HB370 revises how Alabama counties compensate certain elected local officials, including county commissioners, chairs of county commissions, judges of probate, sheriffs, tax assessors, tax collectors, revenue commissioners, license commissioners, and elected assistant tax assessors or collectors. The bill generally freezes the base compensation for those offices at the amount the officeholder is receiving on May 31, 2026, and it changes how the starting pay is calculated for officials first elected or appointed after July 1, 2025. For new officeholders, the base compensation would track the prior officeholder’s pay, but exclude any increases tied to longevity or merit-based awards.
The bill also narrows when local officials can receive the same uniform pay increases granted to county employees. Under HB370, officials whose compensation is tied to a state official would no longer be eligible for those local uniform increases, and any local law enacted before the 2026 Regular Session that allowed such increases would become invalid once the current officeholder leaves office. The bill further prohibits future local laws from authorizing those increases in contradiction to the new rule. It also clarifies that if a local official’s compensation is tied in whole or part to a circuit or district judge’s salary, future calculations must use the base amounts in Section 12-10B-1 and service or longevity adjustments must reflect the official’s actual time in office.
HB370 amends Sections 11-2A-1, 11-2A-2, and 11-2A-4 of the Alabama Code and repeals Sections 11-2A-3, 11-2A-6, 11-2A-7, and 11-2A-8. In practical terms, it restructures the statutory framework governing county official compensation, limits certain automatic pay escalators, and makes the changes retroactive, with an effective date of June 1, 2026. The bill affects county budgets, local governing bodies, and the compensation expectations of current and future officeholders in the covered positions.
The available voting history shows strong support and no recorded opposition: the bill passed the House of Origin 92-0, passed third reading 92-0, and the motion to adopt passed 93-0. No committee transcript is available, so there is no recorded floor or committee debate to indicate formal opposition or concerns in the provided materials.
The main point of contention suggested by the text is the bill’s restriction on local uniform pay increases for officials whose pay is linked to state officials, especially where prior local laws had allowed those increases. The bill also appears to limit the effect of longevity and merit-based compensation in setting the pay of successors, which may be significant for counties with established local compensation practices. However, the unanimous votes indicate that any such concerns did not translate into recorded legislative opposition in the available history.
HB370 would amend Alabama’s county-official compensation statutes to freeze and standardize base pay for specified local officials, limit the carryover of longevity and merit-based pay into successor salaries, and bar certain local uniform increases for officials whose compensation is tied to state officials. It would also repeal several related code sections, narrowing and consolidating the statutory scheme governing compensation for county officials. Counties, local governing bodies, and the affected elected offices would be directly impacted, particularly in how future salary adjustments are calculated and applied.
The bill appears to have been received very favorably in the House, with unanimous or near-unanimous votes at each recorded stage and no recorded dissent. The absence of committee transcripts limits insight into detailed debate, but the voting history suggests broad bipartisan agreement or at least no visible opposition. Overall, the legislative sentiment in the available record is strongly supportive.
The principal substantive issue is the bill’s effort to restrict automatic or locally granted pay increases for certain county officials, especially where those officials’ compensation is linked to state officials or to prior officeholders’ longevity and merit pay. Counties with existing local laws that provide uniform increases may be affected, and the bill also appears to override some prior local arrangements on a prospective and retroactive basis. Despite these potential policy tensions, the recorded votes show no formal opposition in the available history.