§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 15 completed fiscal years preceding the date on which the fiscal year appropriation cap is calculated.

(3) An amount equal to 40 percent of the increase in recurring revenues deposited into the Education Trust Fund for the last completed fiscal year over the recurring revenues deposited into the Education Trust Fund for the fiscal year immediately preceding the last completed fiscal year. The amount provided in this subdivision shall be added only if the percentage in the recurring revenues deposited into the Education Trust Fund for the last completed fiscal year exceeds the 15 year average growth rate calculated in subdivision (b)(2).

(4) 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.

(5) 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.

(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.

(Act 2011-3, p. 90, §3.)