SB163 Alabama 2010 Session

Under existing law, the unauthorized cutting, removal, transportation, sale, or purchase of timber and other forest products is a misdemeanor

This bill would specify that these offenses are Class A misdemeanors

This bill would also make it a crime to alter a weight measuring device or otherwise cause a weight measuring device to give a false reading of forest products

This bill would define forest products

Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, prohibits a general law whose purpose or effect would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds from becoming effective with regard to a local governmental entity without enactment by a 2/3 vote unless: it comes within one of a number of specified exceptions; it is approved by the affected entity; or the Legislature appropriates funds, or provides a local source of revenue, to the entity for the purpose

The purpose or effect of this bill would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of the amendment. However, the bill does not require approval of a local governmental entity or enactment by a 2/3 vote to become effective because it comes within one of the specified exceptions contained in the amendment

To amend Section 9-13-60, Code of Alabama 1975, to provide further for penalties related to crimes involving timber and forest products; to make it a crime to cause a weight measuring device to give a false reading of timber or forest products; to define forest products; and in connection therewith would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended.