McClurkin and state Sens. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, and Slade Blackwell, R-Birmingham, agreed balancing the state’s budget will be one of the Legislature’s biggest jobs this year.

“Every piece of legislation addressed this year will be tied somehow to the budget,” Ward said. “We have a $1.5 billion general fund, and we will have to cut $400 million out of that. It will be some heavy lifting.”

Ward and Blackwell said alleviating prison overcrowding could help cut a significant state expense.

“Alabama’s prison system is 193 percent overcrowded — the highest in the nation,” Blackwell wrote in a letter to the Shelby County Reporter. “We simply cannot accommodate all of the prisoners in the state with our current system.

“We will continue to look for ways to improve and uphold public safety while keeping the budget in mind,” Blackwell added. “We must address this issue soon or it will continue to plague our state.”

Ward said investing in programs such as drug court could help reduce the number of inmates sent to state prisons.

“Seventy percent of inmates are first-time, non-violent offenders,” Ward said, noting keeping minor offenders out of prison could “free up beds for those who committed more violent crimes.”

Ward also said he would like to see a bill passed to utilize more retired judges to help “free up some docket space” in the state’s courts, and said he would like to see a cyber crime bill passed to combat identity theft.

McClurkin and Blackwell said they will support bills to allow charter schools in Alabama.

Ward said he would not be in favor of merging the state’s education and general fund budgets to help make up for general fund shortfalls.

“I would be against helping the general fund by taking money out of the education fund,” Ward said. “It would eat up our general fund if we combined those two.”