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Bentley talks taxes, UA Science Olympiad and weather sales tax holiday

Bentley Lockheed
Governor Robert Bentley at Pike Co. Lockheed Martin.

Governor Robert Bentley will ask lawmakers to approve a $700 million tax and revenue package in the upcoming legislative session.

Bentley said Thursday he wasn't going to sugarcoat the state's budget situation. He said Alabama needs additional revenue to maintain services. Bentley also joked that it must be true if a Deep South Republican says raising taxes is the only option.

Bentley is expected to discuss the specifics of those new tax proposals in his State of the State address on the opening day of the legislative session, March 3.

The governor's proposals will not be presented as referendums and will not include legalized gambling as a potential revenue source.

The 2015 Regional Science Olympiad will take place on Saturday, with more than four hundred middle and high school students participating.

The College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering at The University of Alabama, are co-hosting the competition.

The Science Olympiad is a non-profit organization which was founded in 1982, and is recognized internationally. The organization promotes direct teamwork within disciplines of life science, earth and space science, physical science, chemistry, technology, and engineering among elementary, middle, and high school students.

Some of the competitions that students will be participating in are trajectory, entomology, experimental design, and fossils.

Alabama’s bitter cold weather is giving the state a chance to remind everyone about severe weather preparations.

There’s a tax holiday this weekend for supplies for the upcoming tornado season. The fourth annual Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday starts today. It was created after the April 2011 tornadoes that devastated cities across the state.

Amanda Collier is with the Alabama Department of Revenue. She says that the holiday encourages Alabamians to stock up now.

“We’re hoping with this tax break from the state that it will give them the opportunity to purchase things that they’ll need in severe weather situations, like batteries, battery powered radios, the NOAA weather radios; those are so helpful to get warnings out to people, and we just want to make it a little bit easier to purchase those items.”

The Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday runs through midnight Sunday. A list of items covered during the holiday can be found on the Alabama Department of Revenue website.

Lockheed Martin is expected to add over 200 jobs at their facility near Troy.

Governor Robert Bentley announced earlier today that Lockheed Martin will be expanding their operations in Pike County, near Troy.

Bentley says the facility is expected to add around 240 new jobs in the next five years. Alabama will be investing $2.5 million dollars for infrastructure upgrades at Lockheed Martin’s facility.

In return, the defense contractor is expected to invest around $55 million dollars in the Pike County facility in the next five years.

Lockheed Martin’s Pike County facility manufactures high-tech missile systems including joint air-to-surface standoff missiles and terminal high altitude area defense missiles.

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