2026 Alabama Legislative Guide
Policy Currents During an Election Year
Table of Contents: Budgets | Education & Workforce | Health Care | Public Safety & Justice
The Alabama Legislature has set sail for the 2026 session. We’re here to help you navigate the often-rocky waters of the State House with Peritus PR’s annual Alabama Legislative Session Guide.
Predicting how policy will move through the Alabama Legislature is like forecasting Alabama weather in April. You know something’s coming, but you just can’t be sure whether it will be tornadoes or a sunny and 75-degree picnic day. Sometimes, you might get both in the same afternoon.
For generations, sailors and river navigators learned that momentum alone doesn’t guarantee arrival. Reading the water matters just as much as catching the wind. As Gov. Kay Ivey noted in her State of the State address this year, “The momentum is in our sails in Alabama.” That momentum is real — but knowing where the river runs shallow, where it deepens and where it narrows determines how far it can carry a session.
Before weather apps and meteorologists, sailors learned to read the skies for themselves. Proverbs like “Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight” were not merely superstition. They were shorthand born of repeated observations over time and grounded in how weather systems tend to behave.
Reliable forecasting works the same way. Meteorologists don’t rely on only one indicator. They compare current conditions to historical trends and assess what familiar dynamics suggest may be forming next.
That’s where we come in. Each year, Peritus equips readers with a guide to help interpret how the legislative session is likely to flow. Our perspective is shaped by years of watching how sessions unfold, tracking what leadership signals through the State of the State, early legislative activity and reporting. Over the past two years, we’ve paired that institutional view with insight gathered through a statewide survey, bringing in perspectives from government, nonprofit, business and academic leaders — each experiencing different pressures, priorities and constraints within the same system.
Longtime communications strategist Helio Fred Garcia describes why this multipronged approach matters. Patterns, he argues, hold two kinds of power:
Explanatory power – they help make sense of what happened in the past.
Predictive power – they help us anticipate what may play out in the future.
Our guide is built to do both. It uses previous election-year session dynamics to explain how Alabama’s legislative process behaves under pressure, and then applies those lessons to identify where conditions favor movement in 2026 and where they do not.
This year’s guide leans into Alabama’s waterways: the currents and confluences that shape how policy actually moves.
If you’re new to our work, welcome aboard. And if you want to revisit last year’s session before diving in, we’ve got you covered. Take a look back at our 2025 Legislative Session Rewind to see how the previous currents played out.
Are you ready to see where the current takes us? Grab your paddle. We know these waters.
2026 UNDERCURRENTS
The 2026 Regular Session has begun under familiar constraints. It’s an election year and the final regular session of the quadrennium – a point in the cycle when the channel narrows. Fundraising is prohibited while lawmakers are in session, effectively taking the fishing lines out of the water. Compressed calendars and primary elections in May pull attention back to home districts. Taken together, these factors incentivize efficiency and limit how much legislation can realistically advance.
Legislative leaders have been direct about how this environment will shape the session. Senate Majority Leader Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro) told Alabama Daily News lawmakers will focus on five things. The Education Trust Fund and General Fund budgets are constitutionally required to be passed. The three other priorities are local bills, confirmations and adjournment. House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) has echoed that expectation, signaling a fast-moving session as members look ahead to the campaign trail. The direction is clear: keep the boat light, stay in the main channel and move through as efficiently as possible.
Beyond the budgets, everything competes for limited floor time and attention. In an election year, issues such as gambling or Medicaid expansion could resurface, but advancing them requires alignment and a willingness to absorb risk. Many of the stakeholders who participated in our survey expect a session defined more by caution than ambition, especially since, for many lawmakers, 2026 is their final opportunity to shore up their records before ballots are cast.
This session also marks a moment of transition. It is the final time legislators will convene in the State House that has housed Alabama’s legislative work for the past 40 years. It is also Gov. Ivey’s final session after nearly nine years at the helm. In her State of the State address, the governor emphasized finishing strong through continued focus on education, public safety and conservative budgeting. Those priorities, combined with election year constraints, will determine which ideas find enough depth to move — and which are left for the next administration to carry downstream.
Like light skimming across Lake Guntersville at dawn, what matters most comes into focus once the surface settles. Here’s where to watch.
READING THE WAVES: The Issues
BUDGETS
The budgets set the course for the canoe of state priorities — the investments Alabamians depend on. Once the bow is pointed and the paddle is in the water, course changes become slower and more deliberate. Clear direction allows steady progress. Competing priorities make it harder to hold a straight line, even when resources are available.
Alabama entered the 2026 session with strong budget numbers and the inevitable challenge of managing them without drifting into long-term risk.
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Last year, lawmakers approved historically large budgets for FY2026, including $12.1 billion through the Education Trust Fund (ETF) and $3.7 billion through the General Fund. Those figures reflect several strong revenue years, bolstered in part by federal relief dollars and elevated interest earnings. That growth phase, however, has begun to taper off.
