8/14/15 Group Watch: No Budget by October?
The Legislature just adjourned a special session without passing a General Fund budget and with no known plan to address the budget shortfall. This is eerily similar to 1975, when then Governor Wallace called three special sessions to get General Fund and Education budgets without success. In mid-September of that year, Alabama pharmacies quit filling prescriptions for Medicaid patients, and healthcare providers told the media they would only serve Medicaid patients who could pay with cash. Despite Wallace’s pledge to pay teachers with bank loans by executive order, the State Supreme Court ruled he did not have that authority. Without a state budget, employees won’t be paid and the thousands of vendors who do business with the state won’t be paid.
