Bringing new industry into your state is often an expensive undertaking, full of tax breaks and other financial incentives. But as APR’s Alex AuBuchon reports, Alabama may start looking for results before handing over any cash...
Governor Bentley is looking at changing how the state of Alabama tries to lure new business and industry to the area.That’s what he told an audience today at the Economic Development Association convention in Montgomery.
He says that traditionally the state has offered financial incentives to companies interested in relocating before a plant or facility is built.
But the new system Bentley will propose to Alabama’s legislature will tie those incentives to job creation and productivity – performance markers for businesses to hit.
Encouraging job creation serves Bentley’s own self-interest. He has never drawn a salary as Governor, and according to his 2010 campaign promise, he won’t until unemployment in the state hits 5.2 percent.
I’m Alex AuBuchon, APR news.
Alabama tax payers are sharpening up their pencils as tax season gets underway. The group Impact Alabama has opened nineteen locations around the state to help working families with questions about their taxes. It’s part of the organization’s Save First program. Sarah Louise Smith works for the University of Alabama’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility which is supplying student volunteers. She says the program is an opportunity for families to get the full refund that they are entitled to.
“We’re actually focusing on serving families eligible for the earned income tax credit. It’s the government’s largest anti-poverty program. And it helps a lot of families in Alabama every year get larger refund.”
The help centers are for families with children who earn fifty two thousand dollars a year or less. Families without children to make less than twenty thousand dollars also qualify. You can find a list of centers and make an appointment on the Impact Alabama website.
President Obama plans to visit Selma to help commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of historic civil rights marches across the state. The White House says the visit on March seventh will also highlight the signing of the Voting Rights Act, which took place in 1965. Obama last visited Selma for the 2007 anniversary. That was when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Both candidates and former President Clinton marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.