House passes education budget, General Fund goes to Ivey
MONTGOMERY — Alabama lawmakers continued their budget-focused, abbreviated session Thursday, sending the General Fund budget to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk and getting one step closer to final passage of the education budget.
The House approved the $7.2 billion Education Trust Fund, which is a $91 million increase from the 2020 fiscal year budget, but about $300 million less than the pre-pandemic proposed budget. The education budget and other education funding bills now go to the Senate, where they will be in committee today and could get final passage Saturday.
House education committee budget chairman Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, said conservative appropriations in the past and a reserve fund kept major cuts out of the 2021 budget, despite declines in revenue following the coronavirus pandemic.
“While we’re having a period … some reduced receipts, they’re not eating into our appropriations at this time,” Poole told reporters. “And we’re not projecting that forward at this time.”
All state agencies and education departments took a cut from what was proposed in Ivey’s proposed budgets before the coronavirus outbreak hit state tax revenues, but budget writers said that proration would not be necessary for the current year’s budget.
The final vote on the passage of the Education Trust Fund was 76-1, with the only no vote coming from Rep. Andrew Sorrell, R-Muscle Shoals. He also voted against other education-funding bills Thursday.
Sorrell said that given the concerns regarding the coronavirus and the economy, the state should not be spending additional money.
The House also gave final passage to a $1.25 billion bond issue to fund capital improvement projects at K-12 schools and colleges and universities. That legislation now goes to Ivey for her signature.
In the House version of the education budget, the state’s First Class Pre-K program receives an increase of only $3.4 million, compared to the governor’s pre-pandemic proposed $25 million increase.
The Alabama Literacy Act will receive $18.5 million to fulfill necessary summer school and professional development requirements under the 2019 law that allows students to be held back in the third grade if they’re not reading on grade level.
Six million is being allocated to “school safety security and climate,” fund which includes about $4.9 million in helping support and fund school-based mental health service coordinators. Poole said on Thursday that this would not be enough to provide a fully-funded coordinator for every school district but was meant to help support current operations.
The teacher retirement system and health insurance program will also continue to be fully funded, Poole said.
A supplemental bill was also passed that allocates $245 million out of the state’s Advancement and Technology fund to all K-12 schools and higher education institutions. That money can be used immediately by schools for safety, technology, transportation and deferred maintenance costs.
There is a total of $520 million in the Advancement and Technology Fund, but lawmakers, citing a coronavirus-caused dip in tax revenue, are holding back half of it should it be needed elsewhere later. Lawmakers are also using $15 million for the first year’s payment on that $1.25 billion bond issue.
House passage of the $2.3 billion General Fund budget was not as smooth of a process as the Education Trust Fund, but it was eventually approved once an amendment to federal coronavirus relief funding allocations were made. The General Fund pays for non-education state agencies and services.
The final House vote was 74-1, with the only nay vote again coming from Sorrell.
The Senate later concurred with the House changes with a final vote of 30-0. The budget now goes to Ivey for her signature or veto.
An amendment was added to the final bill that allows the governor to spend $200 million of federal coronavirus relief funding immediately, but any other spending has to be approved by the Legislature. Lawmakers also increased supplemental appropriations for district attorneys’ offices, going from $4 million to now receiving $5 million.
The General Fund saw an overall increase of $167.3 million from the 2020 fiscal year budget. The biggest expenses in the General Fund budget are for Medicaid at $820 million; the Alabama Department of Corrections, Corrections at $544 million; the Alabama Department of Public Health at $106 million; and the Alabama Department of Mental Health at $154 million.
