April 20, 2012 Group Watch: This Week in the Legislature

Tuesday (the 20^th meeting day of the 2012 regular session): The House Public safety and Homeland Security Committee approved a bill to make changes to the state immigration law. The Senate Constitution and Elections Committee approved bills to allow state employees and public school employees to receive gifts worth $25 or less, and to raise the annual salary level that requires public employees to file an annual financial disclosure form from $50,000 to $75,000. The House passed bills making it a crime to have sexual relations with an animal, allowing certain precious metals to be stored in Alabama warehouses, to allow restaurants to put cork back on a bottle of wine and send it home with the customer, and to establish a sales tax holiday for the purchase of items like generators and weather radios needed to prepare for bad weather. It also approved bills that ban lawsuits against restaurants and other companies claiming the company caused a person to gain weight, prohibit inmates from having access to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and remove ectopic pregnancies from the list of procedures that doctors and hospitals have to report as types of pregnancies. The Senate approved a heavily amended bill to tie legislators’ compensation to the state’s median household income but delayed consideration of several bills addressing homeowners’ insurance.

Wednesday (a committee day): The House Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee discussed, but took no action on, a proposed constitutional amendment to allow display of the Ten Commandments in state buildings. The House Commerce and Small Business Committee held a public hearing on a bill to give the state a uniform, statewide regulation of fireworks. The House Ways and Means-Education Committee approved a Senate-passed bill to give teachers $300 for classroom supplies. The House Ways and Means-General Fund Committee approved a Senate-passed bill providing a supplemental appropriation for prisons as well as funds for a woman who was wrongfully incarcerated. The House Education Policy Committee approved a bill to change the mandatory age for children to attend school from 7 to 6 years old. The Senate Health Committee approved bills to require the “morning after pill” be administered in the presence of a physician and to allow limited sales of baked goods, canned jellies and jams, and dried herbs from home businesses. The Senate Education Committee amended that chamber’s charter school bill to require more stringent reporting requirements. The Senate Finance and Taxation-Education approved an education budget.

Thursday: The House passed bills to make changes to the state’s immigration law, to establish a uniform grading system for evaluating the performance of schools and systems in Alabama, and to allow litigants in a civil case to take depositions and conduct discovery in another state. They also approved a conference committee report on legislative pay. The Senate approved a number of bills of local application only. Additionally, it approved general bills to allow pharmacies to sell cold and allergy medicine with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine and to allow businesses destroyed by tornadoes last April to keep their tax breaks if they have to move to a new location to reopen.

Group Watch 4/20/2012: Principal Perspective

The Bloom Group is now on Twitter, and we’d like to invite you to follow us as we tweet up-to-the-minute information from inside the Alabama Legislature, as well as direct you to more in-depth articles of interest on the top current political issues being debated in Montgomery and around the state. You can see our Twitter feed on our website homepage, click the “Follow Us” link in the top left-hand corner of our Group Watch e-newsletter or click here. We’re looking forward to using this new tool to keep you abreast of the news that’s important to you and your business or organization.

Group Watch 4/20/2012: Investigative Team Gets a Leader

Retired state school superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson will lead the investigation into the Birmingham City Schools. Last week the state board, at the recommendation of current superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice, voted to launch an investigation into the board’s decision-making power and process. Richardson, now 73, was once described as prickly on his best days but has shown some signs of mellowing. The Birmingham school system will soon find out if this is true.

April 13, 2012 Group Watch: This Week in the Legislature

Tuesday (the 18^th day of the 2012 regular session): The House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill just introduced last Thursday that authorizes charter schools in Alabama. This is the second bill on this matter approved by the committee in two weeks. After hours of debate, the House approved a $1.39 billion General Fund budget, which is $400 million less than the current fiscal year. They also approved spending measures for recipients in The Children First Trust Fund and the Coalition for Domestic Violence.  The Senate confirmed five new trustees for Auburn University: Birmingham attorney James Pratt, Auburn banker Robert Dumas, Montgomery businessman Clark Sahlie, Mobile real estate mogul Ben Thomas Roberts and Birmingham attorney Elizabeth Huntley, who resides in Clanton. They also approved bills to establish a new pension plan for public employees hired on and after January 1, 2013; to provide $2.3 million to the state Department of Education to ensure all of Alabama’s 1,848 teachers and principals with certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards get the $5,000 salary supplement they were promised; to provide training and continuing education for members of city and county school boards; and to streamline the process for businesses filing tax returns with cities and counties.

Wednesday (a committee day): The Senate Finance and Taxation-Education Committee approved a bill to let Athens State University have its own board rather than be regulated by the State Board of Education. The Senate Finance and Taxation-General Fund Committee passed a bill to make sure businesses destroyed by the April 2011 tornadoes keep their state abatements if they have to move to a new location to reopen. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on a bill to repeal the state’s immigration law but did not vote on the measure. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees approved bills to create the crime of looting after a natural disaster and to make changes to the Alabama Athlete Agent law. The House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee held a public hearing on a bill to make changes to the state’s immigration law but did not vote on the measure. The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill to revise Alabama’s system of sentencing.

