Busy Day And Big Issues Await Lawmakers On Final Day Of Session
By: Stephen Crews
Updated: May 14, 2012
Lawmakers will return to Montgomery Wednesday for one final legislative day with many unresolved issues.
Revisions to the state's immigration law remains one of those unfinished items on the legislative agenda.
Lawmakers must also pass education and general fund budgets. The budgets will more than likely move to a joint conference committee to hammer out changes.
The House made revisions to the education budget by moving money from new bus purchases to save more than 200 teaching jobs.
The Senate also made changes to the general fund budget by moving 184 million dollars from rolling reserves to provide more Medicaid funding.
The distressed county bill and a bill to raise legal fees for courts are two of 32 bills awaiting approval in the House. Jefferson County's county manager spent last week in Montgomery actively lobbying for the distress county bill, which would allow any bankruptcy county to pass its own taxes. It would provide the cash strapped county with the 40 million dollars needed to fill the budget shortfall and prevent more cuts.
"We have a lot of issues that are fluid that we need to work on. It's not like we don't know where we are going," said Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, (R) Auburn.
"When you get down to the wire, you start making decisions that are detrimental to the Alabama working families, children and seniors," said Minority Leader Rep. Craig Ford, (D) Gadsden.
The governor is also expected to call a special session over redistricting this week.
