If you expected a proposed constitutional amendment that eventually would take away 23% of the City of Gadsden s budget to go unmentioned by City Council members, you were wrong.
For some, including Mayor Sherman Guyton and council member Jason Wilson, there was ire over Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, launching the idea of a phaseout of the occupational tax at a press conference on Monday without extending the common courtesy of letting leaders in some affected municipalities know about it.
Jones announced the proposal that would affect Gadsden, Attalla, Glencoe, Rainbow City and Southside the Etowah County municipalities that assess a 2% occupational tax on employees who work in the cities. The proposal would require a vote of the people, and if passed would cut occupational tax over 20 years time, dropping from 2% to 1.9% the first year, then 1.8% and so on until the tax is eliminated.
State Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, on Monday announced two constitutional amendments he will offer in the Legislature, one mirroring his local bill designed to keep rendering plants out of Etowah County.
The other? It would phase out occupational tax in the five Etowah County municipalities that impose it, over a 20-year period.
There is a 2% tax on those who work in the municipalities of Attalla, Gadsden, Southside, Rainbow City and Glencoe. Jones, R-Centre, said that amounts to charging people to work in those cities. He said fewer than 30 Alabama cities impose occupational tax, and most set the rate at 1% or less of income.
Staff Writer
T-L File Photo
River Elementary School, one of the buildings in the Switzerland of Ohio School District in Monroe County, is one site where COVID-19 vaccinations will be given to staff next week.
WOODSFIELD Schools in Monroe County are preparing their staff members to receive COVID-19 vaccines starting next week, but the Harrison Hills City School District got a jumpstart on the process.
Harrison County’s school, employees originally had been slated for vaccinations next week as well, but they were able to receive their vaccinations early.
Harrison Hills Superintendent Dana Snider said the first round of vaccines already has been administered.
CADIZ Two local school districts Harrison Hills and Bridgeport are back in regular session.
After more than a month on a hybrid learning plan, the Harrison Hills City School District returned its students to full-time, in-person instruction Monday.
More than 1,200 students resumed on-site classes five days a week following the board of education’s decision to revise its safety plan. The board voted in favor of the revision during a special meeting Friday evening.
Superintendent Dana Snider said that due to a decrease in the county’s COVID-19 caseload and the benefits of in-person learning, the board revised the school’s original plan. In addition, the district’s teachers are scheduled to begin receiving the coronavirus vaccine early next month as a part of the state’s Phase 1B rollout, she said.
Arizona COVID-19 updates: Vaccine ingredients can trigger rare allergic reactions Arizona Republic
Arizona s seven-day, new-case average again ranked first among all states Sunday after ranking first and second the past two weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s COVID Data Tracker.
The state s rate of new positive cases during the past seven days was 4183736001 cases per 100,000 people as of Sunday afternoon, per the CDC. The U.S. average for new cases is 52.6 cases per 100,000 people. The average daily COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people during the past seven days also ranked first in the nation as of Sunday, CDC data show.