Final day leaves budget, bills in danger

The Alabama Senate was in danger Monday night of ending its 2008 legislative session without approving a state education budget to operate schools in the fall.
The Senate was divided into two factions: one led by Senate budget committee Chairman Hank Sanders that wanted to hold the line on spending and another that wanted to add $25 million to the budget for universities.
The two sides debated at length Monday, the final day of the 2008 session, and showed no signs of compromising. About 6 p.m., Gov. Bob Riley arrived at the Statehouse and began conducting shuttle diplomacy between legislators, lobbyists and educators on both sides of the budget divide. Two hours later there was still no agreement.
Sanders, D-Selma, said senators aligned with universities were threatening to kill the education budget if they didn't succeed. But he said the budget is already in danger of going into the red and can't afford another $25 million appropriation.
``I say go ahead and kill the budget,'' Sanders told the Senate.
With the Senate tied up on the education budget, little else happened in the Legislature Monday afternoon. The House had not considered a Senate-passed bill to restrict smoking in many public places and workplaces, and the Senate had not taken up a House-passed proposal to remove the state sales tax on groceries.
The fight over the education budget pitted K-12 groups, including the Alabama Education Association, against universities. Many educators filled Statehouse hallways, encouraging legislators to pass a budget before the mandatory midnight adjournment and avoid a special session to reconsider the budget.
Sandra Givens, a bus driver for the Lawrence County school system in north Alabama for 28 years, said all non-tenured classroom and support workers will get pink slips if a budget isn't passed by the end of school this month. Many of them will find jobs elsewhere and won't be available for rehiring when the Legislature finally passes a budget, she said.
``We are not going to have enough employees when school starts in August,'' she said.
Democratic Sen. Ted Little of Auburn, who has two universities and three community colleges in his district, held out hope.
``All of us on this floor are dedicated to getting an education budget, and in my opinion that will happen tonight,'' he said.
The House voted overwhelmingly in April to approve a $6.3 billion budget for the new fiscal year starting Oct. It is $368 million less than this year's budget due to the economic slowdown. It cuts K-12 schools by 3 percent and universities by 11 percent.
Universities sought an extra $25 million to reduce their cut below 10 percent.
Sen. Jim Preuitt, D-Talladega, said Alabama universities can't afford to take a disproportionate cut because they are already having trouble retaining faculty and administrators.
``We are not able to pay them as much as other states,'' he said.
Sanders said universities can raise tuition and get money from their fundraising foundations.
Malcolm Portera, chancellor of the University of Alabama System, said Alabama colleges are at a disadvantage with neighboring states because Tennessee's cut is not as large Alabama's, Georgia is raising the appropriation for higher education, and Mississippi is maintaining the status quo.
Sanders was pushing an education budget that closely resembled the spending plan that the Republican governor recommended when the Democrat-controlled Legislature convened in February. It would cut most facets of education, including textbooks and school supplies, but it would provide money to expand four programs for children that the governor made priorities: pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds, the Alabama Reading Initiative, the Alabama Math and Science Initiative, and distance learning programs that allow students in one location to be taught by a teacher in another location.
Pending behind the budget on the Senate's work agenda Monday were House-passed bills giving a tax break to small businesses that supply health insurance to their employees, requiring 44 national corporations to pay more state income tax by closing a tax loophole, and making sure the state income tax is not levied on the federal economic stimulus checks being received by Alabama taxpayers.
The state's other budget, the General Fund budget for non-education agencies, was passed by the Legislature on May 8 and sent to the governor.
The $2 billion General Fund budget is up from $1.84 billion this year. The biggest portion of the increase, $150 million, goes to the state Medicaid Agency to maintain services for the poor.