Alabama operating budget passed by Senate may cost hundreds of state workers their jobs

MONTGOMERY -- Alabama state General Fund spending would rise by almost $180 million but supplemental federal stimulus dollars would fall by even more next year, under a state operating budget approved early this morning by the state Senate. It faces debate later today in the House of Representatives.
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, warned that hundreds of employees of Alabama's courts or non-education agencies could lose their jobs under the budget. Agencies, courts and other state offices outside public schools and colleges employed 37,638 people on Sept. 30.
Orr, who chairs the Senate's Finance and Taxation - General Fund Committee, called the budget ''the best we could do in a very difficult year.''
The Senate at 4:44 a.m. today voted 20-3 for the operating budget, which was proposed Tuesday night by a committee of three senators and three House members. The House and Senate weeks ago approved differing versions of the budget and the six-member committee proposed a compromise.
The Senate started meeting today at 12:01 a.m. For several hours, a machine read aloud the proposed budget before senators voted on it.
The compromise budget for the 2012 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, could win final legislative approval later today if the House passes it. If that happens, the budget would go to Gov. Robert Bentley for his review.
The Senate-passed operating budget would spend $1.77 billion from the state General Fund, an increase of $179.9 million, 11.3 percent, from this year.
But $235 million in federal stimulus money that supplemented General Fund spending this year won't be available next year, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office, a loss greater than next year's proposed increase in General Fund money. The General Fund is a major source of state money for many areas of state government outside education.
The proposed budget counts on a $263 million windfall from the Alabama Trust Fund to boost General Fund revenues next year. The windfall stems from a ruling by the attorney general's office that the trust fund board over several years miscalculated and under-funded past revenue transfers made from the trust fund to the General Fund. The Alabama Trust Fund, which has about $2.5 billion in assets, collects most of the royalties paid the state by companies that pump natural gas from offshore.
Orr said money will be tight in the operating budget next year but likely will be even tighter the following year without the $263 million windfall. ''We've got a problem now,'' Orr said. ''We're going to have a really big problem in 2013.''