Alabama top stories in brief
- A fire damaged a warehouse at Birmingham Recycling and Recovery last Wednesday night. Local officials told journalists at Bham Now that curbside pickup programs are likely to be disrupted.
- Lawmakers have cut Gov. Kay Ivey’s original proposed $400 tax rebate to $105 per tax filer. The proposal originally had large support from legislators, but some legislators became concerned about a potential economic downturn. The plan now is to direct $500 million into a state savings account. The funds for the rebate would come out of the state’s education trust fund.
- The Senate County and Municipal Government Committee gave a favorable report for HB24, a bill to increase penalties for loitering on a public roadway maintained by Alabama. The bill has drawn criticism from Alabama Arise, who describe the bill as criminalizing homelessness. The bill would increase penalties for loitering from a $200 fine and up to 30 days in jail to Class C misdemeanor which would create a $500 fine and up to three months in jail.
- In a unanimous vote, the Alabama House of Representatives passed HB217, a bill to exempt overtime pay from the state income tax. This exemption would reduce revenue to the Education Trust Fund by $45 million a year, but legislators believe that some of that revenue would be returned by employees spending the extra money from their paychecks. The bill sets the exemption to expire after three years if not renewed by the legislature, the idea being that they would be able to evaluate whether they should keep the exemption.
Alabama legislators pass bill to change succession rules for sheriff
The Alabama legislature passed legislation to change the rules for succession in the event that a sheriff is removed from office before their term is up. The current law states that the county coroner should assume the position of the sheriff until a replacement can be appointed by the governor. HB276 will change the law so that the next highest ranking deputy will take the position until a suitable candidate was appointed.
When asked, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ron Bolton, R-Northport, informed members of the house that he had spoken with the sheriff’s association in drafting the bill and that it had their support. Bolton told members of the house that the original law establishing coroners as the next in line after sheriffs dated back to a law from 1852.
There have been several amendments to the law since then, but the coroner has remained the replacement for the sheriff.
The one thing that Bolton said would not be changed by the new law is that the coroner is the only person that can arrest a sheriff.
Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove thanked Bolton during an Alabama Senate County and Municipal Government Committee.
“People have been talking about constitutional amendments for a long time, but it is situations like this that really open your eyes,” Coleman said.
Many legislators were surprised to learn that county coroners currently replaced sheriffs if they were removed from office.
While the bill was passed unopposed, Lina Evans, the Shelby County Coroner and president of the Alabama Coroner’s Association was concerned that the new law lacked adequate protection against corrupt officials.
“I’m not for the bill, for the simple fact that the chief deputy needs to be vetted out, especially if it was the sheriff was removed for some kind of nefarious activity,” Evans said.
While Evans doesn’t think that coroners necessarily have the qualifications to be sheriffs, she thinks that in the event that the sheriff is involved in criminal activity, the coroner should still be the acting sheriff until the chief deputy or next in line could be properly vetted.
Evans also pointed out that several of the last few sheriffs to need replacement in Alabama were due to ethical issues.
One example she pointed towards was Limestone County, where Sheriff Mike Blakely was convicted of theft and abuse of power in 2021.
“I think that there should be some pause in the meantime, that the chief deputy could be vetted that he had no part or no knowledge of what was going on that was against the law,” said Evans.
The new law will come into effect in August.
Our articles you might have missed
- Check out last week’s roundup, which focuses on the recent changes made to Alabama’s early childhood program to remove certain teaching materials.
Update on The Sunrise News
- We recently made a pretty big change to our subscription model. Instead of having member specific content on our website after July 31 as we had originally planned, we’ve created membership tiers on Ko-Fi. None of our content will be restricted in any way, but everyone who contributes on Ko-Fi will gain access to specific benefits. This means that The Alabama Roundup will remain free every week instead of being limited to every other week for non-paying subscribers. Check out our Ko-Fi page to see what specific benefits come with each tier.
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