By MARY SELL and ALEXANDER WILLIS, Alabama Daily News
There are five legislative days remaining in this 2024 regular session and plenty of big-ticket bills left to move this week and next.
Here’s a look at the status of several high-profile bills, including the gambling proposal, ethics reform and budgets.
And a few that are dead for the year.
Ethics bill substitute sent to Senate Judiciary Committee members
A substitute version of an extensive overhaul to the state’s ethics laws has been sent to Senate Judiciary Committee members.
Sponsored by Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, House Bill 227 would make a number of reforms to Alabama ethics laws, among which are increased criminal penalties for offering or accepting bribes to public servants, weakening the power of the state’s Ethics Commission, and more narrowly defining who ethics laws apply to.
While the bill passed out of the Alabama House in early April with a solid base of support, passing with a vote of 79-9, it hasn’t been without its critics.
Tom Albritton, the executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission, has voiced some opposition to the bill, saying that it would “be bad for the people of Alabama,” and that its scope was “overkill.”
Attorney General Steve Marshall also came out against the bill, arguing that the proposal would weaken the state’s ethics laws, which under HB227, would no longer apply to all of Alabama’s roughly 300,000 state employees and their immediate family, which is estimated to include 1.2 million people in total.
Nonetheless, Simpson has remained dedicated to seeing his bill succeed, and has remained optimistic to its eventual success.
Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, received a copy of a substitute to the bill Monday morning, he told Alabama Daily News.
That committee’s agenda for this week has not yet been made public.
Online sales tax, ‘adventure’ sales tax holiday dead
Among the legislation that has stalled for this session are bills that would increase the state sales tax on online purchases and create an annual sales tax holiday for sporting and outdoor equipment, including hunting gear, firearms and non-motorized boats.
The bills were linked, Rep. Joe Lovvorn, R-Auburn, said, because the sales tax increase would replace some of the education revenue lost by his “Alabama Adventure Awaits” tax holiday proposal. The bill to raise the Simplified Sellers Use Tax, otherwise known as online sales tax, from 8% to 9.3% drew criticism from some Republicans. Others noted that that much of the new revenue would go to large municipalities.
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said Monday his sales tax proposal is likely dead for this session. Lovvorn agreed.
“I’m not sure the Legislature is ready to move on the SSUT,” he said via text. “I’ve asked the Senate to not push the sales tax holiday until we can responsibly replace the revenue or the budgets show strength to add an additional sales tax holiday. I’m optimistic about next year and hope we can find a way to make the sales tax holiday work to motivate people to enjoy the great outdoors of Alabama.”
Lovvorn previously called the proposed sales tax increase a matter of fairness.
“The way our current SSUT is structured, it gives a disadvantage to the brick-and-mortar stores that invest in our state and gives priority to out-of-state businesses that exist on the internet,” he said earlier this month.
The Alabama League of Municipalities and the Association of County Commissions of Alabama advocated for the SSUT increase.
“(The SSUT) is a significantly impactful funding mechanism for communities to use to invest in a variety of quality of life services for their citizens,” Greg Cochran, league executive director, told ADN on Monday. “ We are optimistic we can continue SSUT conversations with lawmakers and stakeholders on a path forward for next year.”
Property tax increase cap needs 1 vote
A bill to limit annual increases in people’s property taxes is awaiting a final vote in the Alabama Senate, where it has strong support.
“We have the votes, we just need to get it on the calendar,” Rep. Phillip Pettus, R-Green Hill, told Alabama Daily News on Monday about House Bill 73.
Under existing law, there is no limit on increases in assessed values of property, which are set by tax assessors annually based on market data and the condition of properties. House Bill 73 would cap the amount that value could increase in a single year to 7% for both residential and commercial properties.
The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. David Sessions, R-Grand Bay, and most of the body signed on co-sponsors. It was unchanged in a Senate committee earlier this month from what the House passed.
Maternity leave likely to get Senate vote
The Senate could vote today on a bill that would give female state employees and teachers six weeks of paid maternity leave.
The bill also gives men possible paid time off for the adoption of a child under the age of 3.
Right now, neither state employees nor teachers receive any paid leave for the birth of a child.
