March 17, 2005 - 15th Legislative Day

Lawmakers wrapped up the traditional three-day work week prior to a Spring Break recess with debate over the Governor's proposed spending plans that are once again dominating the agenda in Montgomery.

Representative John Knight’s Government Finance and Appropriations Committee substituted Riley’s proposed General Fund budget with a Democrat-backed version that recommended roughly the same funding levels, but tapped into differing revenue streams.  Included in Knight’s proposal were plans to shore up the General Fund by raiding $42 million from the Children First Trust Fund and redirecting $20 million in funding from a project to construct a deep container port at the Alabama State Docks.  After weeks of claiming it would be a “diversion” of earmarked education dollars, he also recommended that $15 million of the Governor’s recommended Educational Trust Fund funding for education-related programs in General Fund agencies be approved.

Another interesting fact to note was that Knight’s budget did not include any conditional funding for the state’s departments of Human Resources, Mental Health, Medicaid, Public Health, Corrections and others.  The conditional appropriations are an essential safety tool for agencies that cannot precisely predict how many patients, prisoners or citizens that will be required to serve in the coming fiscal year.  If the service numbers are higher than predicted, conditional appropriations allow additional money to be released to handle the overflow.  Without the conditional funding, essential services may come to a sudden halt.

After passing committee on a down-the-line party vote, the budget hit the floor, and that is when the real fireworks began.

Determined to highlight the fact that no hearings were held on Knight’s budget and precious little debate was allowed in committee, the House GOP caucus used Wednesday’s session to stage a filibuster of the $1.5 billion General Fund substitute on the floor.  Their plan was to delay action on the budgets until after the Spring Break recess concluded.

For several hours, Republican after Republican took the microphone to offer amendments, ask questions and point out the fiscally irresponsible nature of the budget’s funding mechanism.  At about 6 p.m., however, the Democrat leadership approved a cloture motion and shut down debate on the budget despite the fact that a required quorum of legislators was not present on the House floor at the time.  Republicans lined up to point out that the cloture motion violated House rules and questioned why their counterparts were afraid to hold a free, fair and open debate on the budget before taking a vote on final passage.

Despite their protests, the vote for final passage was called by the chair, and the General Fund budget passed by a 46 – 40 straight party line margin.
Once the session was gaveled to a close for the night, Gov. Riley’s communications office released a statement, which read:

"The Alabama House has formally adopted a General Fund budget that is nowhere near being balanced. The actions of a majority in the House today are unconscionable and irresponsible. A balanced budget submitted to the Legislature six weeks ago by Gov. Riley was never even allowed to come up for debate or discussion on the House floor, and House leaders denied the people's elected representatives the opportunity to offer amendments. This budget is a total fiasco, as is the process by which it was passed."

When Republicans returned to the State House on Thursday, they registered their unhappiness at the controversial cloture vote by having bills read at length and consistently voting against Budget Isolation Resolutions.  A BIR is a measure that must pass in order to consider any legislation before the state’s General Fund and Education Trust Fund budgets.

With a week-long break interrupting the session, Democrats are hoping that tempers will cool, but the minority is vowing to continue to slow progress in the House until a resolution to their grievances is found.

The General Fund budget now moves to the Senate where committee debate has already begun on an education spending plan.   Sen. Hank Sanders (D – Selma), chairman of the Finance & Taxation Education Committee, is now recommending that school personnel receive a 6% cost of living pay raise in the budget, and his House counterpart concurs, as well.  Their recommendation is 2% higher than the raise budgeted by the governor, and State Finance Director Jim Main said that level of COLA would put the ETF a great risk of proration in the next fiscal year.

Other Bills of Interest

A bill changing the fire sprinkler code has been introduced in the house.  There are no changes to what duties they can perform, but it does add that a master plumber can install and maintain the sprinkler systems in a new residential home being built.  The Alabama Board or Licensure for PEs/PLSs has developed an adhoc committee, chaired by Dr. Tom Talbot, to discuss the licensing requirements for individuals who design fire sprinkler systems.  The plan is to have a discussion amongst the PE's and then take the concerns to the State Fire Marshal and others.  It is the Board's position that the designing of the system is engineering and should be done by licensed PE's.  The sprinkler industry has a different opinion. ACEC is will participate in the discussion.

The House of Representatives voted 92 Yea 1 Nea (Alvin Holmes!) to pass the Good Samaritan Bill for the Construction Industry! (HB281).  The bill is now expected to go to the Senate for a vote - the Senate package has received a favorable first and second reading with amendments and is expected to come to a vote after Spring Break.   This bill provides legal protection for engineers and architects providing emergency assistance during a declared disaster, such as last year's hurricanes in southern Alabama.