MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Senate approved a budget plan on Monday that would slash millions of dollars from Medicaid, mental health services, law enforcement and other state agencies.
Senators voted 19-15 for the cut-filled spending plan after lawmakers remained unable to agree in a special session on how to fill a budget shortfall. The House of Representatives will now decide whether to go along with the budget or send the bill to a conference committee.
Legislators rejected Gov. Robert Bentley’s call for $302 million in taxes. Instead, the Senate-passed budget cuts nearly $200 million from state agencies. The budget is similar to one passed by lawmakers in June and vetoed by Bentley.
“I think the citizens expect us to live within our means as they live within theirs’ and that is what we’ve done,” Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston said. “The appetite is not there in my opinion in the Senate to raise taxes and quite honestly it must not be there in the House.”
The vote was uncharacteristically close in the Alabama Senate where Republicans hold a lopsided majority. Both Republicans and Democrats criticized the cuts, predicting they would have dire consequences on state services.