The Alabama House of Representatives will vote on a stripped-down budget that cuts more than $200 million from state agencies.
Representatives are expected to approve the budget today and send it up to the Alabama Senate. There, discussions will continue on how to handle a shortfall for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Governor Robert Bentley has criticized the proposed cuts as "irresponsible." The governor has vowed to veto a budget with deep funding cuts.
Time is running out for legislators to approve revenue bills with seven meeting days remaining after Tuesday.
Lawmakers are likely headed to a special session sometime this summer.
Small business owners in the Muscle Shoals area can get tips on handing their taxes today. The Alabama Department of Revenue is hosting a free tax workshop in north Alabama.
The goal is to clarify the mandatory paperwork with free business tax advice. Subjects will range from what forms to fill out and what deadlines to watch out for.
Agency spokeswoman Amanda Collier says these workshops can be useful for the business owners…
“We know that people want to follow the law and be in compliance with a lot of the tax laws so we find that this is just very helpful to get information to them and they’re free and we have our tax professionals there that will give, um, the information to them.”
The Department of Revenue’s free tax advice workshops will start today at 10 a.m. at the Shoals’ Chamber of Commerce.
A rocket built in Alabama could help pioneer a new way to propel spaceships from Earth. The Atlas Five rocket will carry a small experimental satellite called Lightsail.
The box-like satellite is the size of a loaf of bread. It’s equipped with a thin sail that’s supposed to unfurl to the size of a boxing ring. The sail is supposed to catch particles streaming from the sun like a sail boat catches the wind. The Planetary Society designed Lightsail.
Spokesman Jason Davis says there’s a camera on the satellite during its ten day mission in orbit…
“During that brief window, we’ll be trying to download images from the camera. It’ll be very tight. But, we hope to get one high resolution image of the sail deployed, possibly with the Earth in the background—that would be great to see.”
The Alabama built Atlas-Five will also carry a classified unmanned space plane for the Pentagon. Liftoff is set for tomorrow.