Non-education state agencies will receive $1.6 billion after approval of Alabama's General Fund Budget April 5.
The House passed the budget 104-0 with Gov. Bob Riley's suggested amount.
State agencies that are covered by the budget include Medicaid, prisons and state troopers.
"The governor and the Legislature have made funding of the Alabama Medicaid Agency a priority," said Robin Rawls, director of communications for AMA. "It is a very tight budget for Medicaid and the state of Alabama in the Fiscal Year of 2011 due to the economic difficulties the state and our nation are facing."
Some agencies could be forced to layoff workers, but the budget maintained or increased funding for key non-educational programs like prisons and state troopers, said Rep. John F. Knight Jr, D-Montgomery, and chairman of the House of Appropriations Committee, in a press release,
"Any decision to lay off workers is a very serious decision and one that would be made after other options have been considered," Rawls said. "At this time, our agency does not expect layoffs."
Rawls said the budget would provide approximately $307 million for Medicaid in 2011.
"We will use those funds to match federal dollars," Rawls said. "All state funds, along with federal funds, are expected to provide a total Medicaid budget of about $5.3 billion for Fiscal Year 2011."
Rawls said this budget would allow Medicaid to operate at a basic level because of added recipients in recent years.
The sources for matching state and federal funds include transfers from other state agencies, state drug rebates, tobacco settlement funds and provider specific assessments.
Because the cost of health care continues to increase, Medicaid has been looking to cut cost in programs and administration, Rawls said.
"We are also looking at new ways to save money by being more efficient, by aggressively pursuing fraud and abuse by using new technology," Rawls said.
Alabama's Department of Corrections is an agency funded by the general budget and runs under the slogan "A proud past, a bright future."
"We're always tightly budgeted," said Brian Corbett, public information manager for Alabama Department of Corrections. "Prisons, our agency is historically underfunded. There may be a gap again this year in our level of funding and what it is actually going to take to fund the system."
The Department of Public Safety will see an unknown amount of funding.
"The director of public safety and his staff are in the process of reviewing the department's budget now," said Martha Earnhardt, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety. "We know at this point the budget will be tight, but because it is still under review we are not in a position to discuss specifics."
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