Sept. 18 referendum election two weeks away - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

Not all Republicans in Alabama's State Legislature are on board with the plan to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars over the next three years to balance the state's General Fund budget which funds all non-education agencies. The election is only two weeks away.

"That referendum gets us off the hook for three years" said Sen. Dick Brewbaker (R – Montgomery).

Brewbaker voted against letting the voters decide on the measure during the Regular Legislative Session that ended in May. Brewbaker said "We don't have any idea who in three years is going to be sitting in the legislature or in the governor's office. The people elected us who are there are now to do this and we need to do it."

Governor Robert Bentley has been pushing for the proposed constitutional amendment's passage for month. He has said that if voters don't approve it then potentially thousands of prisoners could be released from the state's prisons and the some people could lose health benefits due to drastic cuts to Medicaid.

If voters approve the proposed constitutional amendment then lawmakers and the governor would be authorized to tap the Alabama Trust Fund which collects royalties from oil and gas companies who drill off of Alabama's Gulf Coast. The withdrawal would be limited to no more than $437 million dollars over three years which would lead to three installments of one-time-money for the General Fund of about $145 million each year.

"It's absolutely being used for its purpose" said Rep. Alvin Holmes (D – Montgomery) who served on the legislative committee that established the Alabama Trust Fund in the 1970's.

"The money was to be used as a state savings account when you need it" Holmes said.

He warns that voting against the referendum could put the entire Medicaid Agency of shutting down.

Holmes agrees with the governor and other Republican leaders who have said the fund is a source of money to be used in emergency situations and the 2013 fiscal year is an emergency.

Brewbaker disagrees with that assessment.

"Raiding the corpus of the state's biggest trust fund is not balancing the budget" Brewbaker said. "It's wrong-headed and it's just a way of avoiding our responsibilities as elected officials."

If the referendum doesn't pass, Gov. Bentley has threatened to declare another year of proration for the General Fund. The mandatory budget cuts could be as high as 20% for the next fiscal year.

Brewbaker favors the governor calling a Special Session to solve the state's problems. "The legislature needs to come back and fund the basic functions of state government."

The fiscal year begins Oct. 1 which would give Gov. Bentley only days to make a decision on either proration or a Special Session if the proposal fails.

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