AL Senate Finance & Taxation Committee Looking At Across The Board Budget Cuts

Last Wednesday, April 16th, Chairman Greg Albritton (R-22) pointed out some hard truths about the proposed State budget to the Alabama Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee.

“We’re spending up to the estimate levels,” Sen. Albritton said. He went on to say they had just under $72 million in requests for spending, with more to come. “When we get to the level, we’ve got three choices. One is to ignore the request—we can’t do that. Two, we have to reduce expenditures that we’ve been given. Or, three, we have to change the estimates of what we have coming in. Those are the options we’ve got.”

Albritton reminded the Committee that “we’ve done very well in our handling of budgets here in Alabama for a number of years, by taking appropriate steps of not spending ‘every stinking dime’ and trying to hold back some in case of a downturn or some other anomaly occurs.” He then asked the Committee to “take a look at where we are, take a look at what your requirements are, and let’s have an adult discussion about what we’re going to do.”

Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison (D-20) said, “It seems like the only fair way to do it…if we just maybe looked at across the board, to maybe start with 2%, 3% or 5%, and just look. That would not be a severe cut to a lot of agencies. It’s treating everybody fairly, and then we can see what that money would yield as far as trying to make sure we don’t spend it right down to the last penny.”

Albritton agreed this was a good idea, and needed to be discussed further. He pointed out that some reductions had already been made, and at this point in the legislative cycle, “dilly dally is not in our vocabulary.”

The Committee adjourned after agreeing to have the numbers run for several levels of across the board cuts, and to use these new numbers as a starting point for further discussions.

ALPolitics.com reached out to Sen. Albritton about the state of the budget process and the across the board cuts discussed at the meeting.

“We're on a fast track now with the events occurring in the legislature, with six days left and other time frames getting in the way. Unfortunately, for us, we didn't get the bill transmitted. They (the House) passed it, but we didn't get it into the Senate until Tuesday.” Albritton said.

With regards to the current budget meeting or exceeding revenue estimates and what many feel is an oncoming economic slowdown, Sen. Albritton didn’t mince words.

“My goal is to make sure that we stay within the boundaries that we have set, that we do not overspend,” Albritton said. “That’s gonna be a bit painful to several folks but there's no way around it. With the budgets that are showing some signs of a decline in revenue, we've got to prepare and make sure that we do not get ourselves in a tight. This is the year we’ve got to prepare for it, because next year is gonna be an election year. Everybody’s gonna want to spend every stinking dime then. I just gotta make sure we got some dimes to spend.”

Chairman Albritton and the other members of the Finance & Taxation Committee seem ready to make hard choices on the budget. These hard choices won’t be popular, but they are necessary to weather the economic downturn—if not full-blown recession—many see coming.

Alabamians have not had to endure proration for several years. If the right choices are made now, we can hopefully avoid it in the upcoming fiscal year.

The Senate Finance and Taxation Committee meeting from April 16th may be seen on YouTube on The Alabama Channel HERE.