Thursday: The House passed a bill to allow schools to be flexible with schedules to start later in the summer and extend summer vacations for some families. The vote was 62-20. The Senate voted 23-3 to give final approval to a bill aimed at restoring a settlement over the state’s financially troubled prepaid college tuition plan. The House also passed bills to allow the United Ways of Alabama to participate in the state employee insurance program; to make it a crime to fail to report a missing child, the death of a child and falsely reporting to law enforcement about such children; to extend the termination date for the distribution for coal excise and privilege taxes, and to prohibit the issuance by ADEM for solid waste landfill permits until after May 31, 2014.

4/13/2012 Group Watch: Senators Delay Work on Education Budget

The Senate Finance and Taxation-Education Committee was scheduled to take up the education budget this week, but the committee chairman postponed it for one week to get additional input from his colleagues. The Senate is handling the initial work on the education budget, and the House did the same with the General Fund budget for non-education agencies. The House narrowly passed a General Fund budget Tuesday night after lengthy debate.

4/13/2012 Group Watch: Senate Committee Approves Covenant Marriage Bill

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 5-1 to approve a bill that would allow Alabama couples to choose to enter into “covenant marriages,” which would require premarital counseling and make it harder for couples to divorce. Under provisions of the bill, couples marrying in Alabama would not be required to enter into covenant marriages, but if they chose the option, they would not be allowed to file for no-fault divorces for incompatibility or breakdown of the marriage. Instead, they would be required to prove infidelity, criminal behavior, abuse or abandonment, or have to live apart for two years before they could be granted a divorce.

4/13/2012 Group Watch: State to Investigate Birmingham City Schools

The State Board of Education voted unanimously to initiate an investigation of the Birmingham City Board of Education. The State School Superintendent said he drafted the resolution approved by the board after he attended a meeting earlier in the week and became troubled by allegations that surfaced during the meeting. The Superintendent said he is putting together a team to review how governance is occurring in the Birmingham system. He voiced hope the investigation will help the board and the district’s 25,000 students.

April 6, 2012 Group Watch: This Week in the Legislature

This week started with the 16^th meeting day of the 2012 regular session. Charter school legislation was a major issue voted upon, among many others.

Tuesday: The House Ways and Means-Education Committee approved a settlement aimed at saving Alabama’s financial college tuition plan and debated but did not vote on a bill to authorize charter schools in Alabama. The House passed bills to establish a statewide E-911 board, to allow prison inmates to be used by private industry on projects with part of the inmate earnings going to pay restitution and incarceration costs, and to make it a felony to file false lien against law enforcement officers and public officials. The Senate joined the House in passing a resolution supporting development of a space port in Alabama. They also approved an appropriations bill that includes $45.3 million for prisons.

Wednesday (a committee day): The House Education Policy Committee voted to approve a bill that changes the mandatory age when children must attend school in Alabama. The House Ways and Means-General Fund Committee approved a $1.39 billion budget that is $430 million less than the spending plan for the current fiscal year. State employee representatives say the plan will result in substantial employee layoffs. The committee also approved a bill to allow excess money collected in class action lawsuits to go into a fund to help children who have been abused or neglected. The House Ways and Means-Education Committee debated but did not vote on a bill to authorize charter schools in Alabama. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill creating the Good Samaritan Law that would give licensed social workers, counselors and psychologists civil immunity for rendering aid in an emergency. The Senate Confirmations Committee approved five new trustees for the Auburn University board: Birmingham attorney James Pratt, Auburn banker Robert Dumas, Mobile businessman Ben Thomas Roberts, M. Clark Sahlie of Montgomery and Elizabeth Huntley from Clanton.

Thursday: The House Ways and Means-Education Committee met and debated for the third consecutive day a measure to authorize charter schools in Alabama. The committee voted 9-6 to approve the bill. The vote was along party lines with one Republican member joining five Democrats opposing the bill. The House approved bills to change the system of compensation for legislators, to restore a settlement aimed at saving Alabama’s financially troubled prepaid college tuition plan and to designate Baldwin County as the site of a future military museum. They also passed a resolution congratulating the Scouts on their 100^th anniversary. The Senate passed bills to provide a tax break to aircraft maintenance companies, to have a one-week wait for unemployment benefits after losing a job, and to provide tax breaks to data processing centers locating in Alabama.

Group Watch 4/6/2012: Legislature Looking at Staff Furloughs

The Alabama Legislature is looking at furloughing its employees to cope with cuts in the state General Fund budget. The Senate leadership voted this week to authorize Senate Secretary Pat Harris to implement furloughs of up to two days per month if necessary. The House leadership has previously given House Clerk Greg Pappas the same authority. Legislative leaders say they have already cut purchases and security costs and will make additional cuts that are necessary.

Group Watch 4/6/2012: Tougher Drug Penalties

Alabamians carrying more than eight grams of an illegal drug would be faced with tougher penalties under a bill passed by the House this week. The bill would make it a Class B felony to carry more than eight grams of an illegal substance, such as cocaine or heroin. The crime would be punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The bill’s sponsor says the proposal is aimed at making it easier to target street-level drug dealers who sell in small amounts. Less than 28 grams under current law is a Class C felony and is considered for personal use.