The Alabama House is expected to delay votes on a series of tax bills aimed at solving the state's general fund shortfall.
The House rules committee today proposed a new agenda instead of a number of GOP-backed bills that had divided some members of the party.
The package would raise less than a third of the $541 million requested by Gov. Robert Bentley in a separate tax package. The largest plank of the revenue plan is a 25-cents-per-pack cigarette tax increase.
Other bills include proposals to raise the title fee on automobiles from $15 to $25, to raise the business privilege tax, and to change how motor oil is taxed.
Supporters and critics of an Alabama state lottery are scheduled to meet in Montgomery today. APR’s Pat Duggins has more on a public hearing by the Senate Tourism and Marketing committee…
If approved by voters, the measure would allow casino gambling at four state dog tracks along with lotto drawings. Critics of lotteries claim they’re a tax on the poor and a study by the non-partisan John Locke Foundation in North Carolina appears to support that idea. Foundation spokesman Mitch Kokai says they examined who bought tickets during the first year of North Carolina’s lottery in 2007…
“Counties with the highest levels of poverty…counties with the highest levels of unemployment….those also were the highest levels of lottery sales.”
Alabama’s lottery idea is also considered controversial since those dollars aren’t earmarked for something like education. Lawmakers are trying to close a half billion budget deficit.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham is launching a new study into combating Alzheimer’s disease. They are developing a new drug with hopes to eventually find a cure. Studies show that African-Americans are two to three times more likely to develop the disease.
Stephanie Monroe is the director of the African American Network Against Alzheimer’s. She says it is important for African Americans to participate in these studies…
“We want to make sure that that drug actually works for African Americans and it works for everyone, and the only way we can do that is if African Americans participate. Right now we only have about two or three percent of clinical trials participants being African American. We’re thirteen percent of the population and I want to get that number more closely up to thirteen percent.”
Monroe says part of the study is to determine why certain populations are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s. Participants will take the drug or placebo on a monthly basis. She says the study is expected to last three years.