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Governor responds to Legislature overriding General Fund veto, State runoff elections next week

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is not happy the state legislature voted to override his veto on the General Fund Budget.  Lawmakers yesterday voted to enact the $1.8 billion general fund budget which will go in to effect on Oct. 1.  Bentley spoke to the media today along with Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar.  Bentley had sought an additional $100 million for Medicaid. The Legislature only increased the funding for Medicaid by $15 million.

 Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh says lawmakers were not going to raises taxes or cut education spending to provide more money to Medicaid.

The governor did not rule out a special session on Medicaid entirely, but said he would make a decision soon.

Runoff elections will take place in counties all over the state next Tuesday.

Secretary of State John Merrill released information for voters with the elections being held in 41 of Alabama’s 67 counties.

Merrill says these elections had to move into the runoff periods starting in April since a number of races didn’t result in clear winners back in March,.

“We think that each community needs to do a good job of promoting the races that are on their ballet so that the voters in their area will be informed and realize there is a runoff that is occurring and with that runoff occurring, it will make a significant difference on who the people are that are elected.”

In the counties with runoff elections, the elections may not be county wide and could be located in only a specific district in the county.

Today is the deadline for teams to sign up for an event to clean up the Elk River. The Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful are hosting a team competition to remove pollution and debris from the river. Prizes range from $100 - $250 and are split among the team members.

Lynne Hart is the executive coordinator of Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful. She says you do not have to live on the river to pollute the river.

“Wind, and rain, and animals and traffic will move that litter which eventually make it to the river, and cleaning up the river and making people aware of how their actions can affect our water is helping the entire state and, actually, the globe.”

Thousands of trash and debris was pulled from the Elk River last year during the Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful cleanup.  The cleanup is April 9th from 8 a.m. – noon. For more information, contact Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful.

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