Mobile saw $56 million in state money prioritized by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s office stripped out of a supplemental state budget last week, and at least one lawmaker is warning that the state’s southern region isn’t going to “roll over and be happy.”

The money allocated by Ivey’s budget office included $25 million to upgrade a coal handling facility administered by the Alabama State Port Authority, and $31 million to serve as the state’s financial investment into a new $330 million commercial airport under construction at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley.

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But the money was removed from a $2.8 billion supplemental educational budget proposal from Ivey’s office, with Alabama State Senator Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, who serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and Taxation Education, saying that a majority of his colleagues did not believe were “education related.”

“It was a consensus,” Orr said late last week. “You had objectors, for sure, but the general consensus was that non-education items such as the airport and ($25 million for a new waterpark in Montgomery), should come out. So they did.”

Alabama State Senator Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, said the airport funding needs to happen and he was unsure why a project embraced by Mobile officials was removed outright from the state budget that Ivey’s office prepared.

“South Alabama is not going to take this and roll over and be happy,” Albritton told AL.com Monday. “Since when did we become purest on money from the ETF? We have ETF money going to prisons and various sundry of activities. But this is what we decided should be taken out?”

Ivey, in a statement to AL.com on Friday, defended the inclusion of the projects within the ETF.

“Alabama is making record investments that will benefit all Alabamians for many years ahead, and that is something to be proud of,” Ivey said. “This is, in part, because of wise budgeting in recent years, and we are continuing that by paying down debt and increasing our reserves. The Legislature is also advancing proposals to invest in our students and teachers, bolster public safety and improve healthcare in our state.”

She added, “My budget proposals included various projects important to local communities in all corners of the state. Investing in communities is investing in education, and with a record, one-time surplus, it is my ultimate hope that these dollars are invested in lasting ways that communities can point to a generation from now. I am pleased that the Legislature has begun to advance their budget proposals, and I look forward to continued work to ensure we collectively produce the best possible budgets for the people who call Alabama home.”

Alternative budgets

Albritton, chairman of the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee, will be in charge of the crafting the state’s General Fund in the Senate during the remaining 12 days of the legislative session. But he said simply adding the $56 million into that budget will not be easy.

Alabama is one of the few states that operates on two separate state budgets — the Educational Trust Fund budget, and the state’s General Fund budget.

“I’m looking at what to do in the General Fund to make that up, and it would (require) major changes,” he said, adding that his preferred option would be to get the Alabama House to reappropriate the Mobile airport and port projects.

“It could be added as an amendment in the House,” Albritton said. “But that’s a House matter and I don’t know what they will do about that.”

State Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, is chairman of the committee that will consider the Senate’s version of the education budget. Garrett could not be reached for comment by AL.com on Monday, but he had previously joined Orr before by publicly challenging the inclusion of the airport and port projects within the supplemental budget.

Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter is likely to support Garrett’s plans for the ETF supplemental budget, a spokesman said.

Other lawmakers from the Mobile area expressed concerns over how the projects were handled.

“I am very disappointed it was taken out but we are working on trying to get it back into some budget,” said state Senator Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, referring to the airport funding.

The funding would be used as part of the Mobile Airport Authority’s efforts to completely swap commercial aviation services from Mobile Regional Airport in far west Mobile to Brookley, which is only seven miles south and east of downtown Mobile and within close proximity to Interstate 10.

“There is an educational component from this,” said Figures, referring to why it could have been included in the ETF budget. “Maybe politics came into play. We can say a lot of things are educational in that budget, if you will. I have not given up hope and it’s not over until it’s over and we will continue to do all we can do.”

Educational project

According to Orr and others, the airport project is an economic development project.

But the airport terminal’s existence also is connected to a $30 million project that remains within the ETF.

Within the supplemental plan, $30 million was set aside from Coastal Alabama and Bishop State community college’s joint project called the Center for Excellent in Aviation which will be located at Brookley and near the new commercial airport’s runway.

Craig Pouncey, president of Coastal Alabama Community College, said the project includes adding a large addition to the college’s existing aviation center that was first established in 2001. It also includes another addition for Bishop State Community College to build a facility that will support manufacturing operations at nearby Airbus, among other places. The project has been approved and certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Both colleges are getting $15 million each from the state in a rare joint building project. Pouncey said the project, if bids go out this year, could be completed by 2025 or around the same time the new commercial airport is supposed to be completed.

“The airport would be a good partner,” said Pouncey, referring to the Mobile Airport Authority and the proximity of the new aviation center to the new airport terminal. “(Mobile Airport Authority president) Chris Curry is very supportive of what we’re trying to do and I hate that things got confusing for people.”

Curry, in a statement on Friday, said the airport authority will continue to work with Ivey’s office to convince the Legislature to support the project. The airport’s overall project is largely being financed through federal funding, but the project also has $30 million dedicated by the city and $15 million from the Mobile County Commission.

“The Mobile Airport Authority has clearly demonstrated the positive impact of our project,” Curry said. “This project will transform the city and will greatly enhance the overall quality of life for our citizens.”

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson agreed. He said he was hopeful that Ledbetter will “be able to work with us to secure funding for this critical project in the House.”

He added, “(Mobile Airport Authority) has proven that creating a new terminal at the Mobile International Airport will have positive impacts felt far beyond Mobile.”