Alabama Senators managed to find a compromise on how to spend an incoming BP settlement package from the 2010 oil spill, splitting it between state debts, Medicaid and coastal road projects.
WKRG-TV reports lawmakers in south Alabama say there isn’t enough money to fund all the projects that need completing, but the legislators have a plan.
State Senator Rusty Glover of Mobile says of the allocated $120 million in settlement money, $65 million will go toward the long overdue Highway 98 extension project. Glover says between that and federal funding, the project should be close to fully funded.
The remaining $55 million will be used in Baldwin County to expand Highway 181 in Daphne, Highway 31 in Spanish Fort, and Highway 180, better known as Canal Road. Senator Trip Pittman says he and other lawmakers are looking for matching money and other ways to get as much out of the settlement funding as possible.