Local trooper posts would close if austerity budget passes

State officials said Wednesday that State trooper posts in Jacksonville and Gadsden would close and drivers would have to travel to the state's biggest cities to renew their licenses if the Legislature passes an austerity budget under consideration in the Alabama House of Representatives.

Gov. Robert Bentley has proposed $541 million in tax increases to fill the gap and solve long-term funding problems for the General Fund. The proposal hasn't gone over well with members of the Legislature's Republican supermajority, many of whom, like Bentley, ran on a no-new-taxes pledge last year.

So far, a no-new-taxes version of the budget is the only one on the table in the House of Representatives. Last week and Wednesday, lawmakers held public hearings to talk to state agency directors about what would happen if they cut roughly 11 percent from the current budget.  On Wednesday, law enforcement and courts officials said the cuts would be disastrous. Department officials told lawmakers the cuts would close all but three offices where Alabama residents can renew their drivers' licenses, requiring drivers to go to Birmingham, Montgomery or Mobile.

The state would lay off 99 of its 431 state troopers as well as 25 of 147 special agents in the State Bureau of Investigation, once known as ABI.

The cuts would end state investigators' role as the primary homicide investigators in rural counties too poor to do their own investigations, It would also limit the use of troopers in security at major sporting events including the races at the Talladega Superspeedway.