{"id":2753,"date":"2022-02-07T14:39:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T14:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/?p=2753"},"modified":"2022-02-07T14:40:04","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T14:40:04","slug":"capitol-notes-regular-legislative-session-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/?p=2753","title":{"rendered":"Capitol Notes: Regular Legislative Session Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARPA Tax Relief<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Senate passed SB 152 Thursday, which would ensure that Alabamians are not required to pay state income taxes on expanded benefits under the American Rescue Plan Act (\u201cARPA\u201d).\u00a0 Such pandemic relief benefits include an increased child tax credit, increased dependent care credit, and increased\/modified earned income credit.\u00a0 SB 152 is now pending in the House Ways and Means Education Committee.<\/p>\n

Guns<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 1 by Senator Gerald Allen by a vote of 6-4. The legislation, which is opposed by law enforcement, would end the requirement to obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun.\u00a0 The bill now moves to the full Senate for consideration.<\/p>\n

Representative Shane Stringer and Senator Tim Melson have both filed similar legislation.\u00a0 The bills are expected to be modified to ensure private property owners maintain their right to limit or prohibit guns on their property.<\/p>\n

Teacher Retirement<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The House unanimously passed HB 134 Thursday, which would allow Alabama teachers in the Tier II retirement plan to collect benefits after 30 years of service instead of waiting until age 62.\u00a0 The bill would also increase the Tier II teacher contribution rate from 6.2% to 6.5% per pay period and the Tier II correctional officer, firefighter, and law enforcement contribution rate from 7.2% to 7.5% per pay period.\u00a0 HB 134 is now pending in the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee.<\/p>\n

Alabama Literacy Act<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

HB 220 was introduced Wednesday, which would delay for one year the Alabama Literacy Act provision requiring third-grade students to demonstrate reading proficiency before being promoted to fourth grade.\u00a0 Rep. Terri Collins, who was also the sponsor of the original 2019 legislation, introduced HB 220 due to inadequate testing data resultant from the pandemic.\u00a0 The bill appears to have strong support and is now pending in the House Education Policy Committee, which Collins also chairs.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Land Ownership<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sen. Tim Melson indicated he is temporarily pausing his effort to pass legislation to prohibit foreign ownership of agriculture and forest land in Alabama.\u00a0 SB 14 would have restricted ownership to U.S. citizens and resident aliens, with limited exceptions.\u00a0 Melson has not abandoned the issue, but indicated his desire for more time to craft the bill in a way that does not hurt foreign companies investing in Alabama.<\/p>\n

Mental Health<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would modify the process by which someone with a mental health issue could be involuntarily committed.\u00a0 HB 70 would establish a statutory definition for the phrase “real and present threat of substantial harm to self or others” and would provide that the threat of substantial harm should be assessed in light of all relevant evidence and not just the individual’s behavior.\u00a0 Further, the bill would authorize emergency custody of an individual based on a perceived real and present threat and establish processes for commitment order modifications and assessments.\u00a0 HB 70 can now be considered by the full House.<\/p>\n

School Choice<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Senate Education Policy Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would allow state funding to follow students to the public or private schools of their choice.\u00a0 SB 140 would direct Education Trust Fund dollars to education savings accounts that parents could use to send their children to another school.\u00a0 The bill was amended to require that non-public school students take the same annual assessments that public schools students take.\u00a0 The bill will likely be substantially modified before it is brought to the full senate for consideration.<\/p>\n

Math Education<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sen. Arthur Orr introduced a bill Wednesday designed to improve math education in public schools.\u00a0 SB 171 would create an Elementary Mathematics Task Force, a Postsecondary Mathematics Task Force and an Office of Mathematics Improvement within the State Department of Education, establish an Alabama Summer Mathematics Achievement Program, and require state intervention for low-performing schools.\u00a0 Currently, the legislation does not include a holdback component like the 2019 Alabama Literacy Act.\u00a0 SB 171 would also prohibit implementation of Common Core State Standards.\u00a0 The bill is pending in the Senate Education Policy Committee.<\/p>\n

Artificial Intelligence in Law Enforcement<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would limit how state or local law enforcement can use artificial intelligence and facial recognition.\u00a0 SB 56 would prohibit the use of such technology as the sole basis for making an arrest or for establishing probable cause in a criminal investigation.\u00a0 It would also prevent law enforcement from using AI or facial recognition to engage in ongoing surveillance except for in certain circumstances.\u00a0 The bill is now pending in the House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ARPA Tax Relief The Senate passed SB 152 Thursday, which would ensure that Alabamians are not required to pay state income taxes on expanded benefits under the American Rescue Plan Act (\u201cARPA\u201d).\u00a0 Such pandemic relief benefits include an increased child tax credit, increased dependent care credit, and increased\/modified earned income credit.\u00a0 SB 152 is now pending in the House Ways and Means Education Committee. Guns On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 1 by Senator Gerald Allen by a vote of 6-4. The legislation, which is opposed by law enforcement, would end the requirement to obtain a permit to […]<\/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-2753","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-Ip","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753","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=2753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2756,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753\/revisions\/2756"}],"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=2753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albanknews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}