No property tax hike. Governor Robert Bentley is making that promise as he prepares His first budget to include raising taxes. Speculation is that the Governor may want to cut tax exemptions and other tax breaks. Bentley isn't saying yet what will be in the package he unveils when the Legislature meets in March. But he says he doesn't like property taxes and neither does the Alabama public. The Legislature may have to raise upwards of seven hundred million dollars to cover its debts. Bentley begins his second term January nineteenth.
Fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide are looking ahead to the offseason following last week’s loss in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama fell to the Ohio State Buckeyes forty two to thirty five. The Bucks now face the Oregon Ducks for the first ever college football championship. Tide Head Coach Nick Saban says he hopes the younger players on the team will learn lessons from their experience in the Sugar Bowl…
“There’s a lot of lessons that you learn when you have success and a lot of things you learn when you have failings. Hopefully, we’ll learn a lot from this experience which will help us in the offseason. But, I don’t think we going to change our philosophy in terms of how we do things. That philosophy has helped us win a lot of games. And hopefully, it will continue to do the same thing in the future.”
The Tide landed two key recruits over the weekend. Four star defensive tackle Daron Payne committed to Alabama along with five star cornerback Kendall Scheffield.
Faculty and staff at the University of Alabama will find the rules are different when it comes to smoking. The Tuscaloosa campus declared itself smoke free on New year’s Day. The new policy applies to students, faculty, staff, school visitors, and even contractors. The school says the change is meant to improve health and to reduce littering and the risk of fire. Thomas Carr is director of national policy with the American Lung Association. He says the University of Alabama is joining a growing of schools that ban smoking…
“Close to a thousand are tobacco-free. So, that’s a ninety percent increase since September of 2012. So, it’s really been an amazing trend across the country as far as smoke-free and tobacco-free campuses are concerned.”
A 2014 report from the U.S. Surgeon General says America lost over five billion dollars worth of productivity to second hand smoke. The University of Alabama’s ban will not apply to smokeless tobacco or e-cigarettes.
Citizens of Selma are getting an invitation to see the new movie "Selma" for free. Producer Oprah Winfrey says the free showings are to express the production's gratitude to the people of Selma. The film is being criticized by supporters of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who say it unfairly depicts LBJ as an obstructionist. The movie chronicles a three-month period in 1965 when Martin Luther King Jr. led the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.
Correction: The University of Alabama smoke free policy will include a ban on e-cigarettes. Pat D.
