Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector
The end of the COVID emergency will mean a 15% cut in the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) funding in the current fiscal year, due to declines in federal funding.
DHR estimates that its operating budget will fall by about $123 million over the 2023-24 fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30 of next year. The operating budget for the first quarter of the fiscal year will be about $812 million. By the last quarter, the department’s budget will fall to about $689 million.
Nancy Schlich, DHR’s chief financial officer, said that additional funding, which came from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, provided grants to improve childcare staffing shortages and childcare costs.
“We won’t have that funding this time of year,” said Schlich.
Divisions within DHR will be affected differently. Child support will see the second-largest funding reduction in the new fiscal year. Funding will decrease about 40%, from about $26 million in the first quarter to about $15.5 million in the last quarter.
State department administration will see the largest reduction, from about $27 million in the first quarter to about $14 million in the last quarter, a 49% decrease.
For the 2023-24 fiscal year, DHR requested $192 million from the state’s General Fund and $100 million from the Education Trust Fund. The department received $121.8 million from the General Fund and $80.9 million from the Education Trust Fund.
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