Amendment to spend $1 billion on Ala. road projects over 10 years approved by Senate committee

Ala. Senate committee OKs road building amendment

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An effort by Democrats to use $1 billion over 10 years from a state savings account to build and repair roads and bridges across the state has gotten off to a quick start in the Senate.

The proposed constitutional amendment by Democratic Sen. Lowell Barron of Fyffe would allow the state to take $100 million a year from the savings account for road projects. Barron has called the plan Alabama’s “own stimulus package.”

The proposed amendment was approved Tuesday by the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee. It now goes to the full Senate for debate. The action came on the first day of the 2010 regular session.

Republicans on the committee expressed concern that the project would deplete the savings account that is funded by oil and gas revenue.