CULLMAN — Supporters of Tuesday’s successful Amendment One referendum might have encouraged the prevailing ‘yes’ vote, but they’re bittersweet about the financial circumstances that forced the people of Alabama to decide on the issue.

“I don’t think it’s fair for the legislature to ask us to make that decision,” said Cullman district judge Kim Chaney, who supported the passing of Amendment One.

“But, I can’t look my staff in the eye and vote ‘no.’ I could not risk three or four of my staff members losing their jobs; as well as four or five people in the circuit clerk’s office. I voted for it because I was afraid not to — but I really resent the fact that we were put in that position.”

Courts throughout the state were facing a possible cut of up to 17 percent of their annual budgets had Amendment One failed. Instead, said Chaney, they’re at least assured of functioning at the same funding level — considered dire only a year ago following a round of severe budget cuts — for another three years.

“But,” said Chaney, “we’re still just kicking the can down the road. The legislature has still not made the difficult decision whether to raise revenues or make more cuts, and, really, this is just another temporary fix until we make the hard decisions. Someone — either the legislature or the governor — is eventually going to have to step up and make that decision.”

Alabama courts, prisons, hospitals, nursing homes and others who provide crucial services that rely on some degree of government subsidy all waged campaigns in favor of voting ‘yes’ in Tuesday’s referendum. Even though their message was successful, the larger problems that led to this year’s crisis in the General Fund still haven’t been solved — they’ve just been delayed.

Still, said Todd McLeroy, chairman of the board of directors of the Health Care Authority of Cullman County, that delay at least bides lawmakers some time to solve a systemic problem in Alabama’s balancing of revenues and expenses.

“I don’t think we have adequate funding for Medicaid — it’s a perpetual funding problem — but this vote at least will assure a minimal amount of funding for the next three years to assure we don’t lose good pediatricians and obstetricians,” McLeroy said late Tuesday.

“On the health care side, Medicaid is by far the biggest piece of the General Fund that we’re going to have to figure out in the long term,” he added. “As far as the hospital [Cullman Regional Medical Center] is concerned, the impact this will have is to assure that Medicaid at least gets that minimum funding now. That’s a start.

“My opinion is that, beyond this referendum, the legislature is going to have to look at some kind of revenue enhancement, in addition to some hard budget cuts. Almost one-fifth of our state’s citizens are on Medicaid, and Medicaid also takes care of almost half the state’s children. Figuring out how to fund Medicaid in the future is a decision that the legislature is still going to have to make.”

The success of Amendment One means the state, as well as its dependent agencies and services, have a window of time to fix the myriad problems that plague the General Fund on both the revenue side, as well as on the administrative side. Chaney said he hopes lawmakers will make the most of that three-year window before it closes.

“By any measure, I just don’t think it’s good for any legislature to pass a state budget that’s conditional on the adoption of a constitutional amendment. My hope is that we won’t come to a point in the near future where we face a decision like this one again.”



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.