The 2019 Regular Session will end today – Friday, May 31 – two legislative and 19 calendar days ahead of schedule. But as senators and representatives prepare to head home, plans are already being made for their return to Montgomery for the second special session of 2019, where specific attention will be given to Alabama’s prison system.
Even though this week marked the end of the session, the most important sound for the Alabama Bankers Association was not the bang of the gavel but the click of a pen, as Gov. Kay Ivey signed three bills on the association’s radar into law late Tuesday evening.
The first bill was House Bill 420, sponsored by Rep. Kyle South (R-Fayette) and handled on the Senate floor by Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham), which allows financial institutions and the Department of Revenue to voluntarily enter into data-sharing agreements to minimize the number of garnishment notices for delinquent taxpayers sent by the department and received by financial institutions.
The second bill was House Bill 304, sponsored by Rep. Merika Coleman (D-Birmingham) and handled in the Senate by Sen. Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro) and Shay Shelnutt (R-Trussville), which allows certified real estate appraisers to perform real estate evaluations where permitted by federal law (currently, appraisers are allowed to only perform appraisals).
The third bill was House Bill 419, sponsored by Rep. Kyle South (R-Fayette) and handled in the Senate by Sen. Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro) and Shay Shelnutt (R-Trussville), which clarifies and modernizes every facet of the state’s FIET statutes, making it easier for bankers, tax practitioners, and the Department of Revenue to understand and enforce the law.
These three join several other association-supported bills that have been signed into law this session, with others expected to be signed in the coming days.
Next week, the Alabama Bankers Association will release a special issue of Capitol Notes focusing on new laws that impact the banking industry as well as a recap of the association’s 2019 Legislative Agenda.
As of the 28th (and final) legislative day, legislators have introduced 1,070 bills – 643 in the House and 427 in the Senate – and 418 resolutions. As of this writing, 327 of these measures have been enacted into law. The governor has 10 days after adjournment to sign into law any bill that reached her desk within the last five days of session.
Questions or comments? Contact Jason Isbell, ABA’s VP of Legal and Governmental Affairs, at jisbell@alabamabankers.com.
