Local representatives give legislative update at chamber luncheon

The Homewood Chamber of Commerce hosted their monthly luncheon Sept. 18 and welcomed Sen. Jabo Waggoner and Rep. David Faulkner to provide a legislative update.

Waggoner, who has served six terms in the state senate, opened by saying an update may be difficult considering the last regular legislative session ended in March, and the next session will begin in March 2019. During the last session, he said about 1,000 bills were introduced, and maybe 20 percent of them were passed.

He also touched on the state’s budget for the 2019 fiscal year, which beings Oct. 1. This budget, he said, is larger than past years', which is partly due to the number of industries that are setting up shop in Alabama, including Mercedes Benz in the Birmingham area and Facebook in Huntsville. 

“Times are good in Alabama as far as our economy,” he said, noting that unemployment is under 4 percent. “Financially, our budgets are in really good shape.”

Faulkner went into more specifics regarding the new budget, which in Alabama, is two separate budgets: the State General Fund and the Education Trust Fund.

This year, the general fund is set to be $2.038 billion, which is an increase of about 10 percent from 2018 and 16 percent from 2016. Waggoner attributed this increase in fund balance to the increased number of industries that have opened in the state in recent years, which have led to greater income taxes and greater sales taxes, two main sources of revenue for the state.

Both Waggoner and Faulkner pointed out that the two major expenses coming out of the general fund are Medicaid and corrections, which are slated to be about $1.77 billion and $555.3 million, respectively.

“That is swallowing up the budget,” Faulkner said, noting that the funds set for Medicaid and corrections are growing each year. “Not that those are bad things, they’re just growing.”

The education budget — which covers statewide education — is sitting at $6.63 billion for FY19, which is an increase of about 3 percent from 2018 and 10.5 percent from 2016. Of the education funds, 72.97 percent is designated for grades K-12, and 27.03 percent is designated for higher education.

Faulkner also touched on a few things that are more local to Homewood, including a pedestrian bridge over U.S. 280 to connect Mountain Brook and Homewood and the Lid Bill.

The pedestrian bridge, which was still in the works as of Sept. 18, aims at creating a safer passage — one that people already frequently use — between the two cities. The project is likely to be a cooperative between Homewood, Mountain Brook and Birmingham since it includes land in each jurisdiction.

The Lid Bill is something Jefferson County voters will see on their ballots this November. It does not raise taxes or give the city permission to raise taxes without a vote, but rather gives Homewood the option to put more money towards its schools through a vote. This would put Homewood in the same position as Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills and Huntsville, Faulkner said.

Other bills that were passed in the last legislative session that pertain to the Homewood area, Faulkner said, include his Ride Share Bill, which helped bring ride sharing throughout the state, and Emily’s Law, which details how to designate if a dog is dangerous and how cities and police departments should handle a dangerous dog.