By Associated Press
The Alabama House of Representatives passed the state General Fund budget Thursday, a plan that would spend $3.4 billion on non-education government services next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.
The budget calls for spending about $360 million more than the current fiscal year. The House passed it by a vote of 103-0.
The bill, SB67 by Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, returns to the Senate, which passed it earlier. The Senate could agree to the changes or send the bill to a conference committee.
Lawmakers return Tuesday and have three days left in the session.
Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, chairman of the House Ways and Means General Fund committee, said revenues that support the General Fund increased by 16% in fiscal year 2023 over the previous year. Strong areas of growth included the Simplified Sellers Use Tax, which is the state sales tax on online sales, ad valorem taxes, and interest on state accounts, Reynolds said.
The largest line item in the budget, the Alabama Medicaid Agency, would receive $955 million from the General Fund next year, a $92 million increase over this year. Reynolds said a main factor is a reduction in federal dollars for Medicaid because a period of enhanced federal matching funds during the COVID-19 pandemic has ended. Reynolds noted that 52% of Medicaid beneficiaries in Alabama are children.
The budget allocates $736 million to the Alabama Department of Corrections, a $75 million increase over this year.
The budget increases funding to the Department of Mental Health by $23 million, to a total of $235 million. Reynolds said the bulk of the increase is to support Alabama’s new crisis system of care. The state has opened crisis care centers in Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa and a sixth in Dothan will open soon. Reynolds said the annual operating cost for each center will be about $7 million.
Besides the General Fund budget for next year, the House approved a supplemental bill that allocates $254 million from the General Fund for this fiscal year. The biggest item is a $150 million appropriation for prison construction. Lawmakers are allocating funds to build a 4,000-bed men’s prison in Escambia County.
That prison will follow a 4,000-bed prison now under construction in Elmore County at a cost of about $1.1 billion. Funding is already allocated for the Elmore County prison, which includes special facilities for medical and mental health care.
The supplemental spending bill, SB66, also passed by a vote of 103-0 and returns to the Senate.
