House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen (R-Hartselle) recently teased a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would incentivize state agencies to save money by granting a department-wide bonus made up of a percentage of the department’s surplus at the end of a fiscal year.
Since President-elect Donald Trump won the seat in November, cutting government spending has been the order of the day.
Swiftly after his victory, Trump announced the formation of a new advisory commission headed by X founder and Trump surrogate Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) analyzes federal government spending and proposes cuts to inefficient or wasteful programs.
The move launched a wave of support from state and federal lawmakers nationwide, who swiftly began flirting with their own versions of DOGE.
On a Tuesday appearance on Talk 99.5’s "Dixon and Vining," Stadthagen touted a bill for the upcoming legislative session to incentivize state departments to cut wasteful spending.
“The proposed legislation’s going to be kind of trimming off the fat of excess spending in our state government,” Stadthagen said. “So, any departments that receive General Fund funds can choose to buy into this legislation, or they can choose not to. The goal is for them to, instead of having Black Friday at the end of our fiscal year, for them to try to save as much money as they possibly can. Say if they save $1 million, 10% of that goes back to that department as bonuses, and they’re equally dispersed out. It doesn’t matter if you’re the head or the janitor; all of you will receive the same bonus. It’s an incentive to… we’re all businessmen, and this is an incentive for state employees to make sure, ‘Hey. I might not need to buy a couple extra pieces of computers or whatever;’ to keep that budget, and they’re not penalized if they save.”
“It’s a tricky bill because of all the different programs. And we’ve been combing through it, and I feel really good about it. And I think that’s the direction we need to go as a state is figuring out how we can trim down the fat on this excess tax spending, even in the future," he added.
Alabama lawmakers are reportedly in favor of the bill, according to Stadthagen, who said his Republican colleagues “love it.”
“All of us are Republicans; all of us are for smaller government,” Stadthagen said. “The ones that I’ve talked to are really excited about it. We just need to make sure that we do it properly, and it’s a good step in the right direction. But, so far, I haven’t had any negative feedback on it.”
Stadthagen said a complicated aspect of the legislation was figuring out how to incentivize fiscal responsibility without tempting departments to cut significant corners detrimentally to increase bonus size.
“That was actually the challenge of the bill: to make sure people don’t take advantage of it in that way,” he explained. “They still have to perform the duties of their office, and that was the tricky part. Everybody in Montgomery that deals with money has looked at it. Everybody’s kind of gave me their stamp of approval, but that was the tricky part of the bill, is to make sure that people are still fulfilling their duties that they’re supposed to for the state, but we could all save money in every job that we do if you’re just paying attention…”
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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