South Union Street

The Alabama Legislature approved the 2013 General Fund budget with minutes to go Wednesday night.

In a flurry of activity Wednesday evening, the Alabama Legislature passed a lean General Fund budget that counts on a special session and an election to get all its funding.

The final version of the General Fund budget appeared on the floor of the House of Representatives at 11 p.m. Wednesday, an hour before the adjournment of the 2012 Regular Session.  The House approved the measure 77 to 28.  The Senate approved it  about 45 minutes later on a 29 to 6 vote.

Prior to those votes, both chambers approved a constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would authorize the transfer of $145.8 million to the General Fund from the Alabama Trust Fund over the next three fiscal years.

Voters would have to approve the constitutional amendment during municipal elections Sept. 18.

The budget faced an overall cut of over $327 million from the current year.  That deficit was initially projected to appear in the Alabama Medicaid Agency, the largest single expenditure in the General Fund, and officials at the agency warned that slashing the agency’s budget would reduce health care access around the state and possibly lead to a federal lawsuit.   Gov. Robert Bentley threatened to veto any General Fund budget with less than $602 million for Medicaid.

Senators last week voted to take money out of the Department of Corrections to plug the deficit there.  In the original plan, Corrections would get the added revenue from the approved constitutional amendment.

The budget will also lean on proposal expected in the upcoming special session to move 25 percent of the state’s use tax into the state’s General Fund, along with funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Children’s Youth Services.  The moves in total were projected to bring a net of $30 million to the General Fund.

– posted by Brian Lyman

Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale

Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur

The Alabama Senate Thursday delayed consideration of changes to the state’s controversial immigration law, as the sponsors of the statute divided over provisions dealing with business transactions.

Derek Trotter, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said the Senate planned to bring up the changes to the law, known as HB 56, on Wednesday morning.

“Based on the Legislature’s consitutitonal requirement to address the budgets, they felt it was important to take those up,” he said.

Trotter said he could not comment on the role the divide between Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale and Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, played in the delay.

The split between the  lawmakers, who sponsored HB 56 last year, developed over a section of the law providing noncriminal penalties to businesses that knowingly hire undocumented aliens. Beason said Thursday he wants to retain the original wording of the law imposing the sanctions, a move opposed by Hammon and the Business Council of Alabama.

Section 15 of the law provides a list of penalties a business could face for violations, up to and including revocation of their business licenses. Hammon has pushed for changes that provide for more flexibility in imposing those penalties.

Beason, however, said he wanted to keep the section as it is, saying federal courts that have let it stand through legal challenges to HB 56.

“I do not want to put both employer sections at risk,” Beason said. “You change one, you change both, and both end up embroiled in court for a few years.”

The move came as a surprise to Hammon, who had been working with Beason on a substitute to revise the law. Hammon offered changes to the legislation last month the altered or revised most sections of the law. Some of those changes would bring the statute in compliance with federal court decisions.

“We’ve been in negotiations for about a week, and we’ve been making progress,” Hammon said. “I felt like we had a pretty good product, but it appears politics is playing into this now, rather than what’s best for people of Alabama.”

Beason acknowledged he had spoken with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has pushed immigration laws around the country and had a large hand in drafting Alabama’s law.

The BCA supported Hammon’s changes to the law. Bill Canary, president and CEO of BCA, declined immediate comment Thursday on the negotiations.

“Stay tuned,” he said.

If the Senate approves the changes Wednesday, the bill with changes will have to be approved by the House.  If the House nonconcurs in the Senate’s changes, a conference committee would have to resolve the changes in time for both chambers to approve; Wednesday is expected to be the last day of the 2012 Regular Session.

– posted by Brian Lyman

The House of Representatives approved the 2013 Education Trust Fund budget 83 to 18 Thursday.

The House of Representatives Thursday approved an Education Trust Fund budget that cuts $141 million out of the budget and would lead to an overall reduction of 504 teaching positions in the system next year.

Lawmakers approved the budget, which goes into effect Oct. 1, on an 83 to 18 vote.

The losses under the budget would be met through attrition,according to education officials.

The approved budget represents an overall reduction of 2.5 percent in state funding.  K-12 funding would be reduced 2.56 percent and higher education would be reduced 3.29 percent.

The budget will need approval from the Senate.  If the Senate does not concur, the ETF will go into conference committee.

– posted by Brian Lyman