MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Senate General Fund Budget Committee passed a series of bills allocating $3.72 billion in fiscal year 2027 from the State’s General Fund for executive, judicial and legislative expenditures.
The budget includes a 2% pay raise for State employees
Some funding to the Department of Corrections and Mental Health is contingent on responses to legislators about certain programs.
The budget approved by the committee requires the Department of Corrections to file a report with the chairs of the House Ways and Means-General Fund Committee and the Senate Finance and Taxation-General Fund Committee and the legislative fiscal officer prior to the first day of the 2027 regular session regarding expenditures for mental health and healthcare services for inmates in fiscal year 2026, including a detailed explanation of cost increases.
The budget also makes $40 million of the $981 million appropriated to the Department of Corrections contingent on the new Elmore County facility being at least 90% complete and the utility infrastructure at the Escambia County facility being complete.
“We’ve got three or four different things where we are requiring certain items which are not overbearing we don’t think but are items that are of concern that the agencies have to show that they’ve done this or gotten to a particular point before they get all of their money,” State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Range), Senate General Fund Budget Committee chairman, told reporters on Tuesday. “They’ll have more than a year to get to those items that are stipulated, there’s plenty of opportunities to get to the point where they need to be to get all the funds. The only way you can control government is through the use of money, and that’s what we’re intending to do to make sure that all the government remains accountable to the taxpayers.”
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