On Tuesday, Alabama voters will find the final amendment – No. 14 – may have a more significant impact on local communities than any amendment on the ballot.

Amendment 14 is aimed at protecting hundreds of local laws – from sales taxes to annexations to draft beer regulations – from being invalidated because of a legal dispute over legislative procedure, according to a summary by The Associated Press.

The amendment is related to Amendment 448 that was passed in 1984. That amendment requires the legislature to pass the state budget before it passes other bills.

However, passing a budget can be a lengthy process, so a Budget Isolation Resolution (BIR) was passed. A BIR can be assigned to individual bills that legislators want to consider before the budget is passed. A BIR is made possible by a vote from lawmakers.

The AP article notes the concern came after a judge struck down a Jefferson County sales tax law, after finding the House of Representatives was misapplying a procedural vote required to pass bills before the state budgets are approved.

The BIR in the Alabama Constitution requires a vote of “three-fifths of a quorum present.” However, the House for years has interpreted it as three-fifths of “members present and voting.”

Members in 105-member House approved the BIR for the Jefferson County sales tax bill by a 13-3 vote, with 35 members listed as abstaining. Circuit Judge Michael Graffeo said those 13 “yes” votes did not satisfy the BIR requirement in the Alabama Constitution. Graffeo said the BIR requires a yes vote from three-fifths of all House members present, with at least a 53-member quorum present. Therefore, he said the minimum needed for a BIR is 32 votes.

The Jefferson County law in question is just one of hundreds of local laws that have been approved without the required number of votes.

One reason for the low number of votes is due to House members not voting on bills that are not in their districts, which is called “local courtesy” among lawmakers.

Voting yes to Amendment 14, which is supported by many groups, including the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, would validate and keep the hundreds of bills passed since 1984 intact, regardless of the number of lawmakers who participated in the vote.