Special to the
Opelika Observer
Alabama League of Municipalities executives and committee chairmen met in Montgomery last week with local media to discuss the league’s coming legislative year. League executive director Ken Smith gave the welcome and league deputy director Greg Cochran gave an overview of the items the league thought were important and look at items the league will be supporting in the coming year.
Following were the list of mayors in attendance: Mayor Ronnie Marks, Athens; league vice president and Mayor Todd Strange, Montgomery; league executive committee member and Mayor Gary Fuller, Opelika; league legislative committee chairman and Mayor Leigh Dollar, Guntersville; League Committee of
The items that ALM will be working on during this legislative agenda include:
- Improving infrastructure by increasing the gas tax by 15 cents. Broken down, eight cents of that tax will go to the state, three cents to counties and four cents to municipalities. This money will go toimproving roads, bridges, and the Mobile Port. The tax would raise $31 million and would be the first time this statewide issue has been addressed in nearly two decades.
Also, ALDOT has set up a $10 million grant for municipalities to apply to receive.
2.Online Sales Tax, where online malls and third-party retailer will pay and remit sales tax. - Adjust Simplified Sellers Use Tax (SSUT)
4.Municipal Employee Liability to make sure employees are covered as of Liability.
Some legislative issues are unfunded mandates that the ALM currently tackling: *Insurance policy for firefighters cancer coverage
*Right-of-way for small cell towers. ALM working to make this a local issue *
*Keep police jurisdictions intact where there is a push to try to eliminate. Municipalities would lose control of this area as it grows.Mayor Fuller is the head of a 49-person committeed dealing with state and federal legislative issues.
The ALM has been in existence since1935 and has more than 450 member municipalities. For more information, visit www.alm.com.