Etowah County legislative delegation provides update on 2025 session

May 17, 2025 – RAINBOW CITY, AL – The Etowah County Legislative delegation briefed the members of the Etowah Republican Breakfast on the 2025 Alabama regular legislative session that ended on Wednesday.

State Representative Craig Lipscomb (R-Gadsden) said that the Legislature cut the taxes on groceries in this session.

"Last year we put legislation together to get rid of the tax on groceries in a phased approach," said Lipscomb.

Lipscomb explained that revenues did not grow fast enough to hit the target for the next one cent reduction to happen automatically, so changes were made.

"We changed the road and jumpstarted the process," Lipscomb said. "The budget chairs were good with it."

"I carried that in the Senate (the grocery tax cut," said Senator Andrew Jones (R-Centre). "That is the largest tax cut in Alabama history - $240 million."

"My goal is in the next quadrennium to work on the next two cents," said Sen. Jones. "Everybody at the end of the day has to go buy grocery taxes."

"We are so blessed to have conservative leadership in the state," said Rep. Mark Gidley (R-Hokes Bluff). "It is about conservative values."

"I serve on the (House) Education Policy Committee," said Gidley. "We oversaw the largest education budget in the history of the state of $9.9 billion."

"Back in 2010 proration would hit," the schools' budget said Gidley.

Gidley credited conservative budgeting with avoiding proration in the decade plus since then.

"Conservative leadership must always be in place," said Gidley. "Last year we gave teachers a 2.2 percent raise. This year we did not give them a raise but we covered the cost of their PEEHIP raise."

"Alabama was one of the few states that still divided the education money by counting heads," said Gidley. "This year we added additional money above the foundation money for ELL (English Language Learner), special needs, gifted, and poverty. I have four school boards in my district. I met with all of the superintendents and principals in my district. They talked about the special needs. They also shared that teachers have so much paperwork they can't spend time in the classroom, so we passed the Teacher's Paperwork Reduction Act."

Lipscomb said that the legislature passed pharmacy benefit manager legislation.

"They were strong arming our pharmacists to sell medications below their costs," said Lipscomb. "We were about to lose our hometown pharmacists. We were even losing corporate pharmacies. CVS was closing stores. This was to force all of us into shopping online for our prescription drugs."

Sen. Jones said he filed PBM legislation as did another Senator. The bill that passed encompassed elements of both bills.

"It got out of both bodies unanimously," said Jones. "Pharmacy Benefit Managers are just middlemen between the businesses and the drug companies. All they do is move money. This was probably a good idea when it started, but it has gotten out of hand. The top three PBMs are in the top 40 companies in America. They produce no product. We had passed legislation before but their lawyers always found loopholes to get around it. This requires that our pharmacies be paid the actual cost plus a dispending fee. That should keep our independent pharmacies open. 160 pharmacies closed across Alabama over the last five years."

"We also passed the ALFA plan that is geared toward farmers," said Lipscomb. "They got together with their farmers and put together a plan. We scrutinized it probably more than any other state. Farmers were having to work two and three jobs just to get healthcare coverage."

Gidley said that he talked with his principals and superintendents and they supported the bill banning cell phones in classrooms because parents and students "can blame the Legislature instead of blaming them.

"When one of these buzzes, it takes 23 minutes to get their (the students) attention back," said Gidley. "Removing that from the classroom was absolutely wonderful that was done. I think that is going to be a major move forward in helping our classrooms."

Jones said, "We had a number of bills on illegal immigration. We had one that you can't use a foreign national ID to vote. We had different pieces of legislation that you can't transport the (undocumented) folks across the state."

"We passed the wire transfer fee," Jones said. "It places a fee on money leaving the United States. That money goes to pay for the cost of immigration. I have got schools in my district that are as high as 80% ELL."

Lipscomb said they passed a bill to raise the medical age of consent from age 14 to age 16.

"If kids can't get a tattoo without their parents' permission, they shouldn't be getting major medical procedures without their parents' knowledge," explained Lipscomb. "We wanted their family to help them make informed decisions."

Lipscomb said that they passed legislation regulating THCs and consumables (psychoactive cannabinoids derived from hemp). We have all been to gas stations and seen all of the THC products there. We passed legislation "That makes most of that stuff illegal." This limits THC to persons 21 and over places that are heavily regulated.

Gidley said they passed a bill to require schools to teach that, "If you finish high school and you wait until marriage to have children you are much less likely to be in poverty. If you get those things in order, then you are much less likely to be in poverty."

Jones said he carried a bill to create a Veterans Service Center in the Montgomery area.

"The state put in $5 million," towards the costs of building the center. "Alabama Power is coordinating a public private partnership" to come up with the rest of the funds.

Lipscomb said that the legislature also banned recreational nitrous oxide (laughing gas).

"It was so bad that I saw large cannisters that looked like oxygen tanks that you carry in," said Lipscomb. "We needed this stuff off the market."

Gidley said they also passed the What is a Woman Act.

"Why did we have to do that? Because apparently some federal judge didn't know the answer to that question, so we codified it in state law," Gidley explained.

"We passed the 'Back the Blue Act," said Jones.

This is a rewrite of the state's immunity for law enforcement officers.

Jomes explained that the legislation creates the necessity of having a hearing on the officer's conduct in the situation before a criminal or civil case can proceed

"We got a lot of push back on that," said Jones.

Gidley said, "We had to actually cloture" for the House to concur with the Senate changes on that during the last night of the legislative session.

Gidley said that he sponsored both the Ten Commandments bill and the school chaplains bills. They passed the House but got bogged down in the Senate.

"I am bringing them back next year," said Gidley. "Hopefully by next year we can get those posted in schools along with other historical documents."

Jones chairs the Veterans Affairs Committee in the Senate.

"We have a goal of being the most military friendly state in the nation," said Jones. "Alabama was the worst states in the nation on of military spouse reciprocity. If it takes six months for a military spouse to get credentialed to work in her field, that is six months they are not bringing home a paycheck."

To address this problem the state has negotiated interstate license compacts where we will recognize the professional credentials of other states as long as they recognize our licensing and credentialing process.

"We were the worst in the nation. Today we are number one," said Jones.

"In the Trump budget there are some pretty significant cuts," said Jones,

Fort McClellan is a former military base that closed in Anniston. If budget cuts lead to future base closures, Jones said that the Legislature is trying to position Alabama to be in the best place to avoid being a state to lose bases.

Jones said that retirement guides list Alabama as the second-best state in the country for veterans to retire to.

Jones said the Legislature has created a Veterans Mental Health Task Force. They are responsible for creating the Veterans Crisis Line that you see on billboards. Rep. (Kenneth) Paschal has worked on that. They also started Veterans Treatment Courts so if someone gets in trouble with the law then hopefully they go back to being a productive member of society.

Jones carried the bill restructuring the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"t makes the Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Affairs a Cabinet official," explained Jones. "Jeff Newton is the new Commissioner. "He is doing a great job. I am excited to work with him."

The Alabama Legislature is not scheduled to meet again until 2026.