MONTGOMERY — Alabamians could have beer, wine and spirits delivered to their homes starting this fall. The Legislature gave final passage Tuesday to Senate Bill 126 from Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, which would allow customers to have alcoholic products home delivered from grocery or liquor stores and restaurants. It also sets up a delivery license process, fees and rules for alcohol delivery. Read more.
Masks will remain mandatory in Birmingham through May 24. The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to extend the city’s face covering ordinance, requiring masks in all public places to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Exceptions are made for outdoor exercise and eating or drinking at restaurants or bars. Religious worship services are also exempt, though the ordinance still “strongly encourages” masks in those settings. The Birmingham City School Schools system also announced Tuesday that masks will be required in schools and all school-related events through the end of the school year to combat the threat from COVID-19. The city ordinance received the support of Mayor Randall Woodfin and most of the council, with the exception of District 2 Councilor Hunter Williams. Williams argued that the ordinance would make Birmingham an outlier in Jefferson County and the state of Alabama as a whole, placing “undue burden” on local businesses. The state’s mask ordinance is set to expire Friday, and Gov. Kay Ivey has said she will not renew it. Read more.
Legislation in the Alabama State House would increase the allowable tax credit for individuals and corporations that donate to private school scholarships through the Alabama Accountability Act. The 2013 law allows for tax credit-funded scholarships for families leaving the state’s lowest-performing public schools. There also is a separate $30 million-per-year scholarship fund for private school tuition. Businesses and individuals who donate to the fund receive income tax credits — money that would otherwise go to the state education budget. Scholarship granting organizations, or SGOs, collect and distribute the money to low-income families. Those students are not required to come from failing schools. House Bill 559 by Rep. Charlotte Meadows, R-Montgomery, does not change that $30 million cap but expands the allowable credit from 50% of an individual’s tax burden to 75%, capped at $75,000. Read more.
The Alabama Legislature on Thursday approved a bill that would allow churches and small businesses to remain open during states of emergency. It now goes to the governor. House Bill 103 by Rep. Jamie Kiel, R-Russellville, would allow businesses and places of worship to remain open as long as they comply with any emergency order, rules or regulations issued by the governor and state or local agencies. It would do away with the idea of “essential businesses.” Kiel has said small local retailers shouldn’t have been forced to close last year under public health orders while big box stores remained open. Democrats called the bill dangerous and said it could lead to super-spreader events in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, led Senate Democrats in a filibuster of the bill, arguing it put business interests over public health. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — It was committee day in the State House Wednesday as several House and Senate panels met to consider proposals moving through the legislative process. Read more.
Legislation to strengthen Alabama’s open records law and create penalties for government agencies that don’t comply in a timely manner cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday. But Republicans, Democrats and bill sponsor Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said more work is needed before the legislation gets a full Senate vote. “We’re 51st in the country on this issue … we can do better,” Orr told his colleagues about the current law that does not specify a response timeline or set fees for records requests filed by citizens and members of the media. After a public hearing Tuesday morning, Orr said he’d continue to work with groups that expressed opposition to his bill, including the Association of County Commissions of Alabama. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — On their first day back in session after spring break, lawmakers in the House and Senate slowed down legislative action to draw out debate and call attention to lack of movement of bills. Read more. More from the Legislature House Passes Bill to Shorten Absentee Application Time Open Records Bill Clears Committee, Lawmakers Want More Work On It Transgender Athletes, Mandatory Kindergarten, Medical Pot, Double Voting, Police Database, Habitual Offender Laws Debated in Committees
A proposed bill to revise the city of Birmingham’s pension plan gained the official support of the City Council Tuesday. HB510, which is pending in the Alabama Legislature, would compel the city to fully fund its pension obligation and increase employees’ contributions to the fund. Not doing so, Mayor Randall Woodfin argued, could spell future financial disaster for the city. The city’s pension had been underfunded since 2002, and when Woodfin took office in 2017, the pension liability stood at $750 million. Since then, Woodfin has nearly doubled the city’s annual contribution to the pension. but its liability has continued to increase and as of 2019 stood at $900 million. It would still take the changes proposed in HB510 to put the pension fund “on solid ground,” Woodfin said. As reported last week, HB510 would increase current employees’ contributions from 7% to 7.5% and would reduce retirement benefits for new employees hired after July 1, 2021. The bill would also reduce disability allowances for new employees and replace spousal survivors’ benefits with the option for an “actuarially reduced retirement benefit.” Read more.
WASHINGTON — Alabama’s senators split votes last week on a bill to extend the paycheck protection program as well as on several of Biden’s nominees to top positions. The House was in recess. Read more.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville rode into Washington as a ride-or-die Trump supporter, campaigning as being more of a Trump booster than Trump’s own former attorney general, then making headlines by saying he would challenge the counting of some electoral votes even before he was sworn into office. With that drama behind him and a whopping three months on the job under his belt, Tuberville seems to be less of a bomb-throwing gadfly and more of a regular working politician, albeit an extremely conservative one. He voted against President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-relief bill, saying it cost too much and didn’t do enough to fight COVID; opposed the president's nominee for secretary of health and human services; called Democrats' election reforms a "power grab;" and continues to push for a border security. But he voted for Biden’s nominee for secretary of labor, former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and says he will work with the administration on issues such as job creation. He said he does not want to be obstructive. Read more.
