ATHENS, Ala. — Limestone County is one the fastest growing counties in the state. On Tuesday, state politicians connected with the community, addressing local interests and policy issues. Senators and representatives also shared an update on progress made during the last legislative session.
Alabama State Senator Arthur Orr explained that because of the major growth in Limestone County, the area has seen a significant rise in property tax. "So homeowners were a little upset at the high increases as far as property tax. Every year, double digit increases. So we passed a bill that would cap that at 7%." Now, with this property tax bill, instead of the double digit increases like some other areas, "... that's the maximum they'll be able to go up in the coming years."
For District 5 State Representative Danny Crawford this is a major benefit. "People are struggling. You know, even in my house, it's going up like almost 50 something percent in two years." Another bill Senator Orr said he is happy to have seen pass in legislation is in the area of education. "One was a school safety bill. We had kept throwing money at the problem, but we don't know how it's getting spent, where it's getting spent. This bill set up a grading system."
The other was a school discipline bill. "When I circulate around educators, they were quite perplexed and nonplussed at the issues that they were having in the classroom with discipline problems. So they put in a framework to deal with the troubled children taking away the educational experience from their classmates. A lot of places in our state, it wasn't being dealt with and teachers were getting out of the education because of it."
Senator Orr continued that there have also been some large budgets in the past couple years in Montgomery. As a result, "We're seeing a lot of construction on the campus of Athens State University. And then in Calhoun, you see a new workforce training center. And then at the robotics center, we're going to have a new electronic vehicle training center. So, I mean, right there almost $100 million in construction."