Governor Bob Riley has issued press releases trying to take credit for a $39.1 million award by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Alabama’s Children’s Health Insurance.

According to the release, Riley said, “The fact that Alabama is one of only nine states receiving a performance bonus, and we are receiving the largest bonus, demonstrates the effectiveness of our innovative program.”

However in May, the Democratic majority in the legislature was forced to override Gov. Riley’s veto of the general fund budget, which included an increase in funding for the ALL Kids program. Riley vetoed the budget because he wanted the increase in funding for the program to go to prisons rather than children, according to a press release from the Alabama Democratic Party.

Noticeably absent from the administration’s press release was any commendation to the Alabama Legislature for passing the budget and other legislation to streamline the ALL Kids enrollment process, which led to the windfall increase in federal funding.

During the session only one Republican legislator voted with the Democratic majorities to pass the budget. Had Riley and the Republican Party’s effort to kill the budget prevailed, Alabama’s uninsured children would have suffered at the expense of putting more money into prisons.

According to an AP article, the lone Republican who voted for it, State Rep. Todd Greeson, R-Ider, said the decision was an easy one for him.

“We’ve opened it up for more children to get health care,” Greeson said. “[Riley] wanted to put more funding in prisons, and we wanted to put more money in children’s health care. I voted for children’s health care and prioritized that above putting more funding in prisons.”

“This 39 million is a welcome Christmas present for Alabama’s ALL Kids, but it looks like Governor Grinch, who vetoed more money for the Program months ago, is now trying to steal the show,” said Joe Turnham, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party. “The real credit here should go to Democrats in the Legislature who stood up for what was right,”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 8:38 am and is filed under Alabama Democratic Party, Alabama Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.