Alabama Struggles With Budget Cuts
State legislators and department heads are trying to figure out how to manage state government under the more than 10 percent budget cuts announced Friday by Gov. Robert Bentley for the reminder of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Some department heads said Monday they may be forced to cut or reduce some needed services – such as inspections to make sure the amount of gasoline purchased is accurately dispensed by a gas pump.
State Health Officer Don Williamson said his agency might have to reduce the number of patients being served by a program to provide medicine for AIDS patients. Williamson said he wants to continue the program, but might have to serve fewer patients under the budget cuts.
The budget cuts will mean his agency will receive about $6 million that was expected between now and Sept. 30, he said.
Williamson said he’s going to try to cut services gradually rather than cutting anything all at once. As an example, he said the state now inspects restaurants three times a year and that will probably be reduced to twice a year.
He said there will be less inspections in other areas, such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
“Anytime you inspect less frequently, you run the risk of abuse not being picked up,” Williamson said.
Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan plans to ask the State Personnel Board for permission to cut the number of hours each of his agency’s employees work. He said this would mean an across-the-board pay cut for his workers.
He said his plan would mean a seven and a half percent pay cut for each worker.
McMillan also plans to cut back on the number of inspections his workers perform without risking health concerns.
He said he also doesn’t want to risk private sector jobs, saying if the state cuts back on inspections in some poultry plant it would cause the company to layoff some workers. The Senate Finance and Taxation-General Fund Committee will take up a bill Tuesday that would appropriate about $45 million to the Department of Corrections so that prisons would not lose any workers or become less secure because of the budget cuts.
Asked if state agencies could survive the cuts without massive layoffs, Orr said: “It depends on how flexible and innovative we are in finding ways to provide services.”
The executive director of the Alabama State Employees Association, Mac McArthur, said he doesn’t see a way that some workers won’t lose their jobs with a 10 percent cut.
“It’s been said first you trim the fat then you trim muscle and then bone. I reckon now we are talking about amputation,” McArthur said.
Some legislators are looking at ways to raise a little extra cash. But many, particularly members of the Republican majority in the House and Senate, took pledges that there would be “no new taxes” when they ran for office.
Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, has sponsored a bill that would raise as much as $30 million by hiking the tax on cigarettes.
But being realistic, she said she doesn’t think the Republican majority in the House would vote for it because of the no new taxes pledge.
