Politics Archive

by Rob Nichols For too long, banks with legitimate concerns about unbridled credit union growth have been portrayed as Goliath picking on David. The truth is that in many states, a credit union is one of the largest local financial institutions, outranking most of ...Read More

The 2019 Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature ended on May 31. The first regular session of this legislature’s four-year term, and indeed the very first session for many newly-elected legislators, was punctuated with many more “big-ticket” items than might normally be expected. Throughout ...Read More

The first line of last week’s Capitol Notes remains the same for this week’s edition: “The calendar giveth, and the calendar taketh away.”  But this time, the “calendar” in question is not the one that determines when the Legislature is or will be in ...Read More

The calendar giveth, and the calendar taketh away. On Thursday, the fifth and seventh floors of the Alabama State House were abuzz over rumors that the end of the 2019 Regular Session was finally in sight. Legislators, if the rumors were true, were going ...Read More

by Rob Nichols While there is still a healthy — and appropriate — debate on whether cannabis should be legalized at the federal level, there is growing consensus that something must be done to address the cannabis conundrum affecting banks. The need for a ...Read More

by James E. Long, Jr. and Bruce P. Ely Unlike most states, Alabama exempts financial institutions from its corporate income tax, choosing instead to subject these entities to its financial institution excise tax (“FIET”). While it’s not uncommon for financial institutions to encounter state ...Read More

The Alabama Senate had its first “shutdown” day of the 2019 session yesterday, as members of the upper chamber spent a considerable amount of time debating just one bill. Senate Bill 220, sponsored by Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) is a proposed constitutional amendment that, ...Read More