The House of Representatives narrowly approve a cigarette tax increase as a plan to fill a budget shortfall inches forward in the Alabama Legislature.
Representatives voted 52-46 for the bill to place an additional 25-cent tax on each pack of cigarettes. Republicans were narrowly able to muster the votes within their own party to approve the cigarette tax. Democrats largely voted against the bill, saying the state should consider tax reform or gambling measures.
Republican Representative Connie Rowe of Jasper says the cigarette tax is part of a solution to keep state services operating. The general fund faces a projected $200 million shortfall.
The cigarette tax would raise a projected $66 million. It was the largest portion of $120 million in revenue bills before lawmakers this week.
The nation will observe the fourteenth anniversary of the September eleventh terrorist attacks tomorrow. APR’s Pat Duggins reports students at the University of Alabama will be joining in…
Members of the University of Alabama’s Student Government Association and the Circle K Kiwanis Club will working together for a 9/11 memorial tomorrow.
The group will place close to 3,000 small banners in the shape of the flag United States flag on the grounds of the Tuscaloosa campus. Each small flag will be inscribed with the names of one of the victims of the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and flight 93 that went down in Pennsylvania.
The event will start tomorrow morning between the Ferguson Student Center and Woods Hall.
There will be another observance tomorrow at the U.S.S. Alabama memorial in Mobile. A monument to Alabamians lost in the battle against terrorism since 9/11 will be unveiled.
An adjunct assistant professor in History at UA is also remembering the September 11th attacks. Stephen Schwabb is also former member of the C-I-A before coming to Tuscaloosa in 2001.
He recalls where he was during those events…
“I was watching television when I saw one of the planes fly in to the first tower and then I saw the plane fly in to the second tower. Although I was here at the University of Alabama I felt as though I was practically there.”
Throughout the day, The University of Alabama’s Denny Chimes will play patriotic music in remembrance of the lives lost.