Budget cuts could devastate Alabama’s already-strapped environmental agency

[eppur_se_muova]

I heard on APR this morning that the state's environmental agency was having its budget cut by 75%. APR is not very good about posting exact transcripts, so I had to hunt around for related links.

Alabama Legislature's 2015 Winners and Losers
By Kyle Whitmire | [e-mail]
on September 17, 2015 at 1:52 PM, updated September 17, 2015 at 3:57 PM

...
Loser: ADEM

Alabama's never been big on funding environmental management, but this year is a new low. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management saw its appropriation drop from $1.2 million to $200,000. When your kid catches a fish but you can't let him eat it, this is why.

more: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/alabama_legislatures_2015_winn.html

Well, that looks like an 83% cut, but close enough.

Budget cuts could devastate Alabama’s already-strapped environmental agency
Posted: Saturday, August 1, 2015 5:57 pm
By Alexandra Woolbright, Star Staff Writer, [e-mail]

More than five years ago, Alabama Rivers Alliance officials said the organization knew something was going wrong with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. The department was operating with a low budget and not properly addressing water regulation issues.

“By the time we got to 2009 and 2010, it was obvious that the train at ADEM had just gone off the rails,” said Mitch Reid, program director for Alabama Rivers Alliance.

According to budget cuts predicted by Gov. Robert Bentley if the state doesn’t find new sources of revenue, changes to ADEM would be inevitable, including water-related functions being taken over by the Environmental Protection Agency and layoffs for employees working in Montgomery.

more: http://www.annistonstar.com/news/budget-cuts-could-devastate-alabama-s-already-strapped-environmental-agency/article_fa384252-38a0-11e5-8a4f-67f43e02f32c.html

A more general article on the just-passed budget, which is generally bad news:

Senate Passes Tax Increases: Budget Deal Appears In Sight
Created on 16 Sep 2015
By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter

...
The structural problems all remain. There is not enough growth taxes in the State General Fund (SGF). The State’s economic growth of .6 percent is so anemic that revenue growth is insufficient to even keep up with inflation. Unemployment remains higher than the national average. Additionally vast numbers of the state’s population are out of the labor force or are underemployed meaning that they require expensive government services like Alabama Medicaid, prisons, DHR, the Department of Public Health, and mental health; and there is not enough people making enough income to support State government. Over a million people in Alabama are on Medicaid and an estimated another 250,000 would qualify if it were expanded; while the costs of those services are growing far faster than inflation or the Alabama economy. The prisons are still at over 180 percent capacity and are rapidly approaching the end of their cost effective service lives. If current trends continue more state revenues are going to be needed for the Department of Corrections, for Alabama Medicaid, for DHR, for mental health and it is hard to see where the growth is to cover these growing needs. The State is likely to be faced with another budget crisis next year or the year after that……..and likely the year after that. If (when?) the national economy is hit with recession and tax collections go down the fiscal situation could become dire.

http://alreporter.com/in-case-you-missed-it-2/8251-senate-passes-tax-increases-budget-deal-appears-in-sight.html

This article is from April, but nothing improved much since it was written:

2016 Budget Cuts = Why Alabama Can't Have Nice Things - Or Even Broken Stuff
by: countrycat
Thu Apr 23, 2015 at 07:00:00 AM CDT

If the Legislature doesn't act, Alabama state budgets won't just be cut to the bone; we'll be slicing into the marrow. For many state agencies, every dollar lost in state funding equals another $2-$3 lost in federal matching funds. Now Republicans have documented problems with basic math, but it's pretty easy to understand that if you spend $1 in state money and get $3 from the federal government, then that's a good deal.

In 2012, Governor Bentley credited God for his election victory, but he's done little to help "the least of these" in this state. The corporations are doing great thanks to all the corporate welfare being handed out. But hungry children and the working poor without insurance? Hey, they ought to just get a job (or another one) or something.

Look at how Republicans spent money during their first term:

•Speaker Mike Hubbard increased the speaker's office budget by 82.6% (to $892,492) over the previous (Democratic) speaker. That number includes $135,000 paid to political consultants, six-figure salaries to formerly part-time staffers, & a lavish re-decoration of Hubbert's office.
•A $99,000 no-bid contract to build a WordPress Web site for a state agency.
•A $72,000 no-bid contract to "research" information that's readily available with a Google search or a quick visit to the Census Bureau Web site.
•A million dollars for a special election to raid the state's savings account because the Legislature passed a non-balanced budget. That little scheme is coming home to roost now: over half of this year's budget shortfall - $160 million - is the repayment schedule for that "loan." The supermajority decided NOT to pay any of it back until after they got re-elected.

***
http://www.leftinalabama.com/diary/11273/2016-budget-cuts-why-alabama-cant-have-nice-things-or-even-broken-stuff

[Nihil]

1. Can't have people finding out ...

... both how f*cked they are and who are responsible for it from their own
state administration can they?