During a recent broadcast of Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal,” Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) provided his take on the state’s financial health.
Led by chamber budget committee chairs State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) and State Rep. Steve Clouse (R-Ozark), lawmakers have held informal budget hearings with state agencies to learn of departments’ financial standing.
Last year, Alabama experienced record revenue due to economic growth and federal dollars appropriated to the state in the form of COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.
During the last legislative session, Gov. Kay Ivey and legislative leadership stressed the importance of taking a fiscally conservative approach to budgeting due to the possibility of a downtick in economic expansion, which would lead to decreased revenue.
According to Singleton, the cautionary budgeting approach has paid dividends for the state. The Greene County legislator advised that projections were “looking good” despite the ongoing nationwide inflation crisis.
“[B]ased on the projections that we’re getting now, we’ve done some great jobs of in terms of being able to make sure that we’ve done very much conservative spending in the state,” Singleton told host Todd Stacy. “We’ve been able to pay back rainy day funds, we’ve been able to set up funds… like rolling reserves and other things that allow us to deal with those projections just in case we were looking at downfalls. So with that, we’re in pretty good shape. And I think that based on the projections we’ve heard today, that we could probably go maybe a year or so from where we are now before we start getting in trouble with our budgets.”
Singleton praised lawmakers for “working in a bipartisan manner” to ensure that the state was prepared to meet the fiscal challenges brought about by economic uncertainty.
“I think the state of the state is healthy,” expressed the senator. “You know, leadership from the governor, leadership from budget [chairmen]. We’ve done a great job, I think, in making sure that we’ve watched our spending — just because the growth is still there, not just spending all the money at one time and saving back for that rainy day. And so now, the rain is starting to drizzle. We don’t have a downfall right now but we’re starting to drizzle.”
Singleton indicated that the state’s recent economic success served to offset issues stemming from inflation.
“We’re seeing the price of gas go up, the price of food, shelter, the rent is starting to go up for people. But yet still, we’re looking at wages have gone up in terms of people being able to work,” said Singleton. “The unemployment rate is still [low] in the state of Alabama. So right now we’re not feeling the rainfall, it’s just a drizzle right now.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
