According to State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur), Gov. Kay Ivey had no choice but to use the power granted to her under a state of emergency to extend the expiration date on economic incentive packages and waive tax liabilities on CARES Act benefits.
Orr, chairman of the Alabama State Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee, said the legislature could have resolved those issues with a special session but questioned if convening a special session may have come with some risks during an appearance on this week’s broadcast of Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal.”
“It’s necessary, unfortunately, because the legislature couldn’t get together and couldn’t ratify those things,” Orr said. “I don’t think that they’re controversial in the slightest. I think if we had five legislative days, we could have run them through a special session. But again, is that worth, perhaps, somebody’s life or multiple people’s lives with our convening and our exposing perhaps to the virus?”
“And so, we will deal with this in February and get it done in the proper format,” he continued. “Governor Ivey, with her back against the wall, just decided the expedient way was to go ahead and just issue an executive order. And then we’ll certainly handle it in due fashion, as it should be, and I think she would freely acknowledge, through the legislative process and then with her signature.”
The Morgan County lawmaker downplayed questions of executive overreach when asked by host Don Dailey.
“I think [Ivey’s] back was against the wall,” Orr added. “These things needed to be tended to, particularly the tax situation where people will start filing their income taxes, and there will need to guidance out for all the tax preparers across the state in January. And if we were meeting for a special session in December, there wouldn’t be this guidance out there that the governor has given. We’re talking about a matter of weeks that this will really be effective. We come back in January. Those two pieces of legislation would be the first two, I would imagine, without any controversy. It wasn’t a grab and a controversial situation where she tried to change things or assert herself in the vacuum of the legislature not meeting. So, all in all, given the totality of circumstances, I certainly understand it.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
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