By Mike Cason
The Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday passed five bills intended to help more people join the workforce.
The bills are part of the “Working for Alabama” package Gov. Kay Ivey and other state officials announced at the State Capitol last month. Although Alabama’s unemployment rate has been at record low levels in recent months, the state’s workforce participation rate, which measures how many working age people have jobs or are looking for jobs, is one of the nation’s lowest.
The bills came from ideas developed by a panel led by Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth that reported its recommendations in January.
Lawmakers said the bills, which have bipartisan support and sponsors, are intended to provide incentives or remove barriers to people working.
The first bill up was HB346, by Rep. Cynthia Almond, R-Tuscaloosa, which would create the Alabama Workforce Housing Tax Credit. The tax credit would be an incentive for developers to build housing that would offer rents that would be affordable for people entering or returning to the workforce.
The Alabama Housing Finance Authority, which already exists, would operate the program. Almond said it would complement a federal program that has been in place since the Reagan administration. She said Alabama does not take advantage of the federal program now.
“We leave money on the table every year,” Almond said.
Almond said an example of a person who could benefit from the program would be a single mother living in Section 8 housing who would lose eligibility for Section 8 if she got a job. She said the rent on the housing built with with the new tax credit would be capped and would be an option for a parent in that situation to move.
The fiscal note attached to the bill said the tax credits would be capped at a total of $5 million per year or $2 million per project.
Almond said the Alabama Housing Finance Authority and the Alabama Department of Commerce would coordinate to identify places where there is a need for more affordable housing and where employers have a need for workers.
Almond said the goal is to get the program started, allow projects to be developed, and see how it works. She said the legislation expires in three years.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers came to the mic Wednesday morning to say they believe it addressed a real need.
Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, who chairs the education budget committee in the House, said the bill would provide a good way to test the waters on the demand and appetite for such a program.
“The proof in the pudding for all these workforce bills is: Are we increasing labor participation?” Garrett said.
The House passed HB346 by a vote of 103-0. It moves to the Senate.
The House next took up HB358 by House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville. It would offer tax credits for employers who provide child care facilities for their workers. A second part of the bill would provide tax credits for some child care providers.
The goal is to “incentivize employers to fund childcare for their employees and to enable childcare providers to offer more readily available, affordable, high-quality childcare,” according to the bill.
Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, handled the bill on the House floor Thursday.
Garrett said committees that have looked at the low workforce participation rate consistently found that the need for affordable child care is a key impediment for some people trying to enter the workforce.
The fiscal note attached to the bill estimated that the tax credits would reduce state revenues by $15 million to $20 million a year over the three years they would be in effect. The bill is written to expire after 2027.
The House passed the bill by a vote of 103-0. It moves to the Senate.
The House passed SB247, which is intended to consolidate and organize workforce development efforts under a single agency. It renames the Alabama Department of Labor the Department of Workforce and makes other changes. The bill passed by a vote of 102-0 and is going to Ivey, who could sign it into law.
The fourth bill in the package that passed Thursday morning was SB252, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, and was handled in the House by Rep. Randall Shedd, R-Cullman.
SB252 creates a public corporation called the Alabama Growth Alliance. It would be run by a board that would include the governor, legislative leaders, and people appointed from the private sector.
The Alabama Growth Alliance would help the Department of Commerce develop an annual strategic economic development plan for the state. Every other year, the alliance would review the incentives that the state offers to recruit industry. It would submit annual reports to the Legislature beginning in 2026.
SB252 passed by a vote of 97-0. It goes back to the Senate because it was amended by the House.
The fifth bill in the package, SB253, would create a new type of high school diploma called the Workforce Pathways Diploma. It is intended for students who want to go directly to work after finishing high school.
Students seeking a Workforce Pathways Diploma would be required to earn two math credits and two science credits instead of four math credits and four science credits.
“In lieu of the math and science credits, students enrolled in the Workforce Pathways diploma pathway may earn credits that apply toward graduation by completing career and technical education courses, which help prepare those students to go directly into employment in their chosen field following high school graduation,” the bill says.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, and handled in the House by Rep. Kelvin Lawrence, D-Hayneville, returns to the Senate because the House amended it.