Gov. Ivey has proposed directing most available growth in the ETF toward covering rising costs, including 2% pay raises and educator health insurance, while many programs are held flat. Her General Fund proposal largely mirrors last year’s spending, with state agencies level funded rather than expanded. The only notable increases are tied to employee pay and rising insurance costs.
Finance officials have warned that while FY2026 obligations can be met, revenue pressures are building just beyond the horizon. Interest income, which contributed hundreds of millions annually during the height of federal relief spending, is falling back toward historical levels, with a sharp decline projected for FY2027. There is no clear replacement for that revenue.
Federal cost shifts compound that pressure. New requirements tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will require Alabama to absorb approximately $40 million beginning next budget cycle, with potentially larger obligations emerging by FY2028 depending on error rates and federal rules still being finalized.
That backdrop explains lawmakers’ approach to reserves. Over the past several years, the Legislature has built more than $3 billion under the Rolling Reserve Act and related education reserve funds. Those dollars are intended to buffer future downturns, not to support permanent increases in recurring spending.
The distinction between the two budgets matters. The ETF has more flexibility in the near term, supported by income and sales tax growth and sizable reserves, even as revenue growth moderates. The General Fund faces tighter constraints sooner, driven by corrections, health care, employee insurance and emerging federal shifts.
Several of the most difficult decisions fall within education. The state’s health insurance plan for educators has requested roughly $380 million to avoid premium increases. The governor’s proposal would cover just over half of that amount, leaving the remainder to be addressed through reserves, plan adjustments or future legislative action.
Meanwhile, CHOOSE Act funding grows to $250 million for 2027 as eligibility expands, a $100 million single-year increase that underscores how state budget decisions made today extend beyond the current fiscal year and into future obligations. That growth occurs alongside Alabama’s decision to opt into the new Federal Education Freedom Tax Credit program, which will take effect in January 2027 and further expand school choice options through a separate federal mechanism.
Those tradeoffs will come into sharper focus later this month. On Jan. 26, state agency heads are scheduled to present their General Fund budget requests to lawmakers, offering the clearest view yet of where pressures are building and where flexibility is narrowing.
EDUCATION & WORKFORCE
Freshwater mussels are among the quiet foundations of Alabama’s river systems. The state is home to more species of freshwater mussels than anywhere else in the country, with populations concentrated in rivers like the Cahaba, Black Warrior, Coosa and Tennessee. Anchored to the riverbed, mussels filter what passes through them, improving water quality and strengthening the system over time. But they cannot move on their own. To survive and spread, mussels rely on host fish to carry their larvae upstream, allowing new populations to take hold and keeping the river from stagnating.
Education and workforce policy depends on the same kind of symbiotic relationship. Early gains matter only when they move students successfully from one stage to the next, through the school system and into the labor force. In 2026, lawmakers are focused on whether the policies already in place are actually getting students where they need to go.
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One area where lawmakers are seeing return on investment is in early education. On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Alabama posted significant improvements in both fourth grade math and reading, moving to 32nd nationally in math and 34th in reading after ranking near the bottom just a few years ago. State leaders have pointed to those gains as a ripple effect of targeted policy changes, including the Literacy Act and the Numeracy Act, which are beginning to register in classrooms.
Survey respondents pointed to responsiveness as critical for sustaining progress. “Pay attention to what the data is showing, listen to feedback from schools and being willing to adjust when the evidence calls for it,” one said.
Career technical education (CTE) is another area of opportunity. Last year’s $100 million investment in career tech facilities drew far more applications than available funding can support, signaling strong demand from both schools and employers. Lawmakers have expressed interest in expanding these career pathways and introducing them earlier, particularly at the middle school level, to help students see viable career options before they reach key decision points.
School choice is increasingly shaping how students move through Alabama's education system. As CHOOSE Act participation grows, lawmakers are increasingly focused on cost, long-term sustainability and how the program interacts with public school funding. Related legislation, including the proposed “Let the Kids Play Act,” is expected to clarify participation rules for student athletes using CHOOSE accounts.
Like Alabama’s mussels, the success of education policy is measured less by where it begins than by where it carries students next. That downstream movement — or the lack of it — is the question lawmakers are now confronting.
HEALTH CARE
Great Blue Herons wade into shallow water and wait. They stand motionless, sometimes for hours, watching for the right moment to strike. Patience is survival. Move too soon and the opportunity disappears. Herons succeed only when the ecosystem around them functions — when the water is clean, prey is available and the system can support life. For Alabamians, a healthy health-care ecosystem means something similar: access to care that is available when it’s needed, a workforce in place to deliver it, hospitals that can remain open and funding that doesn’t collapse under pressure. The skill is knowing when to act — and when holding steady protects the system people rely on.
Health care remains one of the most difficult areas for lawmakers to move, especially in an election year.
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Across sectors, survey respondents ranked health care among the issue most deserving of attention. Concerns range from access to mental health services to issues facing the uninsured population and the long-term viability of rural hospitals. However, expectations for major legislative breakthroughs remain low. As one respondent put it, “Everyone agrees there’s a problem. The challenge is finding solutions that can move without blowing up the budget or the politics.”
