By Carmen Rodgers
Elmore/Autauga News
The Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a Tri-Government Meeting inside the Chamber office building Monday, Feb. 13.
There were representatives from the state, county and city levels present. Alabama State Senator Clyde Chambliss from District 30 since 2014, opened the meeting. Chambliss just began his 3rd term.
“When we started these tri-government meetings a long time ago and there were a couple of purposes. One is, as people change over time, we need to get to know each other because we are part of the governing bodies from our community,” Chambliss said.
The purpose of this meeting was to give general updates from each branch of the city, county, and state government.
“There are times where you all may be working on similar issues, and not know that. If we can have those discussions, when we have relationships to have those discussions, our community benefits from that,” Chambliss said. He said it is an opportunity to “To represent this area together.”
The Alabama legislative session is set to begin next month on March 7.
“We have another, final round of Covid funds to appropriate,” Chambliss said. “That’s always interesting. We have money there. We do have a pretty good position fiscally. We have worked hard, very hard, over the last decade especially. Before the federal stimulus came out, we were actually in the best shape we have been really, in my opinion, in my lifetime in state government. It’s really not complicated. Be conservative on your projections of revenue, budget less than that. Have a margin and spend less than you make. Things seem to go better when you do it that way.”
Chambliss explained that the federal stimulus has created funding, but it has also created unforeseen expenses, like inflation.
Next Kelvin Lawrence, who has served in the Alabama House of Representatives from the 69th district since 2014, spoke.
Representative Lawrence agreed with Senator Chambliss, that the state is in the best financial standing since he took office nine years ago.
“I think we’ve really done a great job on what we spend and how we spend it,” Lawrence said. “We were able to set some back for a rainy-day fund, but we do have some challenges. Everything is not always peaches and cream. We do have some challenges and I look forward to those challenges.”
There can be political strife on all levels of government. However, Lawrence is hopeful that lawmakers will work together to promote the best interests of everyone in the state, regardless of political party.
“Regardless of political affiliation, first we are all Alabamians. We should want to make sure all Alabamians are taken care of,” Lawrence said.
Next, Ivan “Van” Smith, Alabama House of Representatives from the 42nd district spoke. According to Smith, the state has done a “great job rolling reserves for times when financial situations were difficult.”
Smith pointed out that many of the laws that are created have created unintended consequences.
“I supported a bill that helped farmers this last year, called Sweet Grown Alabama,” Smith said. “What could be better than helping farmers, especially small farmers that raise strawberries or cucumbers, and process them? There was a value-added to that crop. Maybe they took the strawberries and made them into jams and jellies. They were being punished by having to pay sales tax when they sold those jams or jellies, or pickles, or if they raised cucumbers. So, we had that do away with it.”
“(Another) Unintended consequence, medical marijuana is saying they are adding a value-added process to our medicinal marijuana. We have some work to do there. That was not a consequence that we intended for corporate tax. We will work on that,” Smith said.
Smith also talked about the state prison’s early release program that recently allowed hundreds of Alabama prisoners to be released before they had served their sentence.
“Let me tell you how that was sold to us,” Smith said. “A person that has a 10-year sentence…if we let that person go to the end of those 10 years, and then release them, the state has no control over what that person does. They have paid the debt to society and can do whatever they want to do. The way this works, in theory, is you let that person out two or three months early, then he can be monitored with an ankle monitor, they can be drug tested, they can be encouraged not to go back to the environment where they got into trouble, they can be required to get a job, and assigned a parole officer.”
According to Smith, that is not what has happened.
“That’s not how it has worked out,” Smith said. “We already had some in Autauga County who were arrested and never had an ankle monitor on. That has to be worked on. Whether it’s Pardon and Parole, it wasn’t done the way we passed it.”
Former Prattville Councilman Jerry Starnes was recently elected to represent State House District 88 spoke.
Starnes has only been in office for three months. While he did not have a lot of state information to report, he did offer recognition to the new Autauga County BOE.
“I want to give accolades. I know we have a new school board in Autauga County, (and there is an) issue of bringing up the school tax. I hope that does not die. We need to do something. I’ve preached this for probably 8-10 years. If we do something here, we’re going to lose nationally. It’s a foundation, and we cannot lose that base. If we don’t do something as a body, all three of us, city, county, and state.”
County Commissioner Jay Thompson spoke next. Thompson explained that weight limits on 18-wheelers could soon be raised by 10 %. With the current weight limit set at 8,000 lbs., the new limit would cap at 8,800 lbs.
“That would give a little wiggle room,” Thompson said.
Thompson also spoke about the rapid outpouring of first responders when the tornado hit Autauga County Jan. 12.
Thompson also explained the impact of pistol permits, and a bill passed last year that no longer requires a pistol permit.
“When this bill hit the floor, people quit buying pistol permits. That was last year. That’s going to leave a hole in every county in the state,” Thompson said.
Thompson also discussed changing some public works laws.
“Try to increase the bid threshold. Right now, it is $50,000. That’s been in place for 20 years or more. Twnty years ago, $50,000 on a project was a lot of money. Now it’s not. We want to increase that to anything over $100,000,” Thompson said.
Thompson also discussed advertising online versus print.
“If we can advertise online, it will make advertising a lot easier,” Thompson said.
Thompson brought up SSUT, Simplified Sellers Use Tax Remittance Act, which 25% of revenue goes to the Autauga County Board of Education.
Prattville Mayor Bill Gillespie spoke and thanked all the city, county and state representatives who attended the meeting. He then spoke about the rapid response the county saw when the tornado hit on Jan. 12.
“I think we see our sister cities and counties in need, we all come out to help,” Gillespie said. “Every life lost is a terrible thing, but it could have been much, much worse.”
There were 30-50 students who had no home to return to. According to Superintendent Tim Tidmore, the decision to keep students in school was a tough one to make but doing so saved lives.
Gillespie also discussed online sale tax, and advertising for bids online. The widening of McQueen Smith was also discussed.
“Sure, will be glad when Hwy. 82 is finished,” Gillespie said. “We’ve put a lot of money into paving our streets.”
“The financial side of Prattville right now is doing well. We still have quite a few challenges,” Gillespie said.
Autauga County BOE Superintendent, Tim Tidmore also discussed goings on within that the system.
Tidmore said the Board is looking to reevaluate safety protocols at the Autauga County schools.
Tidmore discussed says the systems is dealing with issues such as gangs, drugs, and weapons, but they are actively looking at ways to combat those issues. The board has looked into metal detectors but recognizes the cost would be too expense right now for the Board to fund. Tidmore also mentioned the use of weapons detecting dogs.
Autauga County Sheriff Mark Harrell also spoke. Harrell thanked everyone for supporting the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office and asked that everyone continue that support.
