Alabama
Alabama lawmakers send record general fund budget to Governor Ivey for approval – Yellowhammer News
On Tuesday, the Alabama Senate voted to concur with changes to the state general fund budget made by the House of Representatives last week. Governor Kay Ivey congratulated lawmakers following final passage.
“Here in Alabama, we continue budgeting wisely,” said Gov. Ivey. “Despite the tough national economic climate, our financial footing is strong, and we are able to make investments where they count – investments that will pay dividends for generations to come.”
Ivey said that she will sign the budget into law.
“While being good stewards of taxpayer dollars and ensuring our budgets are prepared for whatever may lie ahead, we are increasing funding in critical services like public safety and mental health care,” said Ivey.
Alabama House passes record $3.4B General Fund budget
The state legislature for since 2020 has been preparing for an economic downtown by carrying over money into the next budgetary year. Since no economic downturn has happened, the state carried over a sizable surplus from 2023 into 2024; thus allowing the Legislature to make a supplemental appropriation in the 2024 budget year. FY2025 will begin on October 1.
“Historically large revenues, high interest rates and our previous conservative budgets have led to Alabama’s general fund being stronger than ever,” said Rep. Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville), chair of the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee.
“We’re blessed to be operating from a position of surplus, but it’s also important that we recognize this unprecedented growth is not sustainable long term and remain committed to the conservative budgeting practices that got us here. This year’s General Fund budget and its supplemental appropriation reflect my committee’s commitment to being responsible with taxpayer dollars, and I sincerely appreciate the body voting unanimously to approve them today.”
The House-passed budget is $3,410,393,112 — up from the FY2024 budget of $3,013,400,381.
The supplemental appropriation allocates $2,243,062 from the Youth Services Reimbursement Fund to the Department of Youth Services; $300,000 from the Veterans’ Assistance Fund to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs; and $253,875,169 from the SGF to various state agencies.
Both bills were sponsored by Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) who chairs the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee.
Albritton offers insight into general fund budget decision-making philosophy at BCA
The State of Alabama uses a budgeting system in which over 84% of the money is earmarked to a certain fund and the state has two pots of money, the SGF and the education trust fund (ETF). The Alabama Department of Transportation is funded through fuel taxes outside of the two budgets.
The ETF funds K-12 schools, the two-year college system, the four-year colleges, early childhood education, and universities, and education related agencies such as archives and history. The ETF is funded by personal and corporate income taxes.
The Alabama Departments of Corrections, Medicaid, Commerce, Public Health, Mental Health, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, as well as courts and district attorneys are just some of the agencies appropriated by the general fund.
The General Fund is funded by use taxes on online purchases, insurance taxes, utility taxes, a portion of the property tax, and interest income on the money held in trust in the Alabama Trust Fund.
“I look forward to putting pen to paper and officially signing this budget into law,” Ivey concluded.
“Managing a multibillion-dollar budget and ensuring every state agency is sufficiently funded is undoubtedly one of the most difficult jobs in state government, and I couldn’t be prouder of how Chairman Reynolds and his committee have stepped up to the task. Our wise investments today will lead to a stronger Alabama of tomorrow.”
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Alabama
Mother who reported AL toddler missing now faces murder charge
The mother of an Enterprise toddler, reported missing Feb. 16, has been charged with capital murder, said Police Chief Michael Moore.
Adrienne Reid, mother of Genesis Nova Reid, reported her daughter as missing to authorities and said the two-year-old was not in the home and the door was open. On March 9, she was charged with capital murder of a child under the age of 14 and abuse of a corpse, Moore said. March 9 would have been Genesis’ birthday, he said. Adrienne Reid had previously been charged with filing a false report about her daughter’s disappearance.
She is being held without bond, Moore said. Adrienne Reid could not be reached for comment and court records do not show if she has an attorney.
The case shocked Enterprise and southeast Alabama. Hundreds of volunteers searched for her, and people were asked to wear pink to honor her.
Early on in the investigation neighbors told law enforcement that they hadn’t seen the child for several weeks.
