Special session addresses state budget
By Alison James
alison.james@fct.wpengine.com
The state legislature entered its second special session yesterday, and there’s a lot on the line: the state has yet to agree upon a general fund budget for the quickly-approaching fiscal year.
As explained by Gov. Robert Bentley, the mission for the Alabama House and Senate is clear: “solve the budget crisis that exists in the General Fund Budget.”
“Over the last few months, I have met with House and Senate members to discuss options and ideas that would prevent devastating cuts to state services. I look forward to working with lawmakers over the next few weeks to bring about real change in the way we fund state government moving forward,” Bentley said in a release.
Potential cuts to foundational state agencies has sent ripples of fear throughout the state and caused a number of government services to create preliminary plans for how to handle the cuts, often with dire warnings to the public about how those cuts will impact the agencies’ ability to provide vital services.
One of those is the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which, following a recent move toward providing more online services – like online license renewal – announced the pending closure of all but four state driver’s license offices – including Russellville’s part-time office.
“If ALEA does not receive adequate funding and these closures take effect, they may inconvenience Alabama citizens who require DL services,” explained state trooper Johnathan Appling. “For example, new drivers who are testing for the first time will have to travel to a large city such as Huntsville or Birmingham to take the road test. I’m sure we all remember how nervous we were as 16-year-olds taking the driving test for the first time. Now imagine the increased stress of having to travel from such a small town as Russellville, where we have practiced driving, to a large urban area with lots of traffic, such a place as Birmingham for the test. I grew up in a rural area, and I had never driven in an area as busy as Birmingham or Huntsville at the time I obtained my license.”
The current ALEA plan includes three phases:
– Phase 1 – Close 33 field offices Oct. 1, 2015. Field offices are in rural areas and operate on a part-time basis where an examiner travels from a DL office to a field office a couple of days a week for limited hours. These offices represent 5 percent of all ALEA DL transactions each year and include Russellville’s office.
– Phase 2: On Jan. 1, 2016, District Offices will close, leaving 12 offices statewide. Average drive times to reach an open office for citizens will increase to more than an hour.
– Phase 3: On March 1, 2016, all operations would move to four offices, which would be located in Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile
“During the 2015 regular and first special sessions, the legislature proposed General Fund budget cuts ranging from 22-47 percent cut for ALEA’s fiscal year 2016 appropriation. If these cuts pass, ALEA will be operating at a skeleton level and only able to offer the most basic of citizen services,” Appling said. “Even then, those services will be inefficient. Cuts will affect every ALEA division, from highway patrol’s crash response and motorist assistance, to the State Bureau of Investigation’s major crimes and narcotics investigations to the Aviation Unit’s search and rescue operations.”
Of course, ALEA’s services are not the only ones potentially at stake.
City and county officials are also concerned about cuts to ADECA, through which considerable local grant funding is obtained. Russellville Mayor David Grissom said he had been in touch with ADECA director Jim Byard.
“There are a lot of things pending the state general fund budget,” Grissom said. “(The legislature) has got a lot of work to do … It’s basic economics. When your outgo exceeds your intake, your upkeep becomes your downfall.”
In a release, Byard put his concerns into words.
“ADECA is a vital state partner that empowers Alabama’s 462 municipalities and 67 counties to move forward on projects that boost local economies and improve the lives of residents. The combination of local leadership with state partnership is a time-tested way to tackle urgent community needs.
“In actual dollars, the budget cut proposed by the Legislature for ADECA is just over $5 million, about one-quarter of one percent of the nearly $2 billion general fund budget. But losing that small amount of money will have huge consequences for your community and many others across Alabama.”
Byard explained how that $5 million allows ADECA to secure hundreds of millions of federal dollars for local governments.
“Take the Community Development Block Grant, for example,” Byard said. “Last year ADECA provided $31.4 million in federal CDBG funds to communities across the state. These projects resulted in improved water and sewer services, construction of senior and community centers, new or improved parks and trails, safer roads and neighborhoods, new or expanded businesses and, most important, the creation of hundreds of new jobs.
“To obtain these funds for your community, ADECA must ensure the program is administered in accordance with all state and federal laws and regulations. We must establish a fair process for awarding grants, train grant recipients in legal compliance, provide monitoring and oversight and fully account for the funds. It will require $1.3 million to perform these administrative functions in the coming year. This is a tremendous return on investment: If we provide similar CDBG funding next year, local governments will receive $24 million in federal funds for every $1 million in state funds.”
Byard also shared some specifics on ways Franklin County has been served by ADECA.
“In the last couple of years, Franklin County received more than $880,000 in grants for community projects, including a sewer rehabilitation project in Red Bay, a sewer pump station improvement in Phil Campbell, computers for Phil Campbell and Franklin County high schools, a paint and coating system for the Franklin County Career Technical Center and a community safe room,” he said.
Of course, concerns stretch throughout the state across numerous programs, including Medicaid. But Sen. Larry Stutts said he feels the fears are largely unwarranted or exaggerated.
“A lot of the state agencies, if you talk about cutting the budget at all, the sky is falling,” Stutts said, adding, “let’s see how we can minimize the impact of any cuts” instead of overreacting.
Stutts said the overall problem of the budget is of structure, not revenue.
“I think there is plenty of revenue – I think we need to look at efficiency,” he said. He cited the state’s separate Education and General Fund budgets – Alabama is one of three states to operate this way – and the hefty percentage of earmarked funds – for which he said Alabama leads the nation – as the fundamental problems with the budget.
“We have so little flexibility in how we appropriate the budget because of that,” he said.
Stutts said incentivizing state agencies to use their budgets wisely could be one key to a more balanced budget.
“We need to spend responsibly,” said Stutts. He said ultimately he is confident the legislature will come to an agreement on the budget during this special session. “We’re going to try our best to work out a compromise … hopefully the governor will sign.”
Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow said the biggest issue with the budget is the tax loopholes enjoyed by large corporations.
“We have one of the most regressive tax structures in the nation,” Morrow said. “It’s not a party thing. This has been going on for decades. (Legislators) yield to the pressure of the lobbyists.”
Morrow said the tax revenue problems impact those who can least afford it – “Mr. and Mrs. Average Alabamian.”
“The debate is not whether we need money; it’s where we’ll get the money,” Morrow said. “All I can do is vote for what’s best for the people of House District 18. They don’t have a lobbyist, but they have me.”
Morrow said while some budgetary issues are a foregone conclusion, there is cause for concern if state agencies aren’t properly funded – federal intervention.
“State agencies … they never seem to have enough money,” Morrow said. “Do I think what they’re saying is true? Yes, I do think there will be some reduction in services.”
And that reduction could attract federal government attention, particularly if services like prisons and DHR are unacceptably underfunded.
“It’s a real possibility,” Morrow said.
