A bill that advocates say will allow Alabama municipalities to create research and development corridors like one planned in Birmingham received its first vote this week.
The corridors would be controlled by boards of directors and the 38-page bill outlines how they’ll operate, including possible exemptions from state taxation requirements and competitive bid laws.
Substituted in committee, Sen. Jabo Waggoner’s Senate Bill 336, was approved in the County and Municipal Government Committee.
It’s a statewide bill, but Waggoner said it will apply for a project on the southside of Birmingham, a collaboration between the University of Alabama Birmingham and nonprofit Southern Research. The corridor will include biotech companies, Waggoner said.
“This is huge for Birmingham and huge for Alabama,” said Waggoner.
This bill will “make sure we are competitive and can maximize opportunities before us that will impact the entire region and state,” Waggoner said.
According to the bill, the corridor boards will be able to: “To acquire real property within the geographic boundaries of the corridor, whether by gift, purchase, transfer, foreclosure, lease, or devise, and to construct, improve, operate, maintain, equip, and furnish the property and interests in property as the board determines to be necessary for the purposes of the corridor.”
They can also “fix and revise, and charge and collect, fees, licenses, rates, rentals, and assessments and apply the proceeds thereof for any lawful purpose of the corridor, to any qualified enterprise or other business located within the geographic boundaries of the corridor…”
They can also issue and incur financial obligations.
“It doesn’t just impact Jefferson County,” Sen. Linda Coleman, D-Birmingham said in committee. “It’s about job creation and economic development for a long time.”
The bill was filed by Waggoner last week when it became clear another effort, part of Gov. Kay Ivey and legislative leadership’s seven-bill workforce development package, had run into trouble over concerns about granting “Innovation Districts” eminent domain authority and other taxing abilities.
Waggoner’s bill now goes to the full Senate.
Alabama Daily News’ Kate Essig contributed to this report.