Senate approves child support during pregnancy legislation
The Alabama Senate on Tuesday approved legislation to allow courts to order child support payments for the nine months before a baby is born.
“The costs of a live birth, they start well before a baby is born,” Sponsor Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Fairfield, told Alabama Daily News after Senate Bill 18 passed the Senate 31-0.
It amends current law to say that if a child support order is entered by a court within the first year of a birth, it may be retroactive nine months.
The “may” was added on the Senate floor to give judges discretion, depending on the details of a case.
The bill now moves to the House.
Senate committee amends, advances effort to impose stricter requirement for unemployment
The Senate Committee on County and Municipal Government Standing adopted a bill Tuesday that would impose stricter guidelines on Alabamians receiving unemployment benefits.
House Bill 29, sponsored by Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville, would increase the number of employers Alabamians receiving unemployment would be required to contract each week from three to five. An amendment to the bill was introduced and adopted by the committee that would exclude rural counties of 20,000 people or less from the enhanced eligibility requirement.
The bill has been described by its sponsor as an effort to improve Alabama’s labor participation rate, which is among the lowest in the nation at 57.7% as of December. The bill has seen its detractors, however, among them the low-income advocacy group Alabama Arise.
“This is a poorly-conceived bill, (unemployment) doesn’t need to be any more stringent, the people who are drawing unemployment are already conforming to the tightest guidelines in the country,” said David Stout, legislative director for Alabama Arise.
“It’s a bad bill, it’s not going to help people who are looking for work, and you’re going to force more people off of those rolls that are presently drawing unemployment compensation.”
In Alabama, residents can receive up to 14 weeks of unemployment benefits for new enrollees, whereas most states offer up to 26. Recipients receive a maximum of $255 a week.
The bill now moves to the Senate.
House passes bill to extend property tax exemptions to widows
A bill that would see property tax exemptions extended to a widow or widower of an eligible Alabamian passed unanimously in the House Tuesday.
Sponsored by Rep. Danny Crawford, R-Athens, House Bill 226 would extend the state’s homestead tax exemption to the widow or widower of an eligible Alabamian, which is someone over 65, or that is blind or disabled.
A substitute passed out of a House committee last week that would mandate the widow or widower’s name be on the property deed to be eligible for the tax exemption was introduced on the House floor, and also passed unanimously.
Members of the Alabama Department of Revenue Ad Valorem Advisory Committee said on Monday that the bill might pose some challenges for the department to implement, given that property taxes are handled at the local level. However, Crawford argued the substitute, requiring the widow or widower’s name to be on the property deed, should address the board’s concerns.
Bill removing judicial discretion murder cases passes House with opposition
The House passed a bill Tuesday that would remove a judge’s discretion in granting youthful offender status, which may reduce penalties in some cases, to those 16 and older who have been charged with murder.
House Bill 146, sponsored by Rep. Phillip Pettus, R-Greenhill, would mandate that those 16 and older accused of murder are charged and tried as adults.
The bill saw considerable opposition on the House floor, largely from House Democrats, though from a handful of House Republicans as well. Rep. Jim Hill, R-Odenville, for instance, a judge himself, spoke out against stripping judges of their discretion.
“I am absolutely opposed to any bill that removes discretion from our judges,” Hill said, receiving applause from some members of the House chamber.
The bill ultimately passed, with an amendment from Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, that made the bill only applicable in cases of intentional murder, with a vote of 67-33, with two abstentions.