Chamber hosts legislative wrap-up

The Shelby County Chamber was able to have its first in-person event in 14 months. The 2021 State Legislative Wrap Up luncheon was held at the Pelham Civic Complex on May 26. 

This event is normally held as a preview before the legislature goes into session, but instead was a wrap up of the session that ended on May 17. 

Chamber Chair Chris Grace opened the event stating that despite the challenges of 2020, the chamber still had a productive year. Kathy Copeland served as the 2020 Chair and said it was a blessing and an honor to serve in that role even through the circumstances. 

“So many blessings came from this,” Copeland said. “This organization is resilient, flexible and has a very strong future.”

Doug Adair, who serves as vice chair of the chamber’s governmental affairs work group, introduced the speakers of the Shelby County legislative delegation, who shared their thoughts on the recently concluded session.  

Dan Roberts of Senate District 15 (representing Shelby, Jefferson and Talladega counties) shared that roughly 1,047 bills were introduced, 684 in the House and 405 in the Senate and 449 resolutions were passed.

“There were a lot of moving parts,” he said. “As of last Friday, 472 measures were enacted into law.”

Roberts said some of the highlights were the passing of the vaccine passport bill, moving runoff elections to four weeks instead of six, a ban on curbside voting, the passing of the state general fund ($2.48 billion), the passing of the medical marijuana bill, the business liability act for COVID-19 and the Alabama business competitiveness act. 

“The general fund is up 3.4% and the educational trust fund is up 3.1%,” Roberts said. “I’m proud of the way budgets are. Teachers were given a 2% raise, as were state employees. $5 million dollars was approved for more work to be done in Alabama’s state parks along with a $427 million restaurant revitalization.” 

Rep. Arnold Mooney, who represents Shelby County in House District 43, said Alabama is the fifth most fiscally-abled state in the nation to handle a crisis like COVID-19. The general fund budget was up $78.5 million more than the previous year and said that was a very healthy situation in our state. 

Mooney also discussed the passing of other bills, including the born alive bill- which states a baby born alive may not be aborted, criminal justice bills and the state park bonds issue. 

“We are blessed to live in a county that people in the state both envy and hate, and I say that in a positive way,” Mooney said. “The top of the health, education and power markets... Shelby County is there.” 

Sen. Jabo Waggoner of District 16 (Shelby and Jefferson counties) said the 2020-21 legislative session was different than any other in the history of the state.

“We went into session in February 2020 and 21 legislative days later, we were sent home,” he said. We passed both budgets last year and not really anything else of any significance passed.” 

Waggoner said that close to 400 bills were passed during this legislative session and even more introduced. He is optimistic things will be back to normal by next legislative session, which will begin in January 2022. 

“I’m ready for the pandemic to be in the rear view mirror,” he said. 

Rep. Jim Carnes (House District 48) and Senator Jim McClendon (Senate District 11) also spoke during the event.