By Staff
Constitutional amendments No. 1 and No. 2 were approved by comfortable margins in Tuesday’s special election; however, fewer than 10 percent of the state’s registered voters cast ballots.
Amendment No. 1 received 4,244 “yes” votes (65.26 percent) compared to 2,259 “no” votes (34.74 percent) in Morgan County.
Amendment No. 2 passed with 4,831 “yes” votes (74.36 percent) compared to 1,666 “no” votes (25.64 percent).
The first amendment made provision for the state to increase its bonded indebtedness up to $400 million to fund industrial development incentives. About one-half of that amount will be used to help meet an $811 million commitment the state made to ThyssenKrupp, a German steel manufacturer to locate a new plant in South Alabama near Mobile. The remainder of the bond sales will provide incentives for several other major industrial development projects.
The bonds will be retired with revenue from natural gas wells in state-owned waters along the Gulf coast.
The second amendment supports two new trust funds set up by the state legislature to ensure retired state workers and school employees that money will be available to meet future health insurance costs. Currently, the state has $20 billion in unfunded benefit obligations for retirees.