Beginning in 2017, the Alabama Legislature passed record-setting education trust fund (ETF) budgets in non-inflation-adjusted dollars. According to an Alabama Policy Institute study published last year, ETF funding has soared by over 82% in the prior 10 years.
The state is spending more on education than it ever has.
However, lawmakers could face difficult choices in the coming year, given a push to extend an income tax exemption on overtime earnings, the ongoing effort to reduce the state's grocery tax and the perpetual demand for increased education spending.
Given that Republicans have a supermajority, would legislators look for ways to downsize government to fulfill tax relief expectations?
During an interview with Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show," State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine) argued that the Alabama Department of Education could be a starting point.
"The entire Department of Education," Elliott replied when asked about a place to cut government. "We spend about a quarter of the Education Trust Fund budget on the Foundation Program. We spend about half of it on K-12 education. And so, when you look at a quarter of that funding, just going to the Department of Education to administer different programs outside of the Foundation Program, which is the base funding for our K-12 education, it's shocking. I mean, that budget has increased by almost $3 billion since I got in the legislature six years ago. It's huge increases."
"And it continues to go up year over year. And that's one of the reasons I was such a proponent of the grocery tax cut as well. I mean, this budget will grow even with the grocery tax cut. This budget will grow even with the overtime tax cut. And so for these people that are talking about belt-tightening — no, we're just not going up to the next notch on our belt. Forget tightening, we're just not growing it at all, or we're growing it less. And so I think that's a healthy thing for government to do. And you ask, you know, a pointed question — how do you keep government from growing? And the answer is, you quit feeding it as much. This is not complicated, and it works every time."
Jeff Poor is the editor in chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email jeff.poor@1819News.com or follow him on X @jeff_poor.
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