Mental health is an area of agreement. In recent years, Alabama has expanded crisis centers and community-based services, and lawmakers from both parties have signaled interest in continuing to support within existing structures. These investments are broadly viewed as stabilizers, helping reduce pressure on emergency rooms, law enforcement and the workforce.
Rural health care presents a more complex picture. Alabama is set to receive more than $200 million through the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, part of a five-year effort to support targeted projects such as facility upgrades, workforce recruitment and telehealth expansion. State leaders have emphasized that these dollars must be used strategically and come with outcome-based requirements. While the funding offers short-term support for specific communities, it does not resolve the underlying financial challenges facing many rural hospitals, where access to labor and delivery services and primary care is limited.
Several lawmakers have also aimed at recruitment and retention, including efforts to increase tax incentives for physicians who practice in rural areas. These measures reflect a broader strategy focused on shoring up weak points rather than attempting a full structural overhaul.
As for Medicaid expansion, the contours of the debate are familiar. House leaders have acknowledged interest in alternative or hybrid approaches, while House and Senate Republicans have been explicit that full expansion is not expected to advance this year. Respondents largely agree. “There are people who support it,” one said, “but not enough who are willing to spend political capital on it this year.”
In 2026, health care policy is less about sudden movement and more about holding steady under strain, much like the Great Blue Heron.
PUBLIC SAFETY & JUSTICE
Largemouth bass, the state fish of Alabama, behave differently depending on water clarity. In clear water, they hang back, studying prey carefully before striking. In turbid water, they attack aggressively. Visibility is low, so they move on what they can see.
Public safety legislation moves the same way in 2026.
Where the terrain is familiar and the political current is already moving, lawmakers strike quickly. Several bills were prefiled ahead of the session to increase penalties for violent crimes, expand sentencing options or strengthen law enforcement protections. With leadership aligned and a Republican supermajority in place, these proposals are positioned to advance early.
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Justice reform faces murkier water. Proposals related to parole practices, sentencing flexibility or oversight of the Department of Corrections are expected to be discussed, but movement is slower. Even measures that draw bipartisan interest face higher procedural thresholds and longer review processes. Expect lawmakers to be hesitant about changes that could be framed as reducing accountability, regardless of intent.
All of this unfolds against a strained corrections system. Alabama’s prisons remain overcrowded and under federal scrutiny as the state moves closer to opening a new men’s prison in Elmore County. In her State of the State address, Gov. Ivey emphasized progress on prison construction and staffing as necessary steps toward improving safety and compliance. Critics counter that new facilities alone will not resolve overcrowding or address deeper systemic challenges without broader reform.
At the local level, officials continue to raise questions about the role of housing conditions, economic opportunity and community stability in shaping public safety outcomes. Whether these upstream factors meaningfully influence legislative decisions remains an open question.
This year, like the bass, public safety policy moves quickly where conditions are murky and instincts take over. Justice reform, by contrast, lingers in clearer water, where lawmakers study the terrain and wait for the right moment to make a move. The result is a system where some measures advance quickly, others hold in deeper water and the most complex questions remain suspended, waiting for an opportunity that may not come this year.
LOOKING DOWNSTREAM: What Comes Next
Progress is most likely where the water is already moving — where funding is in place, leaders are aligned and agencies are ready to go. Proposals that require new revenue or long debate, or that risk federal conflict, tend to hit choppier water, even when there’s agreement that something needs to change.
Several survey respondents pointed to the importance of discipline in that environment. As one noted, “Federal policy swings force the state to be reactive. How those pressures are managed determines how much room there is for proactive solutions.” That tension shapes everything from budget choices to health care to criminal justice reform. It also reinforces why some issues advance incrementally while others stall, even with broad agreement on the problem.
Respondents were also clear about what helps policy stay afloat once it starts moving. “Clear data matters, but so do real stories from people and communities affected by the policy,” one said. “The most effective efforts tend to be bipartisan, practical and solution-oriented in ways that can be realistically implemented and sustained.”
The 2026 session is picking up speed, shaped by tight margins and limited time. In years like this, experienced navigators understand that progress comes from knowing when to ride the wave and when to hold steady.
Want to stay afloat as the session unfolds? Peritus PR’s Capitol Connection offers clear, timely insight into the legislation shaping the weeks to come. We track key developments, explain why they matter and flag what to watch for next. Because we know when decisions move quickly and the path ahead shifts, an informed perspective makes the difference.
When the stakes are high, communication matters.
At Peritus Public Relations, we know you want to make an impact. To do that, you need confidence and clarity to take action. Tell us what’s keeping you up at night and stop letting fear of a misstep get in the way of driving your mission forward. We believe you deserve to get it right. For over a decade, organizations like yours have trusted us to navigate the best path forward.
Peritus specializes in issue advocacy, stakeholder engagement, government affairs and strategic consulting. Let’s connect if you want to learn more about how state policy affects your mission and bottom line.