The Alabama Senate approved a $1 billion package on March for road and bridge construction during the next decade that would be nearly twice the size of the federal stimulus funding Alabama received for highways, the Associated Press reports ^[1].

The Senate voted 25-10 for the proposal by Democratic Sen. Lowell Barron of Fyffe. Support came mostly from Democrats and opposition mostly from Republicans, according to the AP report.

Barron’s proposal is a constitutional amendment that won’t take effect unless passed by the House and be approved by Alabama voters in the general election Nov. 2, according to the report

One opponent, Sen. Scott Beason (R-Gardendale), said in the AP report that people in Alabama are treating the Alabama Trust Fund “like it’s free money.”