By Brittany Woodby
The Cullman Times
May 17, 2008 12:09 am
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Though there is only one working day left in this year’s state legislative session, many bills remain waiting for votes, including the state’s education budget and several items affecting Cullman County.
Reps. James Fields (D-Cullman) and Jeremy Oden (R-Vinemont), and Sen. Zeb Little, said they hope to pass the budget, as well as other bills which would help the area, when they return to Montgomery May 19.
“We’ve just got a lot riding on this last day,” Little said.
Several items should come before the Senate, including bills Little sponsored that directly impact Cullman County, as well as the bill to remove sales tax from groceries, which he said he fully supports.
“I’m hopeful we can do something to help those seniors and families and give them real tax relief every day,” he said. “Everyone will get a tax break, hopefully, if we get that passed.”
The bill, which passed the House April 15, would remove the state’s 4-percent grocery sales tax and increase the income tax threshold for families of four.
Though the bill was not discussed the last two times it came before the Senate, Little said he hopes it will pass.
“My biggest hope right now is this bill will pass,” he said. “If we don’t pass it on the last day, it will be the biggest disappointment in my career. It’s just something I feel very strongly about. If we pass this bill, then considering all the others we passed, it will be the most successful session in my career.”
If the bill passes the Senate, it will go before Alabama voters in the Nov. 4 general election before becoming effective.
Little passed one bill this session distinctly pertaining to Cullman County, giving the Cullman County Coroner a raise of $500 a month, or $6,000 a year. The raise will nearly double the coroner’s salary of $6,700, which has been the same since 1984.
However, several other Cullman-centered bills were left indefinitely postponed in the Senate last week, including a bill to allow the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office to keep the roughly $400,000 the federal government pays the agency for temporarily housing federal inmates.
Little said those bills are in position to pass Monday.
“We passed the bill giving the coroner a raise. ... The bill about TVA money to bring that money home to give to the local folks who need it, the bill dealing with the money for sheriff, those are still pending and are in position to pass on the last day. I’m hoping we can pass the bill to help the sheriff’s office with their budget.”
Another item on the Senate’s agenda is the state’s $6.3 million education budget, a decrease from last year’s $6.7 million education budget. While the budget has been tossed around the legislature several times this session, being substituted in both the House and Senate, Little said senators should pass the bill as it was passed by the House April 30.
“I think we’ll get the education budget passed,” he said.
Little, Oden and Fields each said they support the budget as it passed the House and hope to see it pass the Senate during the regular session.
“We’ve got some tough times,” Little said. “The economy is down and people are hurting, and our education budget is 80 percent based on sales and income tax. Those things have been down, and we had to make some cuts in the budget we have.”
“I’m OK with the budget, and I think the folks in education are OK,” Fields said. “You’ve got to learn to give and take a little bit, and we’re heading into a period of recession, revenues are down and we have to be careful there. ... I think education gave up a lot.”
“I think the education budget was the best we could do,” Oden said. “We fought to get adult education back up to a level where they can fund their programs, and it should be there. The career and technical programs should be at least halfway funded in the budget. ... We funded the ARC (Association for Retarded Citizens) and only lacked a few thousand dollars of fully funding it.”
Still, the budget waiting to be passed by the Senate is $25 million short of what lobbyists for higher education are seeking, and several senators are expected to fight the budget to give universities the funding. The Alabama Education Association issued a statement last week urging senators to pass the budget Monday, saying a delay on setting a budget would put K-12 schools in “turmoil.”
“While the K-12 education family is asking the Senate for a survival budget, some senators are saying that they will risk killing the budget to give the universities an additional $25 million that the Education Trust Fund simply doesn’t have,” AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert said in a press release.
Fields said if the budget passes, he feels confident Cullman school systems will still thrive despite cuts.
“Cullman is going to survive,” he said. “We’ve got good managers in our superintendents and two-year system up there. They are really conscious about looking at what they’ve got. I know they are going to manage their systems and be very responsible.”
Oden passed a bill through legislature which he said he hopes will ease some of the budget pressure off schools.
“The local competitive bid law allows local school boards to up the bid law requirement from $7,500 to $15,000,” he said. “We moved that up to allow for negotiations to be able to purchase things. It also allows school boards to go in together to purchase some things.”
The bill exempts purchases made by city and county boards of education under certain joint purchasing agreements from competitive bid requirements.
While Oden was one of few representatives who successfully passed a bill during this year’s difficult session, Fields’ HB667 still awaits substitution and a third reading in the House of Representatives.
The bill would require jails, jailers or other persons having custody of someone charged with a felony or DUI to determine the citizenship and lawful status of the suspect. If that person is not a lawful citizen, he or she will be considered a flight risk.
“The illegal immigrant bills are not so friendly to businesses,” he said.
“Businesses need employees and we need to figure a way to make sure they are not hurt in this bill,” Fields said.
Little said even if legislators are called to meet in special session, the legislation which already passed this term was crucial to Alabama residents.
“We really passed a lot of legislation the last couple of weeks, and it was as meaningful as I’ve seen, “ he said. “We passed a bill that provides a tax deduction for residents investing in a college savings plan, we passed a bill banning smoking in all public places, and passed a bill trying to keep sexual predators from living within a certain distance of college campuses.”
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