Yesterday was a busy day in the Alabama Senate. Two bills passed the Senate floor and are on their way to be heard in the House of Representatives.
The first is a bill that looks to change how Alabama recruits businesses and industry. The Alabama Jobs Act would create a pay-as-you-go model for incentives like tax breaks that the state uses to recruit companies.
Under the old model, the state would provide millions of dollars of funding up-front. This bill will allow Alabama to peg those incentives to the companies' performance.
Growth incentives will also be capped at 850 million dollars a year.
That bill passed on a 31 to 1 vote.
Another bill that cleared the Senate yesterday expands a scholarship program to help certain families pay for private school. The Alabama Accountability Act provides income tax credits for scholarship donations. Those scholarships go to low-income children in failing public schools.
That measure was considerably more contentious, passing on a vote of 20 to 14.
A State Senator who once treated patients as an obstetrician is backing down on his attempt to repeal a law with a personal connection. The law is named for one of the lawmaker's patients who died on his watch.
Republican State Senator Larry Stutts says he will no longer push legislation to repeal "Rose's Law." The 1999 law requires a minimum postpartum hospital stay— unless the woman gives written consent — and certain bloodwork before a woman is discharged from the hospital.
The law is named for Stutts's patient Rose Church, who died of a heart attack 10 days after giving birth in 1998. Her widower lobbied for the new care requirements in 1999.
Stutts' effort to repeal the law named for his former patient drew national attention. Stutts previously said he was against "one-size-fits-all" medical laws.
The city of Huntsville is working on a plan to expand fiber optics to homes and businesses. Today is the deadline for businesses to submit proposals for the new network.
Huntsville is on its way to becoming "Gig City." They are planning to offer high speed, fiber-optic internet service to citizens and the business community. This service will allow users to surf the internet at speeds up to a gigabit or higher.
Harrison Diamond is the business relations officer with the city of Huntsville. He says the service will be cheaper than current internet services.
"The goal of the project is to provide faster speed, more affordability for our citizens and our businesses here. And we want to cover a diverse population so we don't just want part of the city to have fast affordable internet, we want the entire city to eventually have it."
The city hopes the providers of fiber-optic internet will spark more competition in the community by offering more options to consumers.