Stripped-down budget passes major hurdle in state Senate
The Senate budget panel passed a bare-bones budget on Wednesday, despite a grim picture painted by the heads of Alabama’s public health and safety agencies. At a public hearing held by the Senate Finance and Taxation Budget Committee on Wednesday, state officials described the deep cuts in services and personnel they would be forced to implement under House Bill 135. Despite those concerns, lawmakers gave the budget proposal a favorable report by a vote of 13-0, moving the stripped-down budget closer to reality. Jeff Dunn, commissioner of the Department of Corrections, said the budget would force his department to close two major facilities and gut the community corrections and supervisory re-entry programs. Dunn said that the closures would force 5,400 inmates back into the department’s custody, bringing the occupancy rate as high as 225 percent. “I think the environment you create in the system (with these budget cuts) is a heightened security risk that is untenable,” Dunn said. “If you include another 5,400 inmates, you put the men and women who serve daily in greater risk. Inmate-on-inmate violence will increase, inmate-on-staff violence will increase, and I think we’re setting ourselves up for an even worse situation than we currently have now.” Sen. Cam Ward expressed concern that the budget cuts would translate to “rolling out the red carpet” for a federal takeover of the state prison system. Alabama’s prisons are already the most overcrowded in the nation, a situation that forced the state to take on a massive prison reform initiative signed into law last week. Ward has said that those reforms would not be derailed under the proposed budget constraints. Alabama’s mental health commissioner added that a 5 percent cut in his agency’s budget — a loss of about $5 million — translates to a loss in case management and therapy services for about 100,000 people. “Several years ago, I could have absorbed 4 or 5 percent (cut), but now there’s no fat left to cut,” Commissioner Jim Reddoch said. “I can assure you that these people will end up among the ranks of the homeless and incarcerated. These are people whose whole life depends on receiving these services.” With unanimous approval from the Senate committee, Chairman Arthur Orr said HB 135 will move to the floor for a second reading on Thursday and a full vote next week. Orr added that, with this timing, he hopes to see bills to increase revenue materialize before the Senate votes on the budget proposal.
This week in the Alabama legislature: May 19-21
What happened in the Alabama legislature this week? Plenty. On Tuesday, the House passed a general fund budget to the Senate for approval. House Bill 135 assumes no new sources of revenue for the state and just $1.64 billion available to spend from the general fund, an 11 percent decrease from 2014. Gov. Robert Bentley has already vowed to veto the barebones budget, calling it “unworkable” and “irresponsible.” House lawmakers also passed funding bills for the Children First Trust Fund (House Bill 129) and the Coalition Against Domestic Violence (House Bill 134). Thursday was another a big day at the statehouse, as the House passed the $6 billion education budget on Thursday. Rep. Bill Poole, chair of the education committee said the goal of Senate Bill 179 was to shore up funding to classrooms. The budget includes a $13 million increase for textbooks and more than $10 million for the Alabama’s nationally-acclaimed Pre-K program. The Senate passed a bill that would make it legal to keep a loaded gun in an automobile without a concealed carry permit. Senate Bill 14 also says that simply carrying a firearm should not be considered “disorderly conduct.” Alabama’s two partisan presidential primaries will now be held on March 1, 2016 as part of an “SEC Primary” that includes Tennessee and Georgia. Senate Bill 240, sponsored by Sen. Quinton Ross, passed the Senate on Thursday. Ross had previously called the measure an “an economic stimulus bill” because of the expected increased attention Alabama will receive during the 2016 cycle. Finally, Gov. Bentley signed a comprehensive set of prison reforms into law. He called the legislation an “overhaul” more than a year in the making. Sen. Cam Ward brushed away concerns that the reform bill, estimated to cost around $26 million, would be crippled by the budget cuts in the House general fund budget. Here are a few more of the week’s highlights: Sen. Jabo Waggoner’s Alabama Dog Tethering and Outdoor Shelter Act passed out of the Senate Judiciary. Animal activists say that cruelty protections rarely get attention from legislators and, with the 2015 legislative session drawing to a close, Senate Bill 468 might be their last chance to pass legislation against animal cruelty this year. Sen. Del Marsh brought a bill to offer employment protections for the LGBT community before the Senate governmental affairs committee. Senate Bill 482 would ban state officials from discriminating against employees based on sexuality and gender expression, in addition to of race, ethnicity, or religion. The bill was carried over after lawmakers expressed concerns that stakeholders had no chance to offer input on the proposal. A public hearing has not yet been scheduled. The House financial services committee declined to vote on a 36 percent cap and tighter regulations of subprime loans that use cars and other assets as collateral. House Bill 400 would have required title lending companies to be licensed by the state and adhere to state-level restrictions on the charges, interest, and fees associated with title loans. The House Education Policy Committee voted to remove the Alabama State Board of Education from the process of choosing a charter school commission. Rep. Terri Collins said that she filed House Bill 664 because of concerns that the BOE would not have a new commission in place by the June 1 deadline.
House rejects substitute budget plan from Black Caucus
Alabama House of Representatives Black Caucus chairman Rep. John Knight offered a new budget plan Tuesday that’s backed by the caucus. During floor debate Tuesday on House Bill 135, Knight offered the plan to provide current-year level funding to what he called “the essential functions of government”: Medicaid, the department of corrections, public health, and law enforcement. “This budget plan is a compromise … that would allow us to fund all the entities we need to fund and establish a priority for funding those entities we have to fund as a Legislature,” Knight said. In order to reach current-year funding, Knight urged the members to consider passing Senate Bill 375 to unearmark agency funding and allow department heads greater flexibility within agency budgets. Rep. Steve Clouse, chairman of the Ways and Means General Fund, voiced concern over the agencies that would get no additional support under the substitute budget, including money to support fire departments, geological surveys, and the state oil and gas board. The House decided to table the substitute bill by a vote of 74 to 23.
