Alabama House approves $3B general fund budget

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Representatives voted to approve the state’s general fund budget, which will now head to the Senate for further debate. The record $3 billion proposed general fund will fund everything except education.

The general fund includes funding increases for most state agencies.

State Agency	FY2023	FY2024
Alabama Department of Corrections	$602,934,077	$661,732,404
Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs	$30,559,046	$33,416,197
Alabama Department of Environmental Management	$12,327,927	$24,482,935
Alabama Department of Public Health	$75,990,897	$111,772,076
Alabama Department of Human Resource	$107,408,581	$121,405,400
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency	$82,532,287	$112,112,287
Alabama Medicaid Agency	$793,531,700	$862,999,999
Alabama Department of Mental Health	$193,994,548	$204,991,459

Alabama’s Medicaid agency received one of the largest increases in the general fund.

If the budget passes in the Senate, the department would receive an additional $69 million, bringing the total to $900 million Lawmakers have earmarked some of that for the construction of new prisons.

“To convert that $40 million dollars if not used for correction salaries for future construction of our prisons. We know that’s going to continue to be a concern and we wanted to allocate that money early,” said Rep. Rex Reynolds, chair of the House general fund committee.

Representatives expect the Senate to make changes to the fund

“I think that open dialogue will continue, and if they make changes, I’m sure we’ll probably nonconcur and go into conference, but I feel confident we’ll work it out,” said Reynolds.

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels said the impact of the general fund varies.

“Because a lot of these things are directly related to member districts or their areas, their regions, and so you’ll have a lot of discussion around the winners and losers of that budget,” said Daniels.

This budget is $15 million more than what Gov. Kay Ivey recommended. It also is a 6% increase over the current budget of $2.86 billion.

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