Legislators give update to Homewood chamber

With back-to-back years of the highest-ever appropriated education trust fund, state Rep. David Faulkner said education remains the state of Alabama’s biggest priority.

Faulkner, speaking to the Homewood Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 21, along with state Sen. Jabo Waggoner, said the 2022 fiscal year’s education trust fund budget was approved at roughly $7.7 billion, with a general fund budget of roughly $2.48 billion, both all-time highs. 

While that’s a large amount of money, Faulkner said being fiscally responsible is important for Alabama legislators.

“We are good stewards of your tax dollars,” Faulkner said. “Alabama is a conservative state. People don’t like taxes here.”

The goal, Faulkner said, is to “try to find a way to meet needs” and pass the budget.

Highlights of this year’s education trust funds include a 2% raise for all education employees, a $30 million increase in pre-K funding, and increases in funding for transportation, technology coordinators, school nurses and more, Faulkner said.

Schools have also received federal funding to help offset the increased costs of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Faulkner said.

Waggoner said special sessions are expected to occur this fall, with the first possibly coming in late September and the other in October. The first session is expected to deal with the prison system issue, he said. Alabama has 14 state prisons, and all of them, Waggoner said, are “old, antiquated, inefficient and outdated.” The federal government has told the state to improve prison conditions or face federal intervention, Waggoner said.

“The state has provided very little healthcare to our inmates, very little mental health, very little addiction treatment,” Waggoner said. “We have some work to do. … We don’t have a choice.”

In the special session, Waggoner said the issue is expected to be dealt with by voting on the creation of two new, 4,000-inmate prisons, one in Elmore County and the other in Escambia County.

Waggoner said there appears to be an understanding among leadership in both chambers of the state legislature to fund the prisons with a $785 million bond issue, with $400 million coming from federal COVID-19 assistance money and $150 million coming from the general fund, and the rest paid back over time.

“They know how serious this is,” Waggoner said. “If we don’t do it, the federal courts will do it.”

In October, Waggoner said the legislature will likely be called back to deal with redrawing state districts after the state received 2020 census data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Our districts will have to be changed to accommodate the change in population,” Waggoner said. 

With next year being an election year, Waggoner said there likely won’t be any “big” or “controversial” bills debated in Montgomery. Both Waggoner and Faulkner are planning to run again. Faulkner, 53, has been in office since 2014, while Waggoner, 84, the state’s longest-serving legislator, has served in the state senate since 1990, following a career in the state house from 1966 to 1983.

Faulkner highlighted several bills, including the legalizing of the delivery of alcohol to homes, a bill spearheaded in the senate by Waggoner. Faulkner also highlighted the medical cannabis bill, which was highly debated, and included several amendments, including some placed by Faulkner. One of those amendments, he said, mandates that dispensaries must have the approval of both the city and the county before selling medical marijuana products.

Speaking on the issue of a state lottery, Waggoner said it likely won’t come before the legislature next year due to the election, but he expects it to come up again one day.