MONTGOMERY - Back-to-school shoppers in Alabama can avoid paying the state sales tax on their purchases if they do their shopping the first Friday, Saturday or Sunday in August.
The Alabama Senate passed a sales tax holiday bill 33-0 Monday, on the final day of the Legislature's regular session, and the House went along with Senate changes in the bill 103-0. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mac Gipson, R-Prattville, now goes to Gov. Bob Riley, who said he would sign it into law.
Twelve states, including Georgia and Florida, already have sales tax holidays for back-to-school purchases, and the Tennessee Legislature recently voted to create one the first weekend in August.
"We have people in Alabama waiting to go across a state line to buy their school supplies. We don't need to disadvantage our retailers," Riley said Monday.
The three-day break from the state's 4 percent sales tax covers:
Clothing costing up to $100 per item.
Computers, software or computer supplies costing up to $750 per item.
School supplies and textbooks up to $50 per item.
Other books up to $30 each.
Gipson, who worked for three years to pass the bill, said, "This is a win-win situation." He said it will not only help families, it will turn the first weekend in August into a major retail period, similar to after-Thanksgiving promotions.
Merchants' expectations for Aug. 4-6 are high, based on what they've seen in other states.
"The Alabama back-to-school sales tax holiday will be good for Alabama parents, good for Alabama
teachers, good for Alabama retailers and good for Alabama's economy," said Rick Brown, president of the Alabama Retail Association.
The legislation allows cities and counties to waive their local sales taxes the same weekend, if they would like.
To make up part of the lost taxes, the Senate gave final approval to a bill requiring companies that have contracts with the state for any type of supplies to start charging state and local taxes on their sales to Alabama consumers.
Elsewhere on the final day of the session:
Stalling tactics threatened to kill a proposed constitutional amendment restricting government's use of eminent domain to obtain private property.
Several House members used delaying tactics throughout the day and into the evening, mostly to prevent the eminent domain legislation from being sent to a conference committee to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The House finally cut off their stalling tactics at 9:30 p.m. and sent the legislation to a conference committee, with 2 1/2 hours to reach a compromise before the midnight adjournment.
The legislation's sponsor, Sen. Jim Preuitt, D-Talladegea, said he hoped a last-minute compromise could be reached.
Leading the filibuster was Rep. James Buskey, D-Mobile, who said he was worried that a conference committee would take out a provision in the House version that exempts the State Docks in Mobile from some provisions of the legislation.
A bill approved by the Legislature will make Alabama voters among the first in the nation to go to the polls to choose Republican and Democratic candidates for president in 2008.
The Senate voted 28-1 to approve the presidential preference primary bill sponsored by Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill. The bill, which passed the House 54-20 earlier this month, now goes to Riley, who has said he will sign it into law.
The legislation - endorsed by the state chairmen of Alabama's Democratic and Republican parties - will move Alabama's primary from the first Tuesday in June to the first Tuesday in February. Alabama will go from having one of the nation's latest primaries to one of the first, coming shortly after the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
The Senate voted 33-0 to give final approval to a bill by Rep. Oliver Robinson, D-Birmingham, that would repeal the statewide ban on K-12 students having cell phones, pagers and other electronic communications equipment at school. Under Robinson's legislation, each city and county school board could set the policy for its students.
The bill, which passed the House 93-0 in February, now goes to Riley. If he signs it into law, it will take effect July 1, which will allow school local boards to get their policies in place by the time students return to class in August.
The Legislature enacted the ban on pagers and cell phones when the technology was new, and lawmakers were concerned about the equipment disrupting classes or being used for cheating or illegal activity.
A state senator motivated by the death of his 2-year-old niece in a wreck in 2003 got the Legislature to agree to expand the use of car safety seats by children.
The Senate voted 29-2 Monday to go along with changes the House made in a safety seat bill sponsored by Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery. The bill goes to the governor, who has not said whether he will sign it into law.
State law currently requires children 3 and under to use safety seats. Those 4 and 5 must be restrained, but it can be with adult seat belts. Ross said these children aren't tall enough for seat belts to restrain them properly during a wreck.
His bill requires children to be in rear-facing car seats until they are 1 year old or weigh 20 pounds. Then they must be in forward-facing car seats until they are 5 or weigh 40 pounds, in booster seats until they turn 6, and in regular seat belts until they turn 15.