A delegation of elected officials from North Alabama spoke at a legislative update forum in Huntsville on Tuesday. The lawmakers provided additional insight into what Alabamians can expect their legislature to address in the upcoming session.

State Sen. Majority Leader Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro) spoke to the higher chamber’s agenda and expressed his confidence in the body to accomplish that agenda.

“I think most importantly what we’ll see as we move into next year will be enhancing school safety,” said Livingston. “There will be a bill to promote phone-free cell phones to create a better environment. Our body is committed to protecting our children in the future as increased technology has led to extortion or sextortion. Maybe we’ll see something. They’ll come back and have a play on that.”

“We’ll continue to work with y’all to make sure that all our communities have healthcare access across the valley and across the state. It’s critical that we have that and it’s critical we continue to support mental health, which is what the Speaker started with a couple of years ago. We’ll continue to expand on that.”

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State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) revealed more details regarding the legislature’s expected 2025 agenda.

“Immigration, I think you’ll see certainly at the federal level some activity on that,” Orr said. “Since the Beason Hammon Law passed way back in 2012 and some of that still lives on, some of it was set aside by a federal judge, I think that will probably be a topic of conversation in Montgomery.”

“Also looking at tort reform, I don’t know whether that will get legs or not. Looking at individual health care insurance and whether there’s a different pathway for that in the state to provide that for folks.”

Tax cuts will be another issue addressed.

“Do we continue with the tax cut? Do we do other other taxes? Do we look at an income tax cut? Do we look at a retiree exemption on taking money out for those of you on a defined contribution plan when you withdraw, do we exempt more of that? We were able to do $6,000 exempt,” Orr noted. “A lot of states have it higher. We have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the southeast at 6. 5 % percent. Our income tax at 5% stands out when you’re looking across the states and seeing where the tax rates are as people are looking to locate, businesses are looking to relocate, we’ve got to be competitive.”

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) stressed that the legislature will also be working to grow Alabama’s brand on a global level.

“Now, one of the things that I think has been missing for some years regarding workforce development is expanding our presence internationally,” said Daniels. “Many of the states around us have international offices in different parts of the world that help them with bringing industry to their states. The state of Georgia is doing a tremendous job in that particular area and we’re falling short in that area.  We hope that in the upcoming session we’ll have more conversations on that topic.”

Austen Shipley is the News Director for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten