Alabama budget could preserve Medicaid, courts, prisons

Sept. 16--MONTGOMERY -- The "big four" state agencies -- prisons, Mental Health, Medicaid and Human Resources -- will likely see no cuts in the budget the Alabama Senate will consider today, the Senate's budget chairman said this morning.

Finance and Taxation Committee Chairman Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, told reporters this morning that the court system would also likely see level funding in the proposed 2016 budget. Other agencies would probably be cut 5.5 percent across the board.

"That's the standard cut," Orr said. "There are some exceptions to that, on the downward side."

Lawmakers have 14 days to pass a budget for the 2016 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. They're in their second special session of the year. The first two sessions failed to yield an agreement between the House, Senate and Gov. Robert Bentley on how to fill a projected $200 million gap in the General Fund, which pays for most state agencies except for schools.

Lawmakers Tuesday night voted to raise the state's cigarette tax by 25 cents per pack and move $80 million in tax revenue from the state's separate schools budget to the General Fund. Still, the failure of other tax proposals will likely mean the state has to cut elsewhere.

Senate budget officials were still putting a new draft of the budget together when the Senate convened at 11 a.m. today. Orr said the new draft would probably include level funding for the health insurance program for state employees. With rising insurance costs, that could mean state employees have to spend more.

"Because we are level-funding or cutting every agency across the gamut, the expectation is that we would level-fund the employer contribution for health insurance," he said.

Without a budget ready for debate, senators turned to a raft of unrelated bills Wednesday morning. They passed a bill to regulate motorized tricycles, a product the company Polaris plans to build in northern Alabama, according to legislators. They debated and postponed an abortion bill by Sen. Bill Hightower, R-Mobile, which Hightower acknowledged would not reach the House in time to pass. Senators also briefly debated a resolution to discourage colleges from holding football games before noon.

Sen. Paul Bussman, R-Cullman, blasted fellow senators for working on seemingly frivolous bills while the budget was still pending. Lawmakers, he said, "violated every Republican principle" by passing the taxes the budget proposal is based on.

"It's absolutely ridiculous and I'm ashamed to be a part of this body right now," Bussman said.

The Senate went into recess until 1 p.m. to wait for a budget bill. The House also plans to convene at 1 p.m.

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