Week 1

February 28 - March 4

The first week of the legislative session could very well be named “Committee Meeting Week.” Yes, it is true that there are committee meetings throughout the session, but in the first week, not much else happens. In order for a bill to pass through both chambers of the legislature, five legislative days are needed and since there are only 3 days in each week, it takes some time to get things accomplished.

With that said, there are no bills to speak of that have passed through our state legislature in this the first week. However, there has been some movement within the state house. A number of high profile bills have passed through committee and a number of those have come from our delegation in Shelby County.

The Rolling Reserve Budget Act proposed for several years now by Representative Greg Canfield has passed through house committee quickly and looks to have a lot of traction. His proposal would bring stability to our state education budget and put and end to proration through smart budgeting practices. Speaking of budgets, I should mention that the Senate passed a resolution yesterday presented by Senator Jabo Waggoner that asks the federal government to mandate a balanced budget like we do in the state. Wouldn’t it be nice to see fiscal responsibility at all levels of government?

On Tuesday, Governor Robert Bentley kicked off the legislative session with his State of the State address which preached this very concept and proposed a thinned budget with cuts throughout our state government.

There were a few other bills of note this week that passed through committee. Representative Kurt Wallace sponsored a constitutional amendment that guarantees all Alabamians the right to a secret ballot including in votes of employee representation. This bill has been supported by the Business Council of Alabama (BCA) President and CEO William Canary. Secretary of State Beth Chapman supported a bill sponsored by Representative Kerry Rich that would require all persons wishing to vote in an election to present government issued photo identification. Our Representative April Weaver passed HB61 through committee this week. This bill would allow businesses to deduct 200 percent of the amount they pay in health insurance premiums from state income tax and is also supported by BCA.

All in all, this was a very busy week for meetings, meetings and more meetings in Montgomery. With what seems to be a very productive start the legislative session, I think we should start to see a few bills come out of both chambers next week.