Lawmakers on the Alabama Legislature’s General Fund budget committees heard a “cautionary tale” about expected dips in revenue in the coming years.

The fiscal year 2025 receipts are fine. The General Fund and the Education Trust Fund are both up more than 3% compared to fiscal 2024. But the concern in the General Fund is that much of its growth since 2023 is from interests on state deposits, the earnings from high interest rates and billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 funds sitting in state coffers waiting to be spent. It’s been a lucrative situation.

But that COVID money must be spent by the end of 2026, and those interest rates will, eventually, drop. While reducing interest rates is good for the economy, it’s going to have a negative impact on the General Fund, Kirk Fulford, deput

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