Senate committee approves ABC warehouse bill
Legislation to allow the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to own its own warehouse passed a Senate committee on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 191 is a one-page bill that says the board may own property “solely for the purpose of owning and operating a warehouse or warehouses.”
Alabama Daily News reported last year on ABC’s request for proposals for a new, leased warehouse to replace the existing, nearly 40-year-old facility in Montgomery that nearly all liquor in the state is distributed. Current state law says that ABC can’t own the space it uses, including the warehouse and retail spaces.
“I just think it’s ridiculous we can’t own our own warehouse,” Givhan said in the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee. He said he had no intention of altering the retail space leases throughout the state.
The board received three responses to its warehouse request, but in January said it was pausing the process.
The board did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment on SB191. The bill was approved in committee unanimously.
“I believe it’s well needed and past time to have done that,” chairman Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, said.
Committee approves regulatory bill on ‘data brokers’
The Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee also approved Senate Bill 213 from Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur.
“This is a bill that attempts to bring into some form of accountability data brokers,” Orr told the committees
Data brokers buy people’s personal information from agencies such as insurance agencies or banks and resell it.
“Our personal data is out there,” Orr said.
Orr’s bill requires data brokers to register with the Alabama Secretary of State and have certain security measures in place for the personal information they handle. Companies that don’t comply would be fined.
Several other states have approved similar laws. Orr’s is modeled after Texas’.
“This is something that as a policy matter we need to address in our state,” Orr said.
Orr said amendments are likely as the bill moves to the Senate.
“There is more to do with this, but it’s a good start,” Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, said.
House passes tighter regulations on vaping products
The Alabama House voted Tuesday in favor of a bill that would impose tighter regulations on vaping products.
House Bill 65, sponsored by Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, would restrict vaping products from being sold from vending machines, prohibit educators from using vaping products while on school grounds, and establish fees for retailers wanting to sell vape products, fees that are estimated to bring in $1.2 million in tax revenue.
The bill also would increase consequences for Alabamians under 21 who are found in possession of tobacco products, including vape products.
“This bill revises the definition of e-nicotine delivery systems to come in line with federal regulation,” Drummond said.
“It prohibits sales through vending machines, and it gives (the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board) and (Alabama Law Enforcement Agency) the boots on the ground to be able to go into stores where all of these illegal products are being sold. To young people, it is going to make them healthy, and hopefully, keep them from vaping in the state of Alabama.”
The bill passed unanimously.
Tax cut for baby and feminine hygiene products approved by House
A bill that would remove the state’s 4% sales tax on diapers and other baby products, as well as feminine hygiene products, is closer to final approval.
Versions of the proposal by Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, and Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, have now passed both chambers.
As originally written, the bill would have removed all sales tax from baby and feminine hygiene products, but a substitute to the bill that permits city and county governments to opt out of removing their own sales tax on said products passed out of a Senate Committee last month, and was adopted on the House floor on Tuesday.
The bill is expected to reduce revenue to the state’s Education Trust Fund by an estimated $11.2 million annually, and reduce revenue to local governments by $15.2 million annually, under the presumption that every local government opted to cut sales tax on baby and feminine products.
Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham, said Tuesday the bill would “help so many families in the state.”
The House ultimately voted unanimously to approve the bill.
House approves measure to bar sex offenders from working as first responders
The Alabama House voted to adopt a bill Tuesday that would prohibit individuals convicted of a sex offense involving a child from working as a first responder, either through employment or as a volunteer.
Sponsored by Rep. Kerry Underwood, R-Tuscumbia, House Bill 222 would make it a Class C felony for an individual convicted of a sex offense involving a child to work as a first responder, punishable by up to ten years in prison.
“With this bill not being in place, we’re giving them the opportunity basically to break the law by the potential of going to certain locations that they are prohibited from being at already,” Underwood said. “So it basically takes away their opportunity to go somewhere where they shouldn’t be.”
Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, while not ultimately voting against the bill, questioned Underwood on his motivations for the proposal on the House floor.
“Everybody in this room has done something to put us in a position to be ostracized, but we just didn’t get caught,” Jackson said.
“And then you say you believe in the love of God… how can you love and hate at the same time? My background shouldn’t stop me from being able to love and to save lives.”
The bill removes liability from employers that unknowingly recruit an individual who the bill targets. The House later approved the bill unanimously.