Bills on regulations and public notices approved by Senate committee

During the Senate County and Municipal Government committee meeting on Tuesday, senators discussed two contentious proposals to reform local government permitting and licensing processes.

Both pre-filed by Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, last year, SB12 and SB29 are intended to make it easier for people to start small businesses.

“As you all know, my background is as a small business guy,” Elliott told his fellow committee members. “And I have listened to small business folks across the state just gripe about regulation and how long and how hard it is sometimes to get a small business started and to operate it.”

Referencing a 2021 report from the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm, Elliott said that to open a restaurant in Birmingham “there are 16 fees, nine agencies involved, five minimum in-person activities, 15 forms and 48 steps.”

SB12 would bar governmental bodies in Alabama from requiring licenses from other bodies as a prerequisite for issuing a license. SB29 would require applications for licenses or permits to be approved or denied within 45 days, or they would automatically be approved.

During the public comment period on both bills, Dean Argo, the manager of the Alabama ABC Board’s government relations division, said the ABC Board has “some concerns” about the legislation.

“Please remember that 99.9 percent of all liquor licenses that are approved by the state are done based upon the local government’s approval first,” Argo told the committee. “And the reason that it is that way is because we’re dealing with a mind-altering, addictive drug. We’re not dealing with Q-tips or anything else. We’re dealing with alcohol.”

Besides the potential ramifications of SB12 for the ABC Board’s permitting process, Argo also drew attention to how the 45-day time limit could be abused by bad actors.

“As far as Senate Bill 29, we don’t necessarily have a problem with the bill, sir,” he told Elliott. “But we are concerned about the time limit. Because we’re starting from the assumption that everybody who applies for a license is a forthright, honest person. But I assure you that is not the case when it comes to alcohol licenses.”

Baker Allen, the Alabama League of Municipalities’ director of governmental affairs, said that SB12 would “undermine municipalities’ ability to ensure that state requirements are met” and “create confusion for businesses.”

Allen also expressed concern about SB29, saying that automatic approval could mean that a “building’s torn down, historic district, glass building goes up completely. You can’t go back and change that.”

Trace Zarr, representing the Alabama Associated General Contractors, praised both SB12 and SB29 though. Zarr said that contractors and subcontractors often get stuck in a “never-ending cycle” while trying to acquire the proper permits and licenses, and that Elliott’s two bills could help “decrease unnecessary delays.”

Both Democratic members of the committee seemed fairly warm toward the bill. Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, joked that it was the “one DOGE committee I could support.” Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, talked about meeting a state legislator from Tennessee who complained about having to pay filing fees in person for his Birmingham business.

Coleman did question the lack of an exception for extraordinary circumstances though, pointing out that legislators from more rural districts might be less aware of how city government works in Alabama’s larger cities. Elliott responded that SB29 would allow applicants to waive the 45-day window and suggested that municipalities could ask applicants to waive the window and, if they refuse, just deny their application.

The committee also discussed SB121, which would significantly relax public notice requirements for public contracts by allowing municipalities, state agencies, and county governments to post notices on a website managed by the Alabama Department of Finance rather than in a local newspaper.

Under current law, sealed bids for state and county contracts have to be advertised “at least once each week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation” published in the relevant area. Sealed bids for city contracts have to be advertised in a paper published in that municipality or, if one does not exist, on a public bulletin board.

Similar legislation was introduced by then-state Rep. Andrew Sorrell, R-Muscle Shoals, during the 2019, 2020, and 2021 legislative sessions but failed to pass.

However, changing these requirements appears to be an interest of several legislators this session. “There’s two or three of these bills floating around, maybe four or five,” Senator Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, said during the committee meeting. “We need to get with DOT and figure out what the difference is and which one they really want.”

Hatcher expressed his concern about the possible impacts of the bill on local news markets.

“I know I’m as old as Moby Dick, but I still hold a newspaper,” Hatcher said. He mentioned both potential transparency issues with online notices and the possible inability of people in parts of the state with limited internet access to view postings.

“If a business entity decides, you know, that the easier route to take would be the online route, the concern is that I don’t know where we are with broadband in the state,” Hatcher opined. “I don’t know what the circumstance may be.”

Other states’ transitions away from public notice requirements have also been criticized for their likely effects on local journalism. Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy wrote in 2023 that public notice requirements “provide as much as 20 percent to 25 percent of a small local newspaper’s revenues.”

Three Alabama counties are already classified as local news deserts by Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative: Autauga, Cleburne, and Geneva. A news desert is defined as a county where there is “no local news outlet consistently producing original content.” Eleven more counties are on the organization’s watch list.

SB12, SB29, and SB121 were all favorably reported by the committee yesterday.