Weekly Legislative Report

Final Wrap-Up

Alabama Grocers Association

May 21, 2008

The Legislature ground down to a bitter end Monday evening in fitting fashion.  The Senate spent the entire day filibustering the Education Budget, tied up in sharply divided arguments between the interests of K-12 education and higher education.  Mixed in was all sorts of other interests, mad that their bills didn’t receive approval, and perfectly content to kill the session because they didn’t get their way.

The end result:  no Education Budget.  That means that thousands of non-tenured teachers will be told over the next two weeks that they have no jobs in the fall.  Many of the best in that group will be lured to surrounding states, and will be lost to the school systems of Alabama .

The Governor has indicated that he will call a special session as quickly as possible to pass a budget.  But he first must gain some kind of agreement on what that budget will look like before bringing them back to Montgomery .  The special session will cost at least $400,000.

In a big disappointment for us and the thousands of families who spend hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes on food for their families, HB 274 died Monday because the Senators would not move the budget and get onto other issues.  The next to last day, we received 20 votes to pass the constitutional amendment on to the people, and we had that one extra vote needed for final passage.  But we were never given another opportunity to vote on the bill.  Strike up another victory against the working poor of Alabama .

The end of the session brought death to more than 170 other bills that had been passed by the House, including:

--Smoking ban: The bill would have banned people from smoking in restaurants, stores, convention halls, theaters, sports arenas, work places and many other public indoor places. Stand-alone bars, but not bars in restaurants, would have been exempt from the ban.

--Corporate taxes: The bill would have closed corporate income tax loopholes that some big companies headquartered out-of-state have used to lower their taxable state income. It would have raised about $74 million next year, most of which would be spent in next year's education budget.

--PAC-to-PAC transfers: A compromise proposal by Rep. Jeff McLaughlin, D-Guntersville, would have banned transfers of campaign money between political action committees but carved out "one-way street" exemptions for political parties and legislative caucuses and required new quarterly filings to report contributions.

--Tax rebates: The bill would have exempted federal stimulus checks from state income taxes. The move would have saved Alabamians collectively about $57 million, but the savings would have been modest -- up to $30 for individuals and up to $90 for a couple with two children. The bill also said the state wouldn't recognize a tax break for businesses contained in the federal stimulus package, which allows them to claim a larger deduction for the cost of new equipment instead of depreciating that cost over many years.

Of all the bills we have tracked for our members over these past three and a half months, only eight of those bills saw passage:

-- HB 395, McDaniel              Solid Wastes and Recyclable Materials Management Act:  Environmental Management Department designated as the primary regulatory agency, state solid waste disposal fees, cleanup fund for unauthorized dumps, recycling programs.

-- HB 427, Page          Unemployment compensation, benefits increased.

-- HB 548, Graham     Camp Hill, alcoholic beverages, Sunday sales authorized

-- HB 728, Clouse       Newton , alcoholic beverages, sale of draft or keg beer or malt beverages authorized, referendum

-- HB 729, Clouse       Ozark, alcoholic beverages, sale of draft or keg beer or malt beverages authorized, referendum.

-- HB 790 and 818, Davis        created new law providing protections for holders of franchises on “liquid goods” similar to laws regulating the distribution of alcoholic beverages.  Expect to see similar local bills in other counties in future sessions.  ,

-- SB 147, Bedford      Unemployment compensation, assignment of rates and transfer of experience, transfer of trade or business with substantial common ownership regulated, civil and criminal penalties.

A few of these bills were passed on the final session day, and the Governor has not signed them yet.  We’ll let you know if any are vetoed.

Thanks always for your support and assistance.  Please don’t hesitate to call us if we can be of assistance or answer any questions you might have.  334-277-9565.

To view the Weekly Tracking Report, which is in Adobe format, please click here.