Alabama state budget (2012-2013)

Note: This article was last updated in 2013. Click here for more recent information on state budgets and finances.

Alabama state budget

Alabama state budget and finances • Historical Alabama budget and finance information

Historical state budgets by the year Alabama state budget (2008-2009) • Alabama state budget (2009-2010) • Alabama state budget (2010-2011) • Alabama state budget (2011-2012) • Alabama state budget (2012-2013)

The 2013 fiscal year in Alabama began on October 1, 2012. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) signed both the 2013 fiscal year education and operating budgets into law on May 24, 2012. The operating budget was expected to spend 3.8% less from the general fund compared to the 2012 operating budget.

The state general fund for fiscal year 2012 spent $1,769,103,104, which was an increase of 11.4% over fiscal year 2011.

As of August 2012, Alabama had a total state debt of $60,573,949,000 when calculated by adding the total of outstanding official debt, pension, and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) liabilities, Unemployment Trust Fund loans, and the fiscal year 2013 budget gap. That was up from the 2011 debt of $60,412,502,000.

As of October 2012, Alabama's total state debt per capita was $12,612.37.

Alabama's fiscal year begins in October and ends in September of the following year. In Alabama's budget, 84% of tax revenue is set aside by the state constitution or state law for specific purposes, which is the highest percentage of any state budget in the nation.

Alabama's 2013 education budget

The education budget for fiscal year 2013 can be found here (dead link). It allocated the Education Trust Fund and also appropriated $7.77 billion in federal grants, other state taxes and other funds. The education budget spent $5.4 billion, a reduction of $208 million, or 3.7 percent, from fiscal year 2012. Spending for public schools and universities was reduced by $208 million, but the plan did not include teacher layoffs and it did not increase class sizes. The spending reduction came in part from the legislature shifting $67 million of the state's use tax collections from the state education budget to the General Fund budget.

The Education Trust Fund collected $4.51 billion from October through July, the first 10 months of the state’s fiscal year, an increase of $250.7 million, 5.9 percent, over the same time in fiscal year 2012.

General Fund budget

The General Fund budget as enacted can be found here (dead link).

The operating budget spent $1.67 billion from the General Fund, $66.7 million, 3.8 percent, less than the state spent in fiscal year 2012. The$1.67 billion in General Fund spending was dependent upon the General Fund getting $145.8 million from the Alabama Trust Fund, a giant state savings account, which required voters to agree to rewrite the state constitution in a referendum scheduled for September 18, 2012. Besides the General Fund, the operating budget for fiscal year 2013 also appropriated $12.1 billion in federal grants, other state taxes and other funds.

Category	FY2013 spending	Difference from FY2012 spending	Percent change from FY2012
Medicaid	$603.1 million	+$27.7 million	+4.8%
Corrections	$365.5 million	- $16.1 million	- 4.2%

Legislative proposed budget

The General Assembly passed the General Fund state budget at 11:45 p.m. on May 16, 2012, with 15 minutes left in the regular session. The Senate’s very brief debate period allowed only two senators to speak on the legislation, and House members were critical of the lack of time to ask questions. The fiscal year 2013 state budget spent $66.7 million less than the state spent in fiscal year 2012.

Highlights of the budget included:

• Medicaid received $603 million;
• The Department of Corrections received $365 million, $16 million less than the prior year;

The legislature began holding budget hearings when it returned to session starting February 7, 2012.

The House passed a budget on April 10, 2012 by a vote of 56-47. It reduced general fund spending by $345 million, 19.9 percent, from fiscal year 2012. General Fund spending in fiscal year 2013 under the House budget would have been $1.39 billion.

Under the House budget, agencies cuts included:

• 32 percent from the Department of Public Health
• 24 percent from the Department of Human Resource,
• 30.5 percent from Medicaid, reducing funding by $175.4 million
• No funding for the Attorney General's office because it was expecting mortgage settlement funds

Governor's proposed budget

The governor's proposed fiscal year 2013 state budget diverted funds from the Education Trust Fund, the main source of state tax dollars for public schools and colleges, to the $1.4 billion General Fund, which supports Medicaid, prisons, courts, and the like. He also proposed shifting $185 million in Medicaid costs for children from the General Fund budget to the state education budget.

Gov. Bentley's proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 included many cuts:

Area	% cut
Prisons	1
Courts	24
Public Safety Department	4
Agriculture	10
Mental Health	10
Health Department	24
Attorney General's Office	24

In October 2011, Gov. Robert Bentley said of the fiscal year 2013 budget, "[O]ur education budget is going to be OK," but a new law intended to promote fiscal responsibility would have required lawmakers to spend $108 million less on education in 2013 than was available in fiscal year 2012. The law used a 15-year rolling average to cap how much lawmakers could spend on education.

The governor also said that he hoped for a constitutional amendment that would combine the state's two budgets, one for education and a separate General Fund budget for non-education programs including Medicaid, prisons and state troopers, into one comprehensive budget. He proposed that tax revenue from state income tax and state sales tax that is set aside for education by state law should be made available for other uses.