The Alabama Senate on Tuesday approved three of the Legislature’s priority workforce and economic development bills, but delayed votes on two others that were called “monster” for the taxing and eminent domain powers they’d give newly created local development districts.
“This is one of the worst bills I’ve ever seen,” said five-term lawmaker Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, about Senate Bill 242. Called the Innovation District Act, the bill would allow counties and municipalities to create public corporations that can, according to the fiscal note on the bill, acquire and improve property; charge and collect fees, licenses, and rates; grant or loan funds, including certain tax proceeds; create financial obligations; pledge certain tax proceeds for use within the district and invest district funds.
Bill sponsor Sen. Bobby Singleton called the proposal “another tool in the toolbox” for local economic development, but agreed it needed work.
“There were things that were broad, but we’re working on them,” Singleton said. He asked the bill be carried over while work on it continues. A similar request was made for Senate Bill 243, the legislation that would put the proposal before voters through a required constitutional amendment.
The seven-bill workforce package was unveiled by Gov. Kay Ivey and legislative leadership last month.
Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said as work began on SB 242 and SB243, “we discovered there were some elements — not a Republican or Democrat issue — that weren’t exactly the way that the members wanted them.”
“So it required some additional work, and so they’re going to be in the process of going through exactly what the outcomes are going to be,” Reed said after the Senate adjourned Tuesday. “I think those ones have real strong support, but we’ve got to make sure they’re right; they impact a lot of folks, in a very positive way, but we’ve just got to make sure the legislation is exactly correct.”
The bills that did pass the Senate Tuesday create a new body to oversee the state’s economic development goals, reorganize existing economic and workforce development agencies and give high school students another route to obtaining a high school diploma.
Senate Bill 252, sponsored by Reed, creates the Alabama Growth Alliance, a public corporation that will oversee the state’s long-range economic development strategy. It will be run by an 11-member board of appointees from the public and private sectors.
The alliance’s duties include to “identify opportunities and make recommendations to the governor regarding the coordination of economic development efforts between state agencies, private organizations, and other economic development entities and stakeholders.”
The body will be able to enter into agreements and contracts with private entities and government agencies. The bill also exempts the alliance from state procurement and bid law.
“I’m excited about where we’re going with economic growth, economic development,” Reed said just before the bill’s passage.
Rep. Randall Shedd, R-Baileyton, is sponsoring the House version, House Bill 372.
Senate Bill 247, the Alabama Workforce Transformation Act, is sponsored by Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro.
It would rename the Alabama Department of Labor as the Alabama Department of Workforce and designate the head of the department as the Secretary of Workforce. The department’s duties would include being the information keeper about workforce development activities in the state and overseeing state and federal workforce development programs and entities currently overseen by the Department of Commerce.
“It will eliminate duplicative workforce agencies,” Livingston said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Commerce would be divided into two primary functions: A Small Business Development Division and the Alabama Industrial Development and Training Institute, which will continue to provide employer-specific workforce development programs as part of the state’s incentives awarded to new and expanding companies.
Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, is sponsoring the House version, House Bill 344.
Senate Bill 253, the Alabama Career Pathway Act, sponsored by Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, would create another pathway to high school diplomas for students who don’t intend to go to college.
The bill would allow students on the “Workforce Pathway” to an Alabama diploma would need two fewer math and two fewer science credits than the four required under the traditional path to graduation. Instead of those math and science classes, students would take career tech classes
Rep. Kelvin Lawrence, D-Hanyneville, is carrying the House version.
“Everybody doesn’t have the desire to attend college,” Lawrence told a House committee last week. “With the right training, within a year or two, you can go right into the workforce making wages probably some of these kids’ parents hadn’t made all their life and so I think this is a great opportunity to not only give students another avenue, but it also will help with trying to (raise) the labor participation rate.”
Some on that House committee last week said they wanted to make sure the new pathway didn’t lock students out of higher education should they later change their minds about college.
Alabama has one high school diploma, but at one point offered three, State Superintendent Eric Mackey said last week.
One of them didn’t qualify students for community college enrollment.
“We don’t want to go back to that,” he said.
Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, Tuesday added an amendment to the Senate version that says students who earn a Workforce Pathway diploma are eligible for admission at state colleges, but each institution can maintain its admission requirements.
The other two bills in the package are in a House committee today. They create tax credits for developers who build mid-income rental housing in high-demand areas and give employers a tax credit for providing or helping with employees’ child-care expenses.