Last Days of Alabama Legislative Session Historic as Lawmakers Adjourn for 2026

Alabama State Representatives and Senators closed out the legislative session for the year last week. Unless Governor Kay Ivey calls them back into special session, they are done again until 2027.

Budgets Top Priority

On the final day of Alabama lawmakers convened in their regular 2026 session in Montgomery, Governor Kay Ivey signed into law the two state budgets.

Legislators appropriated some $10 billion to the Education Trust Fund, those monies for public education, including k-12 schools, community college and universities. In addition, $250 million was set aside for parents for non-public education expenses. Teachers also received a 2 percent pay raise. Meanwhile, the general fund budget, which provides monies for all of the other state agencies was $3.7 billion. Alabama State prisons and Medicaid services receive the two biggest shares of the dollars and those amounts increase each year. In addition, state employees each got a 2 percent cost of living raise.

The governor and state legislators have passed record budgets each year, but now there is already concern about balancing future state budgets. There are already projections that there will be less dollars for the 2027 fiscal year because of less state revenue and a decrease in federal funding. Thus, as Governor Ivey puts her signature to the budgets for the final time, the state’s next top executive will have leaner times ahead.

Eventful Session

It should have been a quite since during an election year as state representatives and senators want to avoid controversy before they head out on the campaign trail. With party primaries set on May 19th, we are right around the corner from those important elections. Yet, the statehouse was embroiled in contentious issues for weeks involving both legislators themselves and multiple contentious bills.

Add to all of that, that there were allegedly multiple surreptitiously made recordings of meetings at the statehouse that have been at the center of the vexing problems that made legislators want to finish their business and get home. Alabama politics is a contact sport and voters are paying more attention to what their elected officials are doing in Montgomery. So we will see how all of these controversies shake out as we get closer to election day and if voters go to the polls with these issues in mind.

New Leadership Ahead

There are a number of lawmakers who have challengers, but as a whole the majority will be back in another year. And while the legislature will look pretty much the same, that cannot be said for Alabama’s statewide constitutional officers.

In 2027, there will be a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and commissioner of agriculture and industries for sure. And with each new state official they will bring their own set of priorities to the office as well as a new approach to the position they serve.

It is unusual in Alabama to have such sweeping changes at the top of state government in Montgomery. So while this election cycle starting with the party primaries in May will be interesting for sure, come next year, the state will be moving in a whole different direction with new leadership at the state capitol.

Farewell to the Old Statehouse

The final day of the session was more significant than the usual last day state senators and representatives meet before they adjourn. This will be the last meeting in the current statehouse, that has been in use since 1986. A new building is under construction across the street that will officially open when the legislature reconvenes in January 2027. The old state highway department offices were supposed to temporarily house the legislature, but it has taken forty yeas to build a new facility.

So with lawmakers leaving the current statehouse they bid farewell to a building that played an important role in Alabama state history.

Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives and can be found on X, formerly Twitter, at @Paul_DeMarco

Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Alabama Gazette staff or publishers.