Special Session Gets Back Underway

   Alabama lawmakers are back in Montgomery to resume a special session on funding Medicaid and other state services. Lottery legislation is dead for the session, so the focus turns to a bill that would divide money from the 2010 BP oil spill settlement. A bill passed the House earlier in the session that would allocate 450 million dollars toward debt repayment and 191 million dollars for road projects in coastal counties. The early debt repayment would free up around 70 million dollars for Medicaid in the next fiscal year. That still leaves a 15 million dollar hole in the agency’s budget. Some lawmakers are proposing sending more money directly to Medicaid from the settlement funds. Others want to put even more toward debt repayment. The session resumes this afternoon.