Section 29-9-3
Fiscal year appropriation cap.
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, beginning with appropriations made for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, appropriations from the Education Trust Fund shall not exceed the fiscal year appropriation cap.
(b) The fiscal year appropriation cap for the Education Trust Fund shall be equal to the sum of all of the following:
(1) The total of recurring revenues deposited into the Education Trust Fund in the last completed fiscal year preceding the date on which the fiscal year appropriation cap is calculated.
(2) An amount equal to the amount in subdivision (1) multiplied by the average annual percent of change in the recurring revenues deposited into the Education Trust Fund for the 14 highest of the 15 completed fiscal years preceding the date on which the fiscal year appropriation cap is calculated.
(3) If new recurring revenue measures are enacted that will be deposited into the Education Trust Fund, or if existing revenue sources are amended to increase the amount of money deposited into the Education Trust Fund, for the first time during the year for which the fiscal year appropriation cap is being calculated, then 95 percent of the amount projected in the enacted fiscal note accompanying the legislative act creating the new recurring revenue shall be added as a part of the fiscal year appropriation cap. If a recurring revenue source is removed from the Education Trust Fund during the year for which the fiscal year appropriation cap is being calculated, the negative impact, based on the enacted fiscal note, of the removal of the recurring revenue shall be included in the calculation of the fiscal year appropriation cap. Any new recurring revenue measures and any changes in the distribution of Education Trust Fund recurring revenues enacted during the First or Second Special Session of 2015 shall not require any addition or reduction in the fiscal year appropriation cap for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016.
(4) Nonrecurring revenue shall be added as a part of the fiscal year appropriation cap for the fiscal year in which the nonrecurring revenue is deposited into the Education Trust Fund.
(5) The amount required to be appropriated from the Education Trust Fund to the Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Trust Fund pursuant to Section 16-33C-16, Code of Alabama 1975.
(c) The Director of Finance and the Director of the Fiscal Office shall certify their computation of the fiscal year appropriation cap at the same time as the certification required by Amendment No. 803 to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901. If the computation results in a fiscal year appropriation cap that is less than the total appropriations from the Education Trust Fund for the fiscal year immediately preceding the fiscal year for which the fiscal year appropriation cap is being calculated, the Legislature may appropriate from the Education Trust Fund Budget Stabilization Fund created in this chapter an amount equal to the difference between the preceding fiscal year's total appropriations from the Education Trust Fund and the fiscal year appropriation cap, provided that any such amount shall be in the determination of the Legislature not to compromise the fiscal integrity of the fund to offset any future proration of the Education Trust Fund.
(d) Amendment No. 803 to the Constitution of 1901 requires an estimate of available revenue for the Education Trust Fund which is to be certified by the Finance Director and the Legislative Fiscal Officer prior to the third legislative day of each regular session. If, however, the average of the estimated available revenue is less than the fiscal year appropriation cap calculated in subsection (b), the Legislature shall appropriate no more than the lesser amount of the average of the estimated available revenue or the fiscal year appropriation cap as required to be determined by this section.
(Act 2011-3, p. 90, §3; Act 2015-538, 2nd Sp. Sess., §1.)