March 27, 2023 Group Watch: Day-by-Day, Play-by-Play
On Tuesday (2nd day of regular session):
- The Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee approved several bills to increase compensation for certified local emergency management directors, circuit clerks in the court system, court-appointed attorneys in commitment proceedings and members of county boards of registrars.
- The Senate County and Municipal Government Committee approved bills to prohibit a municipality from setting speed limits on county-maintained streets within its corporate limits and to provide prohibitions on the adoption of certain building codes requiring the installation of certain latent features in residential structures.
- The Senate Education Policy Committee approved bills to establish Alabama as a member-state of the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact, to include adrenal insufficiency as a condition covered by the Alabama Safe at Schools Act, and to require K-12 schools to install, maintain and operate video cameras in certain self-contained classrooms providing special education services.
On Wednesday (3rd day of regular session):
- The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill to require a mandatory minimum sentence for certain drug trafficking offenses.
- The House Children and Senior Advocacy Committee approved bills to create the Alabama Minor Adoption Code and the Alabama Adult Adoption Code, and to authorize the use of up to eight weeks of sick leave for attending to an ill child for whom a petition for adoption has been filed and for attending to an adopted child.
- The House Ways and Means General Fund Committee approved bills to increase the maximum compensation a Teachers Retirement System or Employees Retirement System retiree may earn from $30,000 to $52,000, and to increase the compensation for circuit clerks.
- The House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill to increase the competitive bidding floor for city and county boards of education from $15,000 to $40,000 with further increases authorized based upon the consumer price index.
- The House Education Policy Committee approved a bill to require local boards of education to develop and adopt interdistrict enrollment policies.
- The Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee approved bills to eliminate the two-percent tax rate on the first $500 of taxable income for single persons and $1,000 for couples, and to exempt the first $10,000 of retirement income for those who are 65 years of age and older from state income tax.
- The Senate State Governmental Affairs Committee approved a bill to require any approved electronic vote counting system used in an election to require the use of paper ballots.
On Thursday (4th day of of regular session):
- The House passed bills to provide for mandatory minimum sentences for certain felony drug trafficking offenses and a bill to provide for jurisdictional and procedural requirements to streamline the adoption process in Alabama.
- The Senate passed bills to reduce the amount of correctional incentive time prisoners may receive if they are involved in certain activities that result in a change in their classification; to further provide for the compensation for appointed attorneys in commitment proceeding; to amend the Safe Schools Act to require the State Board of Education to train certain school employees to administer injectable medications to students; and to require local boards of education to install and maintain video cameras in self-contained special education classrooms.
