After General Fund Conference Committees convened to settle differences between the House and Senate, the Alabama Legislature passed a $3 billion General Fund budget and supplemental funding late into Friday morning.
The approved budgetary funding will now move to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk to be signed.
The Senate passed both bills on a 28-3 vote for the General Fund and 27-3 vote for the supplemental funding.
In the House both the general and supplemental passed on a unanimous 103-0 vote.
Due to the importance of the General Fund, conference committees convened early Thursday afternoon to manage and satisfy all parties. During this process there were several delays and calls for recess in both chambers because of the disagreements between legislators and lobbyists.
Ultimately, substitute bills were agreed upon for the budget, although it differed from the prior Senate version which passed a committee earlier Thursday.
The final substitute bill included several important provisions:
- A two percent pay raise for state employees going into effect on Oct.1
- $114,375,287 for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
- $862,999,999 for the Medicaid Agency
- $661,732,404 for the Department of Corrections
- $211,441,459 for the Department of Mental Health
The Medicaid Agency and Department of Corrections saw the biggest increase in funding this year from last year. The Medicaid Agency received $69.5 million more this year and the Department of Corrections received $58.8 million more.
Greg Albritton, the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Chair, R-Atmore, said on the Senate floor Thursday that they had been “blessed” with the largest budgets they’ve ever had.
The budget was approximately $159 million more than the previous year. The total amount for this year’s fund were $3,013,650,381.
