A $27.4 billion mid-year budget covering state spending through the end of June overwhelmingly cleared the Georgia Senate Wednesday.
Senators took the fiscal 2020 mid-year spending plan the state House of Representatives approved last month and made a number of changes, many aimed at squeezing more savings out of the tight budget Gov. Brian Kemp proposed in January. It’s the product of 4% across-the-board spending cuts Kemp ordered last summer for the current fiscal year to help offset sluggish state tax collections.
“It was a difficult year,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, told his Senate colleagues before Wednesday’s 52-1 vote. “The Senate has done its best to meet the needs of the state given our fiscal situation.”
The Senate agreed with many of the changes the House made to the spending plan, including an appropriation of $104.2 million for the annual mid-year adjustment to account for enrollment growth in the state’s public schools. Senators also sided with the House to restore several budget cuts the governor had recommended, including $1.2 million to hire more agents and analysts for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Gang Task Force and develop a database to track gang activity, and $1.3 million for local accountability courts, a criminal justice reform initiative aimed at reducing the prison population.
The Senate supported House additions of $235,000 to help the secretary of state’s office with cybersecurity measures and the legal costs of election-related litigation, and kicked in $244,000 in startup costs for the new state commission that will oversee Georgia’s medical cannabis program.
Besides agreeing with many of the budget cuts restored by the House, senators acted on their own to restore $258,000 in cuts to foster care services. Before this year’s legislative session started, Kemp declared improving foster care a major priority.
“In an era where we’re constantly seeking foster-care parents, it’s a good thing to spend this money,” Hill said.
Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson congratulated Hill and members of the Senate Appropriations Committee for restoring many of the governor’s spending cuts. But he complained the mid-year budget still leaves the state short of funding many critical needs because of the revenue hit from an income tax cut Republicans pushed through the General Assembly two years ago.
“Our constituents sent us here to make tough decisions,” said Henson, D-Stone Mountain. “If we don’t have state roads, a strong public education system and protections of our drinking water and air, we’re letting the people down.”
The mid-year budget now goes back to the House, which could either agree with the changes the Senate made or resolve the two chambers’ differences in a legislative conference committee.
Even tougher decisions on a $2,000 teacher pay raise proposed by Kemp and whether to follow through with a second phase of the 2018 income tax cut await lawmakers later when they take up the governor’s $28.1 billion fiscal 2021 budget plan.
Dave Williams writes for the Capitol Beat News Service
