Alabama lawmakers took their first official action on the state General Fund budget on Tuesday, and some of the proposed cuts caught the attention of a veteran lawmaker.

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, spoke out on the Senate floor about the elimination of funding for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Magic City Classic football game, and several other line items.

“If anybody thinks that’s going to happen and I’m not going to be at this mic from this moment until we leave, you can forget it,” Smitherman said. “I will be right here.”

Smitherman, more than any other senator, uses the Senate’s extended debate rules to filibuster to try to stop bills or make points about issues he thinks are important.

Smitherman vowed to do that if his concerns about funding are not addressed.

There is plenty of time to adjust the budget, which is a routine part of the give and take as the legislation moves through the House and Senate.

Lawmakers have 13 meeting days left in the annual session, which lasts until May.

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On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee approved its version of the General Fund budget, revising the recommended spending plan sent to the Legislature by Gov. Kay Ivey in early February.

The items that Smitherman talked about were listed under the Department of Tourism and make up a sliver of the $3.7 billion proposed budget.

Smitherman returned to the Senate floor later on Tuesday afternoon and said he had been assured that the issues would be reviewed.

Smitherman and Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, huddled outside the Senate chamber with the Republican chairmen of the General Fund committees – Rep. Rex Reynolds of Huntsville and Sen. Greg Albritton of Atmore.

Singleton later said changes were in the works but did not give any details.

The current budget included $200,000 for the Magic City Classic, the annual football game between Alabama State and Alabama A&M, played at Birmingham’s Legion Field.

It also included $100,000 for the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum.

Both items were zeroed out in Ivey’s proposed budget for next year and in the substitute approved by the House budget committee on Tuesday.

Many other line items affecting were zeroed out in the budget, while some were retained or increased.

At the committee meeting Tuesday morning, Rep. A.J. McCampbell, D-Livingston, asked budget chairman Reynolds about the cuts to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum and the Magic City Classic.

Reynolds said those cuts were examples of putting more emphasis on funding state agencies instead of specific line items.

“As you saw when the governor’s budget came over, all of the one-time appropriations was removed from the budget,” Reynolds said. “And you’re heard me say publicly we’ve got to get back to what I call prioritized budgeting, get back to funding state agencies.”

Tuesday afternoon, on the Senate floor, Smitherman likened the cuts affecting his district to efforts to stamp out diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs on the state level and nationally.

“You want us to be extinguished,” Smitherman said. “You want to shut our museum. You want to shut us all the way down.

“You don’t want us to have nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

“That’s not going to happen. And if it does, it will happen with the most resistance using our rules and procedures that I can use in this body.”

A month ago, Singleton and Smitherman sustained a filibuster to block a vote on a bill to make changes to the board of the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

The Senate meets again on Thursday.

This story was edited on April 2 to add comments from budget chairman Rex Reynolds.