MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The Alabama House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a slim $1.8 billion General Fund, the final budget they can cobble together with money taken from a state savings account in 2012.
The House passed the bill by an 80-20 vote Wednesday night. It now moves to the Alabama Senate.
Most state agencies will see no additional funds in the budget that takes effect Oct. 1, and state employees will likely not see a pay increase. Lawmakers were able to avoid deep cuts by finding various sources of one-time money and dipping into the savings account.
“It was tough, but we had some one-time monies we were able to put together,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, said.
Alabama voters agreed in 2012 to take $145.8 million a year from the Alabama Trust Fund to shore up the General Fund for the next three years. The Trust Fund is a state savings account funded by royalties from off-shore natural gas drilling. The money will be exhausted when lawmakers write the budget in the 2015 legislative session.
Senate General Fund budget Chairman Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said lawmakers will need to look at significant cost-saving measures, such as agency consolidations.
Some Democrats took to the House microphones saying it was already time for the state to consider new revenue sources, such as gambling or taxes.
“We know we are not fully funding all the services we are required to provide,” said Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa.
Other lawmakers were critical that the budget did not give an increase to the Department of Corrections, arguing the state is on the verge of a prison crisis because of overcrowding. The U.S. Department of Justice sent Gov. Robert Bentley a letter saying that conditions at the state’s Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women were unconstitutional.
Orr said they will find some additional money for corrections.
“We are working on a plan,” he said.
The approved budget includes a 4 percent conditional pay increase for state employees if the funds should become available. However, lawmakers say that is unlikely without an unexpected windfall.
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