73 The Alabama Lawyer 217 (2012). LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP ".

• Author: Othni J. Lathram

Alabama Bar Journal

2012.

73 The Alabama Lawyer 217 (2012).

LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP "

LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP "Othni J. LathramAs of the date that this article is being written, the 2012 legislative session has completed its 8th legislative day. Much of the early work and discussion has been focused on the economy and its impact. While the recent economic indicators in Alabama have shown improvement, the outlook for the budgets next year is troubling at best. Furthermore, there continues to be a need to focus on legislation to create an environment to encourage investment in Alabama business and foster job creation. In these early days of the session, legislators have been hard at work on this task.

2013 Budgets

Due to legislation passed during in 2011, fiscal year ("FY") 2013 is the first in which the education budget will be based upon a rolling average of years past. The result is that the education budget will be fairly steady this year and in years to come. The governor's recently revealed proposal for the Education Trust Fund Budget is based upon a figure of $5,441,810,446 which is only down a modest three percent from the 2012 fiscal year. The fact that this budget is strong compared to the General Fund has caused a number of suggestions regarding how to reallocate the resources from each fund. While in reality it is unlikely that any of these suggestions will make it very far, it will be interesting to watch as the budgeting process plays out.

Likewise, the earmarked portions of the General Fund Budget for 2013 appear to be at a relatively steady level of $12,105,461,010. This figure is statistically even to FY 2012.

The major concern lurks in how to balance the remainder of the General Fund budget that is predicted to be nearly 20 percent lower than FY 2012. The figure used for the governor's 2013 budget proposal was $1,400,244,000 compared to total appropriations of $1,710,347,968 in FY 2012. A decrease this drastic is sure to require a number of tough choices, painful cuts and reductions in state services. This is particularly true given the ever-increasing percentage of the budget which must be dedicated to the Department of Corrections and Medicaid. To attempt to satisfy these issues, the governor's proposal included cuts to the legislative branch of approximately 35 percent and to the judicial branch of more...