TMCnet News
Legislature to begin hammering out budget(The Decatur Daily (AL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 10--MONTGOMERY -- The real story about how the state will spend its money next fiscal year is about to be written. Gov. Bob Riley laid out his priorities in his State of the State address to the Legislature on Wednesday night. Call Riley's budget goals are a budget introduction. Chapter 1 of "How to Build a Budget" begins this week when budget-writing committees in the Legislature start work. "Budgeting is perhaps the most political aspect of the legislative process," said University of Alabama Political Science Professor Emeritus Bill Stewart. "The governor can propose what he wants. The Democratic majority in the Legislature may not agree." Haggling That is where the haggling over who has the real power begins, Stewart said. "If I were an academic consultant advising the Legislature, I would look to weed out those programs that do not produce," Stewart added. "But we already know that the state earmarks over 90 percent of our budgets," he said. Riley's key advisers assembled a budget that anticipates more state revenue for 2009 than do the budget builders who advise the Legislature. Neither experts believes the economy will be as strong as in recent years. Little or no surplus revenue will be available to help absorb the cost of raises, inflation and new programs. Finance Director Jim Main's office puts together the governor's budgets. Main estimates the state will need to cut about $290 million in General Fund and education expenses. Legislative Fiscal Office Director Joyce Bigbee said revenue reduction could be as much as $800 million. Bigbee's office helps the Legislature develop the budgets. Riley said he wants to cut income taxes and give tax breaks for small businesses offering health insurance to employees, both now sources of revenue for the state budgets. He also wants to expand education programs. To expand them, the governor wants to freeze or trim existing programs in other areas. At the Statehouse, the legislative budget leaders want income tax cuts for poorer families. They wonder if the state can afford some of the governor's proposals. House General Fund Budget Committee Chairman John Knight said Riley's revenue projections from investments and the proposed cuts to existing programs cause concern. "I think we really have to ask ourselves some serious questions," Knight said. "Do we really want to cut Medicaid funding? "Can we afford to divert $18 million from transportation when we already do not have enough to do road projects? "Do we really want to cut children we are already serving off of the Children's Health Insurance Program?" Even level funding would mean serving fewer children because of rising costs, Knight said. Economy Main said the economy will fare better than most economists predict, partly because of major new industries and related growth. Main also said the governor wants the Legislature to rewrite a law to bring in another $40 million from taxes on companies doing offshore gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The governor's budget reflects his priorities. In addition to $20 million in expanded pre-kindergarten, Riley wants increases in public school distance learning and training programs to help teachers learn new ways to teach math, science and reading. He wants tax incentives for small businesses that offer employee health insurance and expanded income-tax exemptions and income-tax cuts that exempt the first $15,000 of income for a family of four. To pay for the priorities, Riley's budget would drop funding for state universities by $186 million to $1.2 billion. Funding for two-year colleges would drop by $43 million to about $385 million. Other K-12 programs would drop $107 million to about $4 billion. The Departments of Transportation, Public Safety, Public Health and others would see cuts as well. Area legislators who serve on the budget committees said they will know more about the impact of the governors' proposals when budget hearings begin this week. Reps. Ronald Grantland, D-Hartselle, and Jody Letson, D-Hillsboro, are members of the House General Fund Budget Committee. Rep. Jeremy Oden, R-Eva, is a member of the House Education Budget Committee. Letson said many people do not know that the Legislature has constitutional responsibility for budgets. The initial steps begin with these two committees, he said. That means finding the revenue to pay for the programs has to be part of the process, he said. Process Grantland said he does not expect the process to be easy. While he wants tax cuts if there is enough money, he doubts there will be. He's against cutting existing services to fund new ones. Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, chairs the Senate General Fund Budget Committee and Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, is a committee member. Bedford said he thinks Riley's revenue estimates are overly optimistic. Orr is more hopeful. He said the main work of building budgets goes on in the House budget committees. "The chairs of the committees in both chambers do a good job of communicating our concerns," Orr said. "That says something about the way they work very closely together in the process." To see more of The Decatur Daily, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.decaturdaily.com Copyright (c) 2008, The Decatur Daily, Ala. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |