On Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives passed the state general fund budget (SGF). As part of that package, the House passed legislation giving state employees a two percent across-the-board pay increase.
House Bill 154 (HB154) was sponsored by State Representative Napoleon Bracy Jr.
The legislation provides for a two percent cost of living wage increase for Alabama state employees.
Rep. Bracy said, “Given the increased cost of certain products and services due to the pandemic and inflation, I felt this was the right thing to do for our hard-working state employees and their families. In fact, after spending more than two decades below 3%, the consumer price index (CPI)—a key measure of U.S. inflation—nearly tripled from 2020 to 2021, rising from 1.4% to 7.0%. This will certainly help offset those increased costs for our dedicated state employees who serve the people of Alabama.”
This is the largest SGF budget in state history. The House version was $3,024,167,948 – over $15,000,000 more than Governor Kay Ivey requested and over $169 million more than the 2023 budget. The cost of the COLA to the budget is estimated at $14 million.
HB154 and all the budget bills had support from the whole body: Democrats and Republicans.
Rep. Rex Reynolds is the Chairman of the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee that prepares the SGF budget in the House of Representatives.
“I’ll tell you that the Speaker set up an environment for the budget to be successful, and that was a joint caucus briefing, and that really brought all the Democrats in to sit with the Republicans,” Reynolds said in a video statement. “I had a lot of dialogue about the budget, and it made a difference. You see that. And there was a lot, particularly with the new members, they had dialogue, starting all the way back in January.”
Rep. Nathaniel Ledbetter is the Speaker of the House.
“Chairman Reynolds did an excellent job, and the committee really worked hard to make sure that they put all the pieces together,” Ledbetter said. Reynolds, “Had a lot of conversations with a lot of members – and that is the way that it should be – and it is very transparent what he did. This is his first one – the first one he got out – and it was in record time with a unanimous vote.”
“We’re strong right now,” Reynolds said. “We have got extra monies, and we’re putting that money back into services and in direct grants to our communities. I call that accomplishment spending, and I think that played out in what you heard on the floor yesterday.”
The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), if approved by the Senate and signed by Governor Kay Ivey, will go into effect at the start of FY2024 fiscal year on October 1.
Alabama has an arcane budgeting system with most of the money earmarked and two budgets: the SGF and the education trust fund (ETF).
The bill, along with the rest of the budget package, has now been sent to the Alabama Senate for its consideration.
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