Montgomery, AL – The Alabama Senate has passed a $1.8 billion General Fund budget that requires most agencies, except prisons and Medicaid, to get by on less money in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.
The budget cleared the Senate on a 27-4 vote Thursday and now goes to the House. It provides larger appropriations to prisons and Medicaid to make up for federal funds they lost and to allow them to maintain services.
The budget provides no raise for state workers and is based on them paying more for retirement and health insurance benefits. It wipes out more than $3 million in funding for museums, festivals, historic sites, and tourist attractions across the state. Budget Chairman Arthur Orr said the state can't afford the expenditures when state workers are being laid off.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)