Bill to Remove Grocery Tax Fails Again

As lawmakers met late this afternoon, atop the House calendar was Representative Knight’s bill that would remove the state’s 4 cent sales tax on groceries. This is the same controversial bill that shut down the House last week after the bill failed to receive enough procedural votes to go before the House.

This afternoon, new measures were included in the bill attempting to reach a compromise that would move the legislation along. By removing the sales tax on groceries, the state must seek alternative methods to make up the approximate $426 million that is generated each year through this tax.

The controversial portion of this bill revolves around the manner in which the state will make up those foregone tax dollars. Under this legislation, those dollars would be made up by phasing out the federal income tax deduction on the Alabama income tax return over three years. By year three, married couples with an adjusted gross income of $125,000 or more as well as individuals with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or more would lose their federal income tax deduction.

Opponents to this bill feel that small businesses (including S-corps, LLC’s, and LLP’s) will be adversely affected. They purport that the $426 million tax burden would be placed on 10% of the state’s population.

The bill failed to receive enough votes again for consideration on the House floor.

Alabama to Receive $3 Billion from Economic Stimulus Package

If you are wondering where the dollars from the federal economic stimulus package are going, we now know that Alabama can count on 3 billion of those dollars.

A hearing was held this afternoon in the House chamber relating to the money that will be coming into Alabama. Jim Main (state director of finance), Drayton Neighbors (appointed by Governor Riley to oversee disbursement of stimulus money), and David Perry (also assisting with oversight of stimulus money) were present to answer questions and give an update on where Alabama is in the process.

Apparently, the dollars available for states to receive from the stimulus package are divided into two pots. From the first pot, we know that Alabama will receive $3 billion dollars. The second and larger portion of money represents dollars that states can compete for.

The $3 billion will be allocated in our state as follows:

$1 billion to education
$1 billion to general fund
$1 billion to be divided equally between transportation and existing programs (programs under ADEM)

So that Alabama may be more competitive and efficient in competing for dollars from the second pot of stimulus money, all agencies have been divided into 4 working groups: public safety and law enforcement, economic development, health and human services, and education. These groups will be provided the resources necessary such as grant writers, information, and etc. to make them as competitive as possible for those federal dollars.

In addition to providing states with additional dollars to fund programs and projects, the ultimate goal of the stimulus money is to create and maintain jobs. As a basic formula, for each $1 billion dollars spent, an estimated 28,000 jobs should be maintained / created.

The federal government is requiring states to report how many jobs have been created and / or maintained due to the receipt of these dollars. The first reporting period is in July of this year and figures will be placed on a public website for viewing.

For more information regarding the economic stimulus dollars coming into Alabama, a website has been established at stimulus.alabama.gov.

Filibuster Ends in House But Senate Shuts Down Once More

One week after the filibuster in the House began, bills are moving again - for now! The House will convene again tomorrow at 4:00 at which time the grocery tax bill will be the first item for discussion on the agenda. If the bill fails to pass, it would be reasonable to expect another filibuster in the House.

Whereas the House is at work late this afternoon, the Senate shut down around 3:45 due to a disagreement over a bill relating to rural telephone service, SB 373. Senator Barron brought an amendment to the bill which he said would prevent companies from raising rates on rural customers. Senator Beason also brought an amendment which he stated would accomplish this. After much discussion, Senator Barron's amendment was not adopted, so he began a filibuster with enough support from fellow senators to keep it going.

With the Senate at a stalemate, a motion to adjourn was made. The Senate will reconvene at 1:00 tomorrow.

Filibuster End in Sight? Not So

Shortly after the House convened at 1:00, a small glimmer of hope that the filibuster would end today was shorted lived.

Representative Knight stated, “I know how important the grocery tax is but also realize we are midway through the session and in order to accomplish what is necessary we can’t stop work. I am working and will continue to work with anyone who would like to come with a compromise for removing sales tax on groceries.”

While Representative Knight was ready to concede, his colleague, Representative Thomas took a different perspective. He pointed out that this is not the first year Representative Knight has worked on the issue of removing the grocery tax, and within two years he believed something could have been fashioned to lift the taxes off of poor people. He declared that as far as he was concerned nothing is so important on this calendar that is paramount to this legislation – with the exception of the budgets which are not ready for consideration at this point.

Responding to Rep. Thomas, Rep. Knight said, “If I shall die trying to take the sales tax off of groceries then so be it”

Representative Thomas blames Republicans for no movement taking place toward a compromise. There was word last week that Republicans were preparing an alternative grocery tax bill; however, no bill has been presented as of today.

And the filibuster continues…

"You Know You Are Poor If," By Rep. Joseph Mitchell

One might ask what on earth the title of this blog has to do with the Alabama Legislature?

Well, after sitting for hours at the Alabama Statehouse today listening to filibusters in both the House and Senate, Representative Joseph Mitchell enlightened us all this afternoon with his rendition of Jeff Foxworthy’s “You Know You’re a Redneck If” and replaced it with his list of “You Know You’re Poor If”. Please note that this is only a partial list from his speech.

“You Know You are Poor If”:

1. “You have to shake the ants off your laundry before taking your clothes in from drying.”

2. “If your supper is the same as what you ate for breakfast.”

3. “If you eat your lunch out of the same bowl and with the same spoon you ate your breakfast with.”

The following was yelled from the House floor adding to Rep. Mitchell’s list after he apologized for wearing sneakers to work this afternoon because he stepped in a puddle outside on his way in.

“You know you are poor if you wear white sneakers with your black suit to the floor of the Alabama House!”

Laughter throughout the House immediately followed. I think some college co-eds can relate to this list as well. Oh, our tax dollars hard at work!

In case you missed earlier blogs this week, the filibuster by the Black Caucus began in the House Tuesday after the bill which would remove the tax on groceries failed to garner enough support to go before the House membership for a vote.

Filibuster Continues in the House Due to Grocery Tax Bill

As soon as the special order calendar was introduced in the House this morning, Representative Buskey (D) expressed his disappointment in not seeing HB 116 on the calendar that would remove the grocery tax. This is the same bill that shut down the House on Tuesday after it failed to receive enough votes to move forward for a vote on the House floor.

It appears that the Black Caucus will continue to filibuster indefinitely in the House today.

Senate Electronic Bingo Bill Carried Over Once Again

The Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee carried over SB 471 addressing electronic bingo in the state for the second time. At the star-studded committee meeting two weeks ago where George Jones, Tracy Lawrence, and Darryl Worley were in attendance, the bill was carried over for a vote today; however, due to amendments being prepared to add to this bill, it was carried over yet again until next week.

The bill should be on the committee calendar for next Wednesday, April 1st.