A Blues reader passed along this interesting tidbit from the Alabama Legal Rights Blog:
In a closed door session this afternoon, Local Legislative Committee #2 substituted Senate Bill 488 for House Bill 811. Senate Bill 488 was defeated in committee yesterday, April 29. The full House of Representatives passed House Bill 811. Senator Coleman, who sponsored Senate Bill 488, serves on Local Legislative Committee #2. This substituted Bill will now go before the full Senate for a vote. If it passes, it will go before a conference committee which will be made up of three Jefferson County House delegates and three Jefferson County Senators. All three of the Senators who will be on the conference committee will be members of Local Legislative Committee #2 – the same Senators who made this substitution. Senator Coleman is expected to be one of those Senators.
The post goes on to say that this substitution is allowed under the Legislature’s procedures, but opines that it is an end run around the best interests of Jefferson County taxpayers.
I will readily admit that I haven’t been following this issue closely, so I’ll leave it to you, dear readers, to look at the two bills and see what you think. HB811 is here; SB 488 is here (both PDF).