Senator Greg Albritton discusses the general fund budget as well as corrections and Medicaid the largest general fund programs

State Senator Greg Albritton (R-Range) recently spoke with Alabama Gazette Lead Reporter and Content Manager Brandon Moseley and the Alabama Political Contributor's Christopher Peeks on their Brandon and Christopher Show Podcast. Albritton chairs the powerful Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund committee which prepares the state general fund budget.

On April 3, the House of Representatives passed a $3.7 billion state general fund budgetv – the largest in state history. That budget is now being studied by Albritton's committee. At one point 10 years ago, the state raised cigarette taxes (now a declining source of revenue) and borrowed $450 million from the state's reserve – the Alabama Trust Fund - just to keep the SGF funded at $1.9 billion. We asked Albritton about presiding over the SGF budget as revenues have grown so dramatically.

https://www.alabamagazette.com/story/2025/04/01/podcasts/state-senator-greg-albritton-speaks-on-the-current-legislative-session-and-the-failure-of-gambling-legislation/6094.html

"It has grown, yes. There hasn't been, to my memory and knowledge, I don't know of any tax increase has been initiated here," said Sen. Albritton. We take in consideration the point that the 1.9 was a low point from the 2008 recession. But yes, we've had a lot of recovery and we've had a lot of growth, both in population and in economic growth. So yeah, we have that. Also keep in mind, though, that the general fund has been, in my mind, strangled for a number of years."

The largest two agencies in the general fund are corrections and Medicaid. At the Alabama Department of Corrections they are building two megaprisons to eventually move some of the prisoners from the state's most aging facilities. Albritton has sponsored a bill to allow Corrections to do a bond issue to finish both of the megaprisons.

"And we're able to put a pretty good part from the general fund for monies in there," explained Albritton. "And we even use some of the ARPA money to put in there. And so, we got close to getting them all done. This final bill will give us all the resources necessary to complete both full prisons and have enough replacement beds to meet the current demands."

The Gazette asked Albritton if looking back on it now that the megaprisons are well over a billion dollars over budget if he regrets building the two new megaprisons instead of just repairing and renovating the 27 existing prisons that the state already has.

"No, there's not any second guessing in that regard," Chairman Albritton said. "Between inflation, between the COVID construction costs, and all those other economic issues that came into play that everybody has suffered. We've just, frankly, from the state's point of view, we have addressed that and taken up this matter and I think we've got it resolved without affecting or afflicting any other agency or any other issues or matters that we have in the state. I think we've done a fairly good job on this."

There is a perception among some in the public that there are a lot of nonviolent criminals in the prisons there for drug crimes. Albritton said that that is not the case and most of the prisoners housed at DOC are violent.

"Let me rephrase that, maybe not murder, manslaughter, there has been a death occurring, okay?' Albritton said. "Then we have the property crimes that are there, the 15 to 20% of those. And most of those are not, none of those are drug matters. All of those have to deal with significant, habitual, continual offenders that just can't deal or live outside in society."

The legislature has devoted considerable efforts in recent years to rehabilitating as many criminals as practically possible.

"We have put a large number of resources, both in pardons and paroles, in junior colleges, and in other programs to help facilitate and train those folks that are incarcerated to prepare them to come out for the opportunity to live normally," explained Albritton.

The state is currently being sued by the Department of Justice which claims that a sentence in an Alabama prison is a cruel and unusual punishment and thus unconstitutional under the eighth amendment. The state has been fighting this lawsuit for over four years now. State officials hope that the DOJ (now led by AG Pam Bondi) will drop that ongoing case.

"And the reason for that is because the state has actually taken this on," explained Albritton. "And we are making every effort possible to improve and to get ourselves in the direction of where the court sees that we should go. We're making all kinds of efforts in training for our COs (corrections officers) and reaching out in recruiting and in pay. We're doing all of those things. And it's beginning to pay off. It's taken us years to come out of this hole."

"My thinking is that we're gonna continue to improve," continued Albritton. "The court's gonna do what the court's gonna do. But we're gonna do what we can justifiably and financially accomplish. And I think we've done a good job and a good faith effort to make these places safe for all humans that's inside, not only for the inmates, but principally for the CEOs that would like to go home at the end of their shift."

The most expensive item in the budget is the state's share of the Medicaid program. The House version of the SGF budget has the state spending $1,179,000,000 on Medicaid – an increase of $224.5 million from the 2025 budget.

"Which we really don't have control of," Albritton said of the increase. "That's one of the reasons we haven't been able to, on the federal side, to repeal Obamacare. It's too ingrained. It's too dependent upon. And yes, you're right. When the states get the bill, just like everybody else, we have to pay it. We don't have any option. Now, this year, the House has sent up a budget that removed $5 million from the $1.1 billion request, I think, that Medicaid had this year. And there was a lot of screaming and hollering about that. I'm not sure that's going to stick."

The largest driver of the federal budget deficit is what the federal government is spending on healthcare – as benefits for federal workers, Medicaid, Medicare, Veterans Healthcare benefits, and Obamacare insurance subsidies. That does not count all of the billions that the state has to provide in matching funds for their increasingly expensive Medicaid programs.

"I am concerned, and I may be wrong, but I think the federal system, the socialist system is imploding," said Albritton. "We can't keep this up. The only option that I see, especially on the local level, is simply to try to put some privatization in this in some way. Hence, I think that was the impetus for the Blue Cross Blue Shield All Health Plan."