Alabama's bankrupt Jefferson County and creditors owed $4.23 billion will spend at least an extra year battling in court, the county's lead bankruptcy lawyer said, because state lawmakers killed a bill providing the county with much needed revenue, Reuters reported yesterday. Alabama's House lawmakers on Wednesday skipped a vote on a bill that would have restored Jefferson County's occupational tax, effectively preventing enactment of a local tax worth $60 million annually to the county for a second year in a row. "The state legislature doesn't realize the severity of its inaction," Kenneth Klee, the county's top bankruptcy lawyer, yesterday told a meeting of the Jefferson County Commission. "It will add at least a year to the bankruptcy proceedings." No timetable exists for negotiating a workout plan with creditors and ending the case, filed on Nov. 9, but analysts have said that the complex proceedings, involving financial giants such as JPMorgan Chase and local suppliers, could run for years.
