Arise’s Chris Sanders takes to the Alabama outdoors to celebrate two huge legislative wins for Alabama families last week. First is the enactment of HB 386, which will reduce the state sales tax on groceries from 3% to 2% starting Sept. 1. Untaxing groceries has been an Arise priority for decades, and we will continue to advocate to make the grocery tax a thing of the past.

Chris also highlights the enactment of HB 152 last week. This new family-friendly law will end the state sales tax on essential items like baby formula, feminine hygiene products and maternity clothes.

But we can’t stop now. With just one day left in the regular session, we are still advocating for positive legislation on parole reform and increasing our state’s income tax threshold. Get updates and action alerts by signing up for our email list at alarise.org and following us on all of our social media platforms!

Hey, y’all. I’m Chris Sanders, communications director at Alabama Arise, and I’m here with this week’s legislative update. You know, it’s a little overcast out here today, but make no mistake: This is a beautiful day in Alabama, because we are celebrating the enactment of two wonderful pieces of legislation last week.

First and foremost, we are thrilled to be able to say for the second time in three years that the grocery tax bill is now the grocery tax law. HB 386 by Rep. Danny Garrett will reduce the state sales tax on groceries from 3% to 2% effective Sept. 1 this year. That’s Labor Day weekend, so it’s something to look forward to.

This builds on the breakthrough success that we had two years ago when we successfully advocated for the state grocery tax to be reduced from 4% to 3%. So now it will be cut in half from what it was two years ago. This is great news for families across Alabama who are struggling to make ends meet, to provide food for their families.

And this is a big breakthrough in our work for tax justice, and Alabama Arise intends to continue advocating to untax groceries until the grocery tax is a thing of the past. We should not be taxing people deeper into poverty in this state, and there are better, more sustainable, more responsible ways to fund public schools and other essential public services than to tax people’s food. So we’re going to stick with that issue until the job is done.

In the meantime, we are thrilled to have seen the governor sign that bill into law on Friday. We were also excited to see her sign HB 152 by Rep. Neil Rafferty. This is another great pro-family piece of legislation that will end the state sales tax on a variety of items, including baby formula, feminine hygiene products, maternity clothes, and other items that will help growing families across our state — so more great news.

And we were overwhelmed to see the overwhelming bipartisan support for those proposals. And we are looking forward to continuing to advocate for tax justice in future sessions.

We also are not done with this one yet. There’s one more day remaining this week — day 30 of the regular session — on Wednesday, and there are opportunities to get even more great pieces of legislation across the finish line.

A couple of those are SB 324 by Sen. Clyde Chambliss that would bring some important reforms to our state’s parole board and parole system. Also, HB 389 by Rep. Garrett as well, which would increase our state’s income tax threshold. That’s the level at which families begin to owe income tax in our state.

So both great pieces of legislation, and there are many others as well that we’re hopeful will get a hearing and a vote and passage on the floor before the session ends this week.

So we will speak with you next week after the final day of the session. But in the meantime, we thank you so much for your support — for your shared vision of a better Alabama with us.

If you are a member of Alabama Arise, we thank you so much. If you are not yet but are interested in becoming a member, please visit alarise.org. You can find out about your membership options there. Please sign up for our email list while you’re on our website.

Also, follow us on all of our social media platforms. We are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, so we’d love to have you there.

We need you in our work to change Alabama for the better, and we are getting results for the people of Alabama together. So we greatly appreciate your support, and we’ll talk with you next week after the session wraps up.

So thank you very much, and take care.