Moore said evidence points to the capital murder charge even though Genesis’ body has not been found. The last time she was seen was Christmas night while visiting family in Dothan, Moore said. Video footage at the apartment complex where they lived showed Adrienne Reid about 11:30 p.m. Christmas night pulling a rolling duffle bag to a dumpster at the complex, and throwing the duffle bag inside, he said.
Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd said his office began the process of planning to search the landfill early in the investigation. The landfill covers 100 acres. He said the area where the contents of the dumpster that allegedly contained Genesis’ body was likely dumped has been narrowed down to an area covering a few hundred feet.
Active searches will begin soon, he said. District Attorney James Tarbox said the state will be seeking the death penalty.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com. To support his work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
Alabama
46-year-old woman charged with murder of 27-year-old woman in Brewton
BREWTON, Ala. — A 46-year-old woman is charged with the murder of a 27-year-old woman in Brewton, Alabama.
Deputies arrested Renotta Seltzer on Friday. She was booked into the Escambia County Jail in Alabama around 4:15 p.m. She’s being held without bond.
The shooting happened Friday on McGougin Road.
The victim is 27-year-old Anna Brown.
Sheriff Heath Jackson tells WEAR News that the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
The sheriff’s office is expected to release more details on Monday.
Stick with WEAR News on-air and online for more updates on this story.
Alabama
Decades after violence in Selma spurred the Voting Rights Act, organizers worry about its fate
SELMA, Ala. — Sixty-one years after state troopers attacked Civil Rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, thousands are gathering in the Alabama city this weekend, amid new concerns about the future of the Voting Rights Act.
The March 7, 1965, violence that became known as Bloody Sunday shocked the nation and helped spur passage of the landmark legislation that dismantled barriers to voting for Black Americans in the Jim Crow South.
But this year’s anniversary celebrations – events run all weekend and end with a commemorative march across the bridge Sunday – come as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a case that could limit a provision of the Voting Rights Act that has helped ensure some congressional and local districts are drawn so minority voters have a chance to elect their candidate of choice.
“I’m concerned that all of the advances that we made for the last 61 years are going to be eradicated,” said Charles Mauldin, 78, one of the marchers who was beaten that day.
FILE – State troopers hit protesters with billy clubs to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Ala., on Sunday, March 7, 1965.
AP Photo/File
Justices are expected to rule soon on a Louisiana case regarding the role of race in drawing congressional districts. A ruling prohibiting or limiting that role could have sweeping consequences, potentially opening the door for Republican-controlled states to redistrict and roll back majority Black and Latino districts that tend to favor Democrats.
Democratic officeholders, civil rights leaders and others have descended on the southern city to pay homage to the pivotal moment of the Civil Rights Movement and to issue calls to action. Like the marchers on Bloody Sunday, they must keep pressing forward, organizers said.
Former state Sen. Hank Sanders, who helped start the annual commemoration, said the 1965 events in Selma marked a turning point in the nation and helped push the United States closer to becoming a true democracy.
“The feeling is a profound fear that we will be taken back – a greater fear than at any time since 1965,” Sanders said.
Tear gas fills the air as state troopers, ordered by Gov. George Wallace, break up a march at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on Sunday, March 7, 1965.
AP Photo/File
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures won election in 2024 to an Alabama district that was redrawn by the federal court. He said what happened in Selma and the subsequent passage of the Voting Rights Act “was monumental in shaping what America looks like and how America is represented in Congress.”
“I think coming to Selma is a refreshing reminder every single year that the progress that we got from the Civil Rights Movement is not perpetual. It’s been under consistent attacks almost since we’ve gotten those rights,” Figures said.
In 1965, the Bloody Sunday marchers led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams walked in pairs across the Selma bridge headed toward Montgomery. Mauldin, then 17, was part of the third pair behind Williams and Lewis.
At the apex of the bridge, they could see the sea of law enforcement officers, including some on horseback, waiting for them. But they kept going. “Being fearful was not an option. And it wasn’t that we didn’t have fear, it’s that we chose courage over fear,” Mauldin recalled in a telephone interview.
“We were all hit. We were trampled. We were tear-gassed. And we were brutalized by the state of Alabama,” Mauldin said.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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