The Alabama House of Representatives debated for more than five hours this week legislation that Democrats argued gave the governor’s office too much control over the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. The bill passed Thursday evening along party lines, 73 to 27. It now goes to the Senate. Read more.
On Tuesday, Mayor Randall Woodfin will unveil his proposed FY 2020 budget to the Birmingham City Council. It will follow this year’s $436 million budget, the city’s largest ever and the first that the Woodfin administration had overseen from the ground up. That budget implemented a new “zero-based” strategy, which meant that appropriations were based on need rather than the previous year’s budget. In March, Woodfin compared the FY 2020 budget to a “need-only Christmas,” where socks, not toys, are the gifts. “That’s how this budget’s going to be,” he said. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Senate passed legislation Thursday regulating medical marijuana for patients with certain conditions. The bill now goes to the Alabama House. Senate Bill 236, dubbed the Care Act, would establish the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission to administer a patient registry system and issue medical cannabis cards. The bill lists about 30 qualifying conditions, including addiction, cancer, autism, epilepsy, terminal conditions and end-of-life care. Patients would need a prescription from a doctor and a second recommendation from a specialist to obtain medical marijuana. Read more.
MONTGOMERY – The Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would criminalize most abortions in Alabama but added an exception for victims of rape and incest despite objections from the bill sponsors. That amendment could be a large part of debate Thursday when the full Senate is expected to consider the legislation. House Bill 314 is sponsored by Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, and its intent is to challenge Roe V. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that made access to abortions a constitutional right in the first two trimesters of pregnancy. "To accept another amendment that weakens the argument or diverts the message that the baby in the womb is a person dilutes the whole message," Collins told the committee. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — Legislation that would provide oversight changes to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles and put into law when an inmate may be considered for parole cleared committees recently. House Bill 380, sponsored by Rep. Connie Rowe, R-Jasper, and Senate Bill 42, sponsored by Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, would eliminate a nominating board that makes recommendations to the governor and instead allow the governor to appoint board members with the consent of the Senate. Read more.
Bills in the Alabama Legislature would require health care providers to check a statewide patient database before administering vaccines and update the registry when they give any. Read more.
David Denard said overflow from Jefferson County’s wastewater treatment plant will never get down to zero. But the director of the county’s department of environmental services told commissioners at their committee meeting today that his department is trying to get as close to that mark as it can. “We’ve reduced sanitary sewer overflows 60 percent the past six or seven years,” Denard said. The commission also discussed several other issues, including road and bridge work, tax breaks for U.S. Steel and cooperation with the cities. Read more.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said Tuesday that he opposes the proposed relocation of a concrete plant from downtown to the city’s Five Points West community, and he called for the City Council to rezone the property in question to prevent future industrial use. Last week, the council voted to oppose Sherman Industries’ announced plans to move its concrete batch facility from its current address of 1100 Second Ave. S. to 3240 Fayette Avenue, near the Birmingham CrossPlex Village. Read more.
WASHINGTON – U.S. House of Representatives members from Alabama continued the trend of voting along party lines last week when the body voted to stay in the Paris Agreement to combat climate change. Along the same lines, the House voted against a measure that would have held up an agreement until President Trump certified no U.S. jobs would be lost to China. Trump meanwhile, wants the U.S. to withdraw from the agreement. See how area members of Congress voted on these and other major issues during the legislative week ending May 3. Read more.
The record $7.1 billion education budget approved in the Alabama Senate last week contains at least 5% increases for the state’s public four-year universities, but a formula to get more money to underfunded institutions met with some concern. “I represent an institution that feels like they were not made whole in the budget,” Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, said in a budget committee meeting last week. His complaint was about the Alabama Commission of Higher Education’s attempt to address what it says are “the most egregious inequities in funding” at some universities. The proposal would increase funding to some universities where the funding doesn’t match up with that of other schools across the nation that have similar missions, student bodies and degree production. Read more.
