Governor Riley and the Alabama legislature have reached an agreement to raise the income tax threshold from $4,600/year for a family of four to $12,500. We’ll still have families below the poverty line paying income taxes, but it’s an improvement, and we don’t see that very often in Alabama.
And — happy day — the state House has finally, after years of hard work by Alabama Arise and other advocates, passed a landlord-tenant bill 100-0. The bill, which outlines rights and responsibilities of both parties in a rental transaction, will now go to the Senate, where it has powerful supporters.
I would like to see some positive steps forward by our legislature, not only on “my issue” of Initiative and Referendum (HB325 and SB242), but also on correcting the flaws in the eminent domain bill that was rushed through last year. Instead, I read somewhere that, I believe it was the Democratic Caucus, has adopted a resolution to ask Congress to handle this hot potato for us. So, instead of passing a good constitutional amendment, they are punting.
Hallelujah! I heard about the income tax threshold increase on NPR this AM, but am overjoyed to hear about the landlord-tenant bill passing 100-0! Hallelujah!