By Mary Sell, includes “Like Alabama families watching the rising costs for groceries, gasoline and other goods, state officials are monitoring inflation increases that could impact government budgets and buying power. … ‘One of the biggest problems with inflation is it brings an instability into factor,’ Albritton said. ‘It’s hard to budget when you don’t know what anything is going to cost. From the state level, there’s nothing we can do about (inflation) except try to plan around it.’ …”