Alabama Legislative Session Begins with Focus on Budgets and a Fast Timeline
The Alabama legislative session begins this week in Montgomery, and agricultural groups are closely watching how lawmakers approach the final year of the quadrennium. Ahead of the session, Erin Beasley with the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association shared insight into what producers can expect as legislators convene.
“We are entering into the fourth year of the quadrennium for the Alabama legislature and the expectation for everybody that’s involved in it this year is that we can expect to see a pretty quick session,” Beasley said. “The legislature will fire off this week on Tuesday, January the 13th and they will start their trek to have 30 business days in the statehouse over the course of 105 calendar days.”
With elections approaching, Beasley said legislative priorities may look different than in non-election years. “A lot of legislators are focused in probably a little more on upcoming elections than they would be in other years and so that will result in us having a quicker session most likely,” she explained.
Budget work is expected to dominate much of the session. “Most of what we have heard is that they are going to be really zoned in on of course taking care of both the general fund and the education trust fund budgets,” Beasley said, noting that the association will be monitoring items within both budgets as discussions move forward.
In addition to budget priorities, lawmakers are expected to consider other legislative matters. “We also are told that there’s going to be a focus in on local bills and some other matters such as we could potentially see legislation that has to do with the simplified seller’s use tax among some other things,” Beasley said.
While the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association does not currently have legislation it plans to advance this session, advocacy efforts will remain active. “As an association we do not have any bills currently that will be forwarding along within the session but we certainly will be monitoring as it progresses along,” she said. “We will be playing defense where needed and if there are any bills that are proactive and good for ag and for the beef cattle industry we of course will be working on those as well.”
Beasley said expectations remain that the session will wrap up quickly. “Legislators do want to get back get on the campaign trail… most likely be wrapped up by some time between mid and late April.”
Members will be kept informed through association updates. “We will keep all of our members posted on the progress of the session… by hearing updates on the podcast or by reading the political roundup which will be posted in the Alabama Cattleman Magazine monthly starting in the March issue.”
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.