State senate committee approves bill limiting municipal raises

The state Senate's Tourism and Marketing Committee on Friday approved a bill that would limit municipality raises.

The bill, which was passed by the state House of Representatives on Thursday, would require that city council notify the public 30 days before they approve raises for themselves.

Proposed by Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, the bill as it was originally written would have stopped a 233 percent pay raise the Birmingham City Council passed for itself last year. But an amendment made to the House bill Thursday effectively exempted that raise from being impacted by the law by barring it from applying to raises passed before the bill is passed.

That drew the ire of some members of the Senate committee, including Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham.

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/08/state_senate_committee_approve.html