Due to the impact of COVID-19, the city of Birmingham is projected to have a $75 million revenue shortfall and may have to suspend merit pay for city employees, Mayor Randall Woodfin announced on Tuesday.

We don’t receive business licenses anymore, we don’t receive occupational and sales taxes, we don’t have events in our city, we don’t receive lodging taxes and that causes a decrease in the funding we bring in.”

In another matter, the City Council voted to pay the $25,000 fine that was levied against the city following the removal of the Confederate monument in Linn Park.

In 2017, the Alabama Legislature passed a law that protects historical structures, such as monuments or other statues that have been on public property for 40 or more years.

Following this move, Alabama’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the city for removing the monument and violating the state law that was passed three years prior.