The Democratic leader in the Alabama House of Representatives on Wednesday urged lawmakers to wait until summer to pass state budgets to give time to assess the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels said in a press conference that it is difficult to craft a budget when the state is still trying to assess the pandemic’s impact on revenue, small businesses, schools, unemployment and other factors.
“Moving forward when there are more questions than answers isn’t just illogical, it’s fiscally irresponsible and it’s just bad public policy,” Daniels said.
Alabama legislative leaders plan to resume the session on May 4. They said the priority will be passing the two state budgets for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
The Democratic House leader said it would be better to wait until income tax collections are received in July so the state isn’t “budgeting in the the blind.”
“How can we make accurate projections to manage an economic crisis when we still don’t know the scope of the current health care emergency.”
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
