Public Hearing Set For New Online Sales Tax Legislation

Senate Bill 347 was intended to show progress in negotiations over the disagreement between large cities and counties over distribution of online sales taxes. It was dropped in the hopper by Baldwin County Republican Senator Greg Albritton last Thursday with the admonition that it was a good faith first step in showing agreement can be reached without court action.

When the Senate Finance and Taxation convened at the statehouse this afternoon Albritton immediately pushed it from the first to the last bill to be considered. That was a clue something was up. After working through various General Fund Budget bills Albritton brought up an issue concerning SB347.

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"Last week we had meetings with several parties... And in that meeting we wanted to show some progress, we wanted to show some effort in accomplishing what we wanted and needed to do," Albritton told the committee in front of a packed gallery." That effort led to Albritton's bill that would shorten usage of U.S. Census data from 10 to five years for calculating the Simplified Sellers Use Tax (SSUT).

Although the bill would not change rates or disbursement, only the population count, there is a problem.  "This proved one thing; this matter is a lot more complicated than we thought it was, there's winners and there's losers." He said there are circumstances in the numbers that sometimes do not make complete sense.

Albritton pointed out there are instances where population went down but income went up, leading to confusion. After going through those numbers this past weekend, Albritton said he is not satisfied with them.

Albritton then informed committee members of an informal request for a public hearing. He received committee approval to carry over SB347 until next week when they will have a full discussion about the numbers, he calls confusing.

He says they will need to find a methodology, "...that will ease the damage possibly." And there may be a need to find another path.

"Senator Albritton is being deliberate in his approach and the city appreciates his commitment to find common ground where possible," was the reaction from Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, who brought up the initial discrepancy in the SSUT distribution.

With a unanimous voice vote the committee carried over the bill until next Tuesday's 12:30pm meeting and public hearing.