Alabama’s general fund budget is slowly taking shape. APR’s Pat Duggins reports on action in the State House…
The House Ways and Means Committee has approved a budget that makes deep cuts to state agencies. The budget would cut Medicaid, mental health and state prisons corrections by five percent. Other state agencies would be cut by nine percent.
This proposal would impact the general fund budget. Alabama’s schools are funded by a separate spending plan. The tighter general fund budget comes after lawmakers were unable to agree on proposed tax bills to fill a shortfall of more than two hundred million dollars.
Governor Robert Bentley is clashing with republican lawmakers over raising taxes. The Governor may call the House and Senate into special session if no budget deal is hammered out.
Birmingham-Southern College has announced a new president.
Officials announced Dr. Edward F. Leonard III, who is currently president of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, will become the 14th president of Birmingham-Southern College.
He was approved by a Board vote. Leonard will take the reins from Gen. Charles C. Krulak, who retires from his position as 13th president on June 1.
The college said in a news release that Leonard's accomplishments at Bethany include increasing enrollment, retention rates and racial and cultural diversity.
Birmingham-Southern College is a four-year, private liberal arts institution.
Civil War buffs will be gathering in Pike County this weekend to remember what may be the last fatality during the war between the states. Confederate soldiers ambushed Union troops on Hobdy’s bridge one hundred and fifty years ago this week. Union Corporal John Skinner was killed during the fighting.
Event organizer Bob McLendon says Skinner is unusual since he was a Confederate who wound up fighting for the Union. McLendon says it all came down to money…
“They were paid a bounty to join First Florida Cavalry Union. And South Alabama, people were really having hard times and if you got a bounty, it could go a lot way in supporting your family.”
McLendon says Skinner’s death also occurred six days after a skirmish in Texas which historians say included the last fatality of the Civil War. Two re-enactments of the ambush are planned on Hobdy’s bridge are planned for this Saturday and Sunday.