Lawmakers Reach Deal on Ala. County Crisis

The sheriff in Alabama's most populous county may call for the National Guard to help maintain order, a spokesman said Tuesday, as a judge cleared the way for cuts in the sheriff's budget and lawmakers reached a compromise they hope will end the budget crisis.

Jefferson County's state legislators asked for a hasty special session to enact the tax compromise.

Lawmakers reached the deal after Circuit Judge Joseph L. Boohaker ruled that Jefferson commissioners — now trying to head off a municipal bankruptcy filing of historic proportions — could go ahead with plans to slash $4.1 million from the budget of Sheriff Mike Hale, who had filed a lawsuit that temporarily blocked spending cuts for his office.

Both Democrats and Republicans said the compromise was flawed but vital to ending a crisis that already has resulted in layoffs for more than one-fourth of the county work force.

"I think we have a compromise bill that can pass the House and Senate," said Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham. "I don't like it, nobody likes it. But we've got to do it."

Gov. Bob Riley's office would not say whether he would call the Legislature to Montgomery for a special session starting Monday, as the Jefferson County delegation asked.

Officials said 1,004 county workers already are on unpaid leave because courts threw out a key county tax, and Hale has warned that reductions to his budget would mean fewer patrols by deputies and decreased courthouse security.

A spokesman for Hale, Randy Christian, said the sheriff told Riley after the ruling that state assistance may be needed to perform basic law enforcement tasks once the department's current funding is exhausted in early September.

"We will certainly be looking at calling in the National Guard," said Christian.

Hale may have to cut as many as 188 deputies and almost 300 civilian workers out of more than 700 employees total because of Boohaker's ruling, Christian said. That would leave just enough workers to staff the county's two jails, which hold about 1,000 prisoners on average.