Montgomery Advertiser (by Brian Lyman): Nine hours after ending the 2012 regular session, the Alabama Legislature reconvened Thursday for a special session that will take up reapportionment, financial incentives, needed taxes for the General Fund and changes to the state’s immigration law.
The redrawing of the state’s legislative districts will be the focus of the session and likely the most contentious issue, with lawsuits already filed over maps proposed by the Legislature’s Republican majority.
But other matters will also generate argument, and carry potential consequences for the state’s General Fund and immigration law.
At a news conference Thursday morning, Gov. Robert Bentley said the Legislature had “snatched victory from the obvious jaws of defeat” with late passage of the Education Trust Fund and General Fund budgets late Wednesday night.
“I had told them I would not call a special session today if we did not have the budgets,” he said. “We had to decide what we would do.”
The General Fund budget approved by the Legislature counts on revenue that currently does not go into the General Fund.
Voters in September will have to approve a constitutional amendment moving $145 million from the Alabama Trust Fund, a repository for oil and gas royalties, to the General Fund for three years to help plug major deficits in the budget.
In the special session, the Legislature will have to approve the movement of 25 percent of state use taxes into the General Fund, which lawmakers estimate will be worth a net of $30 million to the General Fund.
Bentley said it would be a long-term benefit to the General Fund, which gets its revenue from mostly flat revenue growth.
“For the first time, we’re putting some growth money into the General Fund,” Bentley said. “Two or three years down the road, that’s going to help us considerably.”
At a news conference later in the morning, House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said the use tax provision could get through the House and called it an attempt to solve the “long-term” problems of the General Fund.
A public relations problem
Changes to the immigration law approved by the Legislature on Wednesday preserve a provision requiring school districts to collect immigration information on students at time of enrollment.
The changes, sponsored by Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, also include a provision that would require the Alabama Department of Homeland Security to post a list of names on its website of undocumented aliens who appear in court for violations of state law.
Bentley said he felt the Homeland Security provision was “a public relations problem that I would like to have removed.”
He said an amendment that would replace undocumented immigrants’ names with numbers would accomplish the same goal.
“By asking Homeland Security to continue to do that, that’s something I’d rather not do,” Bentley said. “It’s something that’s not necessary, (and) it really doesn’t clarify the bill.”
Bentley also said he had reservations on the school data provision.
“I just don’t want children to be asked about their parents’ legal status,” he said.
Beason said Thursday morning he had not seen Bentley’s proposal, but said he supported the law “as it is,” including the data and reporting provisions.
“I don’t see the grave concern,” he said. “Once people found out what the school provision was and what it was not, I think people became very comfortable with it.”
Beason and Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, filed changes to the immigration law for the special session Thursday. The bills are very similar to what passed the Legislature Wednesday, but require the DHS to post photos of the immigrants who appear in court, along with names.
“Alabama citizens are subjected to that thousands of times a day,” Beason said Thursday evening. “Their pictures, names and other information are posted to websites and put in tabloids in convenience stores. I think it’s a pretty common thing.”
Hubbard said he believed the House would support Bentley’s proposed changes, which reflect elements of legislation passed by the House April 19.
Bentley has not signed the bill passed by the Legislature, known as HB 658. Cooper Shattuck, Bentley’s legal adviser, said the governor would withhold his signature until the Legislature passed amendments to the bill. If the amendments were satisfactory, he said, Bentley would sign HB 658 and then the bill modifying it.
The governor could pocket-veto the bill if he does not sign it within 10 days.
“If I’m going to sign this bill, if I’m going to own this bill, I’m going to want the bill like I want it,” Bentley said.
The redrawing of the state’s legislative districts will be the focus of the session and likely the most contentious issue, with lawsuits already filed over maps proposed by the Legislature’s Republican majority.
But other matters will also generate argument, and carry potential consequences for the state’s General Fund and immigration law.
At a news conference Thursday morning, Gov. Robert Bentley said the Legislature had “snatched victory from the obvious jaws of defeat” with late passage of the Education Trust Fund and General Fund budgets late Wednesday night.
“I had told them I would not call a special session today if we did not have the budgets,” he said. “We had to decide what we would do.”
The General Fund budget approved by the Legislature counts on revenue that currently does not go into the General Fund.
Voters in September will have to approve a constitutional amendment moving $145 million from the Alabama Trust Fund, a repository for oil and gas royalties, to the General Fund for three years to help plug major deficits in the budget.
In the special session, the Legislature will have to approve the movement of 25 percent of state use taxes into the General Fund, which lawmakers estimate will be worth a net of $30 million to the General Fund.
Bentley said it would be a long-term benefit to the General Fund, which gets its revenue from mostly flat revenue growth.
“For the first time, we’re putting some growth money into the General Fund,” Bentley said. “Two or three years down the road, that’s going to help us considerably.”
At a news conference later in the morning, House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said the use tax provision could get through the House and called it an attempt to solve the “long-term” problems of the General Fund.
A public relations problem
Changes to the immigration law approved by the Legislature on Wednesday preserve a provision requiring school districts to collect immigration information on students at time of enrollment.
The changes, sponsored by Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, also include a provision that would require the Alabama Department of Homeland Security to post a list of names on its website of undocumented aliens who appear in court for violations of state law.
Bentley said he felt the Homeland Security provision was “a public relations problem that I would like to have removed.”
He said an amendment that would replace undocumented immigrants’ names with numbers would accomplish the same goal.
“By asking Homeland Security to continue to do that, that’s something I’d rather not do,” Bentley said. “It’s something that’s not necessary, (and) it really doesn’t clarify the bill.”
Bentley also said he had reservations on the school data provision.
“I just don’t want children to be asked about their parents’ legal status,” he said.
Beason said Thursday morning he had not seen Bentley’s proposal, but said he supported the law “as it is,” including the data and reporting provisions.
“I don’t see the grave concern,” he said. “Once people found out what the school provision was and what it was not, I think people became very comfortable with it.”
Beason and Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, filed changes to the immigration law for the special session Thursday. The bills are very similar to what passed the Legislature Wednesday, but require the DHS to post photos of the immigrants who appear in court, along with names.
“Alabama citizens are subjected to that thousands of times a day,” Beason said Thursday evening. “Their pictures, names and other information are posted to websites and put in tabloids in convenience stores. I think it’s a pretty common thing.”
Hubbard said he believed the House would support Bentley’s proposed changes, which reflect elements of legislation passed by the House April 19.
Bentley has not signed the bill passed by the Legislature, known as HB 658. Cooper Shattuck, Bentley’s legal adviser, said the governor would withhold his signature until the Legislature passed amendments to the bill. If the amendments were satisfactory, he said, Bentley would sign HB 658 and then the bill modifying it.
The governor could pocket-veto the bill if he does not sign it within 10 days.
“If I’m going to sign this bill, if I’m going to own this bill, I’m going to want the bill like I want it,” Bentley said.
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