ATLANTA – Georgia House budget writers support Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan to give state employees a $2,000 raise, but want to double the pay rise for state law enforcement officers and increase their pay by $4,000.
On education, they oppose the Republican governor’s plan to end the current two-tier system of college scholarships and pay full college tuition to all eligible students. They want high school students who only earned a B-average to continue paying a small percentage of their tuition.
These are two of the biggest budget changes the House Budget Committee voted to approve on Wednesday. House Bill 19 also emphasizes paying higher reimbursement rates to healthcare providers and expanding opportunities to train new healthcare professionals.
The full House is expected to debate the spending plan on Thursday.
“Given the increasing attention being paid to law enforcement and what they are doing, we believe an increase is warranted,” said Matt Hatchett, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, a Dublin Republican.
The budget would spend $32.4 billion in federal funds in 2024 beginning July 1. If you count federal and other money, the state would spend more than $61 billion. Both numbers are down slightly from this year. The state ended last year with $6.6 billion in excess cash, but Kemp hasn’t outlined plans to spend most of it.
Georgia’s budget is enough to educate 1.75 million K-12 students and 465,000 college students, house 48,000 state prisoners, pave 18,000 miles of highways and serve more than 200,000 people who are mentally ill, developmentally disabled, or addicted to drugs or alcohol are.
All state and university employees and public school teachers would get $2,000 in pay increases, but Hatchett said the state needed to increase salaries for