First Day of 2015 Legislative Session
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Lawmakers were ‘gaveled’ in for the 2015 legislative session at noon today.
It’s back to business for lawmakers in Alabama. The Senate and the House of Representatives convened today to talk about pressing issues facing the state.
Alabama senators and representatives met early Tuesday afternoon for the start of the legislative session.
“It’s exciting to be back,” says Representative Dimitri Polizos. “New year. New things. New problems.”
Problems like the 700 million dollars shortfall in the general fund budget. Lawmakers may not agree on much but they admit, they’ve got work to do to shrink the deficit.
“Alabama has a lot of challenges we have to face,” says Senator Quinton Ross.
“We’ve got our hands full,” says Polizos.
“It’s no question that we have a lot of work to do,” says Representative John Knight.
Governor Robert Bentley has proposed a plan to raise taxes. One on cigarettes and one of automobiles. Senator Quinton Ross says he wants to make sure the hikes don’t negatively affect the working class.
“The one thing that we want to be careful of is that the burden of these taxes are not put on the everyday citizen,” Ross says.
Representative Thad McClammy says he’s still looking over the proposed tax plan.
“Until we get a chance to make some assessments, I’m not committed.”
Representative Knight says he’ll once again propose a bill to remove the sales tax on groceries. Alabama and Mississippi are the only two states in the country that have it. Knight has wanted the tax eliminated for years.
“As we look at tax packages, my thing is to make sure there’s tax fairness,” he says. “That’s one thing that we are missing in this state.”
Others, like Polizos, say they’ll be proposing new bills.
“I’ve got a few things that I’m going to introduce this year but I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”
Of course this is just the first day of the session, so these issues will be debated for weeks to come. Stay with Alabama News Network for complete coverage.
