Bonuses for Working Through Pandemic

The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday, approved Mayor Randall Woodfin’s proposal to give $5,000 to each full-time city employee and $2,500 to each part-time employee. These one-time payments will total about $16.8 million, which will come from the city’s American Rescue Plan funding. The premium payments, designed to reward employees for their work through the pandemic, still need to be approved by the Jefferson County Personnel Board, which will meet June 8. If that happens, city employees can expect payments by June 30. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

LifeTech Expected to Reopen in Late Summer

LifeTech, a previously successful residential job-training center for the recently paroled, is expected to reopen later this year. The center was shuttered last year in a controversial move by the then-leader of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. Now, new director Cam Ward says he expects a “soft opening” of the Thomasville center in late summer. Read more.

by Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News

Orr Not Running for Congress, Seeks to Stay in State House

State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, will seek a fifth term in the Alabama Legislature next year. The Morgan County native had considered a run for Congress in Alabama’s 5th District, the north Alabama seat Mo Brooks is leaving to run for the U.S. Senate. Orr said he had potential donors and supporters discuss a congressional bid with him. “I think with the current field of candidates, the race is wide open, but the Lord is just not calling me to do that at this time in my life,” Orr, 57, said. “It was an easy decision.” Read more.

by Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News

Ivey Vetoes Literacy Act Delay Bill

MONTGOMERY — Gov. Kay Ivey has vetoed a bill that would have delayed until 2024 a requirement that third-grade students who are not reading proficiently repeat the grade. Senate Bill 94, sponsored by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, would have delayed the holdback provision in the Alabama Literacy Act from spring 2022 to spring 2024. Democrats and many Republicans supported the bill arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected students’ education, forcing some out of the classroom, and to test them after next school year under the act would be unfair. Read more.

by Caroline Beck and Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News

‘Earmarks’ Are Back, but Not All Alabama Lawmakers Are Participating

It has a new name and many new requirements, but the process known as earmarking, or designating federal funds for distribution at the request of members of Congress, is now officially back on Capitol Hill. This spring, the House Appropriations Committee invited all House members to submit proposals for “Community Project Funding,” a new term for the age-old practice of earmarking that has been banned by rule for the past ten years. In a new effort at ensuring transparency, those proposed projects have been published member by member. Alabama’s House delegation was split on the prospect of placing community projects in the budget. Reps. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, Mike Rogers, R-Saks, Jerry Carl, R-Mobile and Terri Sewell, D-Selma each submitted multiple projects for consideration, while Reps. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, Gary Palmer, R-Birmingham, and Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, did not. Read more.

by Todd Stacy and Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News

Birmingham Promise Gets $8 Million Boost From Private Companies

The Birmingham Promise educational initiative has received $8 million in donations from local corporations, Mayor Randall Woodfin announced Tuesday. That number includes $5 million from Birmingham-based investment firm Vulcan Value Partners — the program’s largest private donation to date. It also includes $1 million each from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama and Protective Life, as well as from Alabama Power, which donated for the second consecutive year. Birmingham Promise offers juniors and seniors in city schools paid internships, dual enrollment opportunities and scholarships to two- or four-year public colleges. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Birmingham Seeks Dollars for Its Entertainment Venues

Birmingham will apply for federal relief for five city-owned concert spaces and museums that lost revenue during the pandemic. The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, established last year by the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits and Venues Act, offers funding for COVID-impacted entities, public or private, including live venues, movie theaters, museums and live performing arts organizations. The city will seek SVOG funding for Boutwell Auditorium, Sloss Historic Landmark Furnace, the Southern Museum of Flight, Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Arlington Historic House. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Supreme Court Ruling on Online Sales Tax Could Benefit Schools Statewide

A recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling will mean millions of dollars in online sales tax revenue for Morgan County schools and is a win for schools statewide, supporters say. Some expect more local legislation similar to the north Alabama county’s in the next legislative session. The court earlier this month upheld the constitutionality of a 2019 local law, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, that directed the bulk of revenue from online sales tax, referred to as SSUT, received by the county commission to the county’s public schools. Orr said the local bill mirrored that of the county’s existing bricks-and-mortar sales tax distribution — revenue that has dipped as more people shop online. Read more.

by Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News

JeffCo Commissioners Look Forward to Dropping Social Distance at Meetings, Pledge $5 Million for UAB Genomics Building

As today’s Jefferson County Commission meeting reached its end, Joe Knight rose from his seat in front of the dais and put his name plate in front of the one for Lashunda Scales. “When we return, I reclaim my seat,” Knight declared. Steve Ammons, who like Knight has been seated at a table below their fellow commissioners, chimed in. “I’m tired of being a second-hand commissioner,” he joked. The lighthearted banter came as commissioners announced that today’s meeting will be the last one held during the state of emergency Gov. Kay Ivey declared last year to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Social distancing requirements and then recommendations have been part of public safety orders the governor has issued during the state of emergency. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Domestic Immigration Spur’s Alabama’s Population Growth

Alabama’s population has grown to more than 5 million people not because of residents expanding their families, but because of people moving into the state from other places in the country. In fact, Alabama’s birth rate fell in the 2010’s and its death rate rose, which follows a national trend, according to a Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama analysis of U.S. Census Bureau estimates released earlier this month. Read more.

by BirminghamWatch