In a closed door session this afternoon, Local Legislative Committee #2 substituted Senate Bill 488 for House Bill 811.  Senate Bill 488 was defeated in committee yesterday, April 29.  The full House of Representatives passed House Bill 811.  Senator Coleman, who sponsored Senate Bill 488, serves on Local Legislative Committee #2.  This substituted Bill will now go before the full Senate for a vote.  If it passes, it will go before a conference committee which will be made up of three Jefferson County House delegates and three Jefferson County Senators.  All three of the Senators who will be on the conference committee will be members of Local Legislative Committee #2 – the same Senators who made this substitution.  Senator Coleman is expected to be one of those Senators.                       

While within the procedures of the Alabama Legislature, this substitution of the defeated Senate Bill for the passed House Bill is yet another attempted end run around the Courts and a flagrant attempt to deny the taxpayers of Jefferson County the relief awarded to them by Judge Rains.   This is not the fix Jefferson County needs and the taxpayers of the county will be the ultimate losers of this game.