Goat Hill Report- Week ending April 4, 2025

This week the Alabama legislature returned from its second break of the 2025 session. The legislature was in session for a two-day week, convening on the House and Senate floor on Tuesday and Thursday with committee meetings primarily on Wednesday. The legislature is now scheduled to complete the remaining half of the session – they have completed 18 days out of the (maximum) 30-day session. The session is expected to wrap up in mid-May. Details of this week’s notable action and news items are provided below.

General Fund Budget
On Thursday, the Alabama House overwhelmingly approved a $3.7 billion General Fund budget for Fiscal Year 2026, which included an additional $6.8 million for law enforcement and $7.5 million for airport development. Under Alabama’s two budget system, the General Fund supports all non-education functions of state government (education appropriations are covered in the larger Education Trust Fund). The 2026 General Fund budget is a $341.7 million increase over this year’s budget, and an increase over Governor Kay Ivey’s proposed budget by about $6.3 million. While still a record high for the state, House General Fund Budget Chairman Rex Reynolds (R-Hazel Green), nonetheless described the budget as fiscally conservative. Reynolds credited the record-high budget to previous years of conservative budgeting.

Nearly all state agencies saw either identical or increased funding when compared to the previous year’s budget, except for Medicaid and the Mental Health Department – which received cuts of $5 million and $3.7 million respectively. Reynolds noted those cuts were only made due to surplus funding enjoyed by those agencies, and that both would receive additional funding over the next two years equal to the amount cut. As for increases, the most substantial include $6.8 million more for law enforcement (a $2.4 million increase over Ivey’s recommendation), with $2.5 earmarked for Capitol Police at the State Capitol complex in Montgomery, and an $3 million for the Alabama Metro Area Crime Suppression Unit. The MACS Unit is a coalition of federal, state and local law enforcement officers tasked with reducing crime in the greater Montgomery area. In addition, a conditional appropriation of $37.5 million was also included for construction on the new State House, which continues to emerge directly behind the existing State House.

Although the GF budget was approved by a 95-3 vote, it was the subject of controversy the day before after the House Ways & Means General Fund Committee approved the budget and its specific details became known. Senator Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham), complained to several media outlets that the $3.7 billion budget included cuts to several initiatives largely in Birmingham, including the annual Magic City Classic football game between HBCUs Alabama State and Alabama A&M, and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, among other items. Reynolds stated on the House floor on Thursday that he had met with Sen. Smitherman and Senate General Fund Budget Chairman Greg Albritton (R-Range), and had reached an agreement that the cuts would be reinstated in the Senate.

ALFA Health Care Plan Grabs Attention
The House Health Committee held a public hearing Wednesday on a bill that would allow the state’s dominant agricultural organization to offer health benefit plans to its members. HB477, sponsored by Rep. David Faulkner (R-Mountain Brook), was the subject of intense debate lasting nearly an hour, with supporters claiming farmers needed more health care options while opponents warned about the proposed legislation’s lack of consumer protections. The bill would create an unregulated health plan exclusively for members of the Alabama Farmers Federation (ALFA). ALFA, a powerful lobbying force in the state and particularly among conservative lawmakers, claims the health plan will offer a lifeline for struggling farmers and businesses. Opponents of the legislation have said the health plans will cherry pick healthy people but won’t have the same coverage requirements that traditional insurance providers have to follow under state and federal law. ALFA officials have said they won’t drop coverage for someone if they get sick and that commitment will be in customers’ contracts. But the bill doesn’t guarantee that, and several committee members encouraged the bill sponsor to add those assurances to his legislation. As is custom, there was no committee vote after the public hearing, but the bill could face a committee vote as early as next week.

Gambling Declared Dead for 2025 Session
In recent weeks, Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Range) has floated the possibility of introducing a comprehensive gaming proposal in the current legislative session. Albritton has long advocated for a “capture and control” approach to gaming, by which existing illegal operations would be targeted and a well-regulated industry framework (to include casino sites, sports betting and a lottery) could take shape. A similar plan was introduced and extensively debated by the Legislature last year but failed on a very narrow vote. After that failure, House leadership – anchored by Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) – has been emphatic that any activity on gaming this year would have been generated by the Senate. Albritton, who also chairs the influential Senate Finance & Taxation General Fund Committee, has acknowledged that even a slimmed down version of last year’s proposal was an uphill climb – particularly given that almost two-thirds of available session days have been used. As of Thursday morning, he was still in the process of counting votes prior to introducing the plan. In the Senate, 21 of 35 members are needed to pass a constitutional amendment, which then bypasses the Governor’s desk and goes to a statewide vote of the people in Alabama. In a sharp turn of events, Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman) released a strong statement late Thursday which effectively ended all discussion on the Albritton plan. Gudger stated: “With 12 meeting days remaining in the session, both budgets still awaiting approval, and other important bills and measures demanding focus and attention, the comprehensive gaming bill released today is simply too little, too late, and has too few votes to pass…. I believe that passing a comprehensive gaming bill in the Senate will require engaging in long-term and intense negotiations among members and securing the needed votes and commitments well before a legislative session even begins.” With the 2026 election cycle looming, the question becomes how long it will be until gaming resurfaces as a topic in the Legislature. Governor Kay Ivey, who has previously supported the comprehensive approach, is term limited and could be succeeded by a Republican who is not supportive on this issue. For now, gaming interests will go back to the drawing board as this now decades-long political debate continues.

Bills of Interest to the Concrete Industry
It is anticipated that legislation related to Alternative Design Methods (ADM) will drop this week. Alabama is one of the last states that does not offer the method to build publicly funded projects. The association’s interest in the bill is ensuring the legislation does not limit concrete producers ability to file liens as well as requirements for payment bonds should the producer have to pursue payment. Earlier drafts of the legislation would have impacted the state’s little miller laws and included a payment bond requirement of not less than 50% of the value of the contract for design bid build projects. We hope this number will be changed to 100% in the legislation.

The legislature will reconvene on April 8, 2025.