On Tuesday, the Alabama Senate passed legislation that would authorize a supplemental appropriation to pay off the remaining balance the state owes to the Alabama Trust Fund, which was raided almost a decade ago by the Legislature to make up for what was then a significant shortfall in the State General Fund (SGF).
Senate Bill 1 (SB1) is sponsored by State Senator Greg Albritton. Albritton is the Chairman of the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee.
“This is not even one page,” Albritton said. “This is one paragraph, as we are paying off the Alabama Trust fund.”
Sen. Clyde Chambliss said, “I grew up in Prattville. My father taught me that you take care of your debts. You pay off your debts and try not to accumulate debts. Sometimes though, you need a helping hand, and we had that situation during the Great Recession.”
“This is part of the historical process to pay off that debt,” Albritton said. “Fortunately, we owe it to ourselves. Thanks to the people that went before us and set up the trust fund. Then we were $250 million in the hole and trying to find money.”
“I didn’t want us to gloss over and pass this without pointing out what we have achieved,” Chambliss said. “Frankly, there were ways we could have gotten around this and not pay this.”
Albritton said, “It was thought about.”
Sen. Rodger Smitherman said, “I am with you 100% for what you are trying to do with this bill.”
“We got all this money in the general fund,” said Smitherman. “We got plenty of money. It is about time for us to come up with 10 or 12 million to fund all of our needs for judges. We have got a real-life need for the state of Alabama.”
Smitherman said that the judges would pay for themselves by completing the backlog of cases and generating court costs and fines.
“We are going to make four times that off the court system if we have the judges in place to hear those cases,” Smitherman said. “I am with you 100% on paying the money back.”
“I look forward to all of us seriously addressing that to try to solve the needs problem that exists in all of our circuits,” Smitherman said. “I look forward to voting with you on this bill.”
The funds to pay off the debts will be paid with a supplemental appropriation from surplus funds from the 2022 fiscal year that ended on September 30.
SB1 passes the Senate by a vote of 33 to 0.
The Alabama House passed similar legislation earlier in the day.
House Bill 2 (HB2) is sponsored by State Representative Rex Reynolds, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means General Fund Committee. The bill appropriates $59,997,772 to pay off the remaining debt owed to the Alabama Trust Fund.
“This is a good bill. This body knew that this was the time to pay those bills,” Reynolds said.
The House passed HB2 104 to 0. Ninety-four members cosponsored the bill.
HB2 passed the House 103 to 0.
The Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee will meet at 9:00 a.m. to consider an appropriations bill, HB1, to appropriate $1,060,000,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The full State Senate will meet at 1:00 p.m.
The Legislature is currently in a special session called by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to deal with appropriating the ARPA funds.
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