The substitute bill replaces earlier and more expansive proposals for both employee groups. Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, earlier this month introduced a proposal to give 12 weeks leave to all teachers for the birth or adoption of a child, a miscarriage or a stillbirth. The bill was scaled back in a Senate committee last week, against Democrats’ opposition, to match a modified House maternity leave proposal for state employees.
Rep. Ginny Shaver’s House Bill 309 originally would have allowed state employees eight weeks of paid leave. It was reduced in another Senate committee to allow six weeks of paid leave for female employees after a birth and men and women after the adoption of a child.
Gambling bill is … still there
Private conversations continue about any path forward for a gambling bill that was cut significantly by the Senate in March from what the House passed in February.
What and when any proposal moves to a vote is still unclear.
The proposed CA and enabling legislation that would allow for a lottery have been in legislative limbo since the Senate last month drastically scaled back the House’s proposal that would also allow for online and sports betting and up to 10 casinos with table games in the state.
Leaders in both chambers have said getting a proposal to voters is a priority, as is cracking down on illegal gaming in the state.
A conference committee has been assigned to try to hammer out an agreement that could get the needed 21 Senate votes to put in front of Alabama voters later this year a constitution amendment allowing a lottery.
Education, General Fund budgets to move through committees today
Alabama lawmakers are expected to advance two 2025 budgets totaling $12.6 billion in committees on Tuesday.
In the Senate Finance & Taxation Committee, lawmakers will vote to approve, and potentially amend, House Bill 145, the proposed $9.3 billion Education Trust Fund budget, carried by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville.
On the $3.3 billion General Fund budget, this year carried in the Senate by Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, members of the House Ways & Means General Fund Committee will cast their votes on the proposal today as well.
The proposed education budget, a record high that represents a $550 million increase over this year’s education budget, was passed out of the House on April 16, and closely aligned with Gov. Kay Ivey’s own recommendations for education spending. It includes a 2% raise for educators.
The $3.3 billion General Fund budget passed out of the Senate on April 11, and represents an increase of the current year’s budget of more than $300 million.
Under the proposal, all state employees will receive a 2% raise, and hundreds of millions of dollars are allocated for prison construction, an allocation fought hard for by Albritton.
Lawmakers allocated $1.2 billion in 2021 for the construction of two new prisons, but with just one of them now exceeding $1.1 billion in costs, lawmakers are stuck with having to allocate more money to the project.
Occupational board bill, issue not going away
Its unlikely that Sen. Chris Elliott’s expansive bill to organize many of the state’s occupational licensing boards under a new umbrella state office that provides management services will come up again for a Senate vote and move to the House.
But Elliott on Monday said he’s not giving up on the issue.
“These problems aren’t going away, they persist,” Elliott said. “It is unfortunate that lobbyists and other people who make money off of government and trying to do the people’s business are able to stop legislation. The fox is absolutely guarding the henhouse here.”
Elliott’s Senate Bill 244 would put 23 state occupational boards’ management under the new government office.
That number is scaled back from the originally proposed Senate Bill 224 to focus on several boards that have had fiscal and management issues highlighted in state audits and are currently overseen by private contractors who manage the boards that license, collect fees and can disciple members of various professions, from electricians to bail bondsmen.
One of those contractors is Keith Warren. He and several Democrats say if there are problems with how a board is operating, it should be dealt with individually.
“If there are issues, this is the prime opportunity for the (Legislative) Sunset Committee members to work directly with the boards and their members regarding findings outlined in the reports from the Examiners of Public Accounts,” Warren told ADN recently. “Some items require legislative changes, some require administrative rule changes or new rules to correct matters.”
Tort reform bill not moving
A major tort reform bill will not be advancing this session. Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, filed Senate Bill 293 in early April and then work continued on a potential substitute bill.
The legislation hasn’t been through the Senate Judiciary Committee yet and won’t be on this week’s agenda, chairman Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, said Monday.
Orr recently told ADN he’d also like to see his “Teacher’s Bill of Rights” bill, which lays out a standard process for allowing teachers to remove unruly students from class, and his School Security and Fire Safety Fund bill get final passage.
The prior is pending a House vote; the latter is pending a House Education Policy Committee vote committee public hearing on Wednesday.