{"id":1555,"date":"2019-03-05T19:09:38","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T19:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/?p=1555"},"modified":"2019-03-05T19:10:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T19:10:11","slug":"preview-of-2019-regular-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/?p=1555","title":{"rendered":"Preview of 2019 Regular Session"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

March 5, 2019 — The first day of the 2019 Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature began at noon today.  But unlike in most years, the big question in Montgomery is when the session\u2019s second <\/em>day will start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While nothing will become official, if at\nall, until her State of the State speech later tonight, Governor Kay Ivey<\/strong> is expected to call legislators into a Special Session\nstarting tomorrow.  The primary focus of\nthe extraordinary session, of course, will be her \u201cRebuild Alabama\u201d\ninfrastructure plan, which not only gradually increases the state\u2019s motor fuel\ntax over the next three years \u2013 6 cents the first year, 2 cents the second\nyear, and 2 cents the third year \u2013 but also subsequently increases the tax\nusing a built-in pricing index.   The new\nrevenue would be allocated to the state, counties, and cities, as well as to\nthe Port of Mobile, where funds will be used to widen the port and expand its\nusefulness.  Rep. Bill Poole (R-Tuscaloosa)<\/strong>, chairman of the committee that\nwrites the Education Trust Fund budget, will sponsor the bill, which, because\nit raises revenue, is constitutionally required to begin in the House of Representatives.  In the Senate, the bill is expected to be\nmanaged by Sen. Clyde Chambliss\n(R-Prattville)<\/strong>, the Republican Floor Leader and a veteran public funds\nappropriator, having spent time not only in the state Senate but also on the\nPrattville City Council and Autauga County Commission.  Though the gas tax is supported by Republican\nheavyweights such as Gov. Ivey, Lt. Gov.\nWill Ainsworth (R), Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon (R-Huntsville) <\/strong>and Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh (R-Anniston)<\/strong>,\nthe legislation still faces somewhat of an uphill climb from some legislators,\nespecially after the Executive Committee of the state Republican Party\nofficially voted last month to oppose the gas tax plan.  Rest assured, this issue will be the \u201cone to\nwatch\u201d in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while legislators are debating the gas\ntax in the Special Session, what\u2019s going on with the Regular Session?  The short answer is\u2026nothing.  The law does not allow two sessions \u2013 one\nregular and one special \u2013 to run at the same time.  In effect, then, having a special session\ninside a regular one just puts the Regular Session on pause.  During a regular session, legislators can\nmeet for no more than 30 legislative days over 105 calendar days, meaning the\nsession must end before midnight on June 17. \nChances are, then, that the second legislative day of the 2019 Regular\nSession will also be its 14th<\/sup> calendar day, leaving plenty of time \u2013\nalbeit less time than usual \u2013 for legislators to meet for the remaining\nlegislative days of the session.  In\nfact, the most impactful decision of holding the special session inside the\nregular session is that legislators, and the staff and lobbyists who follow the\nlegislative process, will likely not take a \u201cspring break\u201d week at the end of\nMarch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truth be told, the gas tax is just one<\/em> of several contentious issues on the\nradars of policymakers.  Other major\nissues \u2013 prison reform, Medicaid expansion, lottery and gaming, and changes to\nthe ethics laws \u2013 are on tap as well. \nAnd any one of those issues could, by itself, clog up time on the House\nand Senate floors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without question, the most important\nlegislative issue for Alabama\u2019s banking industry is the passage of a bill known\nas The Future Advance Mortgage\nProtection Act.<\/strong>  Last September, the\nAlabama Supreme Court issued an opinion that upended the industry\u2019s\nlongstanding concept of lien priority. \nIn GHB Construction v. West\nAlabama Bank and Trust<\/em>, the Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the creditor\nwho first incurred debt \u2013 in this case, a homebuilder \u2013 had lien priority over\nthe creditor who first executed an agreement to extend credit and recorded a\n\u201cfuture advance\u201d mortgage to secure that credit \u2013 in this case, the bank.  The\nFuture Advance Mortgage Protection Act<\/strong> cures this problem by returning\nAlabama law to the way it existed prior to the Court\u2019s ruling.  In other words, the bill simply provides that\nwhen determining the lien priority of a future advance mortgage, whether\nexecuted before or after the act\u2019s passage, it is as if all of the funds under\nthe future advance mortgage were advanced at closing, even if they were\nactually advanced in the future.  If this\nlegislation fails to pass and the Court ruling stands, every bank in the state\n\u2013 not to mention bank customers \u2013 will have to reevaluate how, or if, it issues\nfuture advance mortgage products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, the uncertainty around the West Alabama<\/em> case impacts not just the\nbanking industry but also the entire financial services industry.  That\u2019s why the Alabama Bankers Association is\npleased to partner with the League of Southeastern Credit Unions, the Credit\nUnion Coalition of Alabama, the Mortgage Bankers Association of Alabama, and\nthe Alabama Land Title Association to lobby for The Future Advance Mortgage Protection\nAct.  It\u2019s our hope that these groups\u2019\ncombined efforts will put the legislation on a fast-track to Gov. Ivey\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always during session, the Association\nwill plan to publish Capitol Notes each week, usually on Friday.  Every edition will provide you with a\nreal-time update on what happened in the State House during the week as well as\non the pieces of legislation directly impact Alabama\u2019s banks and bankers.  If you\u2019re not receiving Capitol Notes, make\nsure to let ABA Vice President of Marketing and Business Development Shelley\nHildebrand know at (334) 244-9456 or at shildebrand@alabamabankers.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, don\u2019t hesitate to contact ABA Vice President of Legal and Governmental Affairs Jason Isbell with any questions or concerns about what\u2019s going on with the Alabama Legislature.\u00a0 He can be reached at (334) 244-9456 or at jisbell@alabamabankers.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 5, 2019 — The first day of the 2019 Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature began at noon today.  But unlike in most years, the big question in Montgomery is when the session\u2019s second day will start. While nothing will become official, if at all, until her State of the State speech later tonight, Governor Kay Ivey is expected to call legislators into a Special Session starting tomorrow.  The primary focus of the extraordinary session, of course, will be her \u201cRebuild Alabama\u201d infrastructure plan, which not only gradually increases the state\u2019s motor fuel tax over the next three years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,26,3,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-capitol-notes","category-politics","category-publications","has_thumb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/albanknews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/capitol_graphic-e1461688373563.png?fit=350%2C383&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Y3P2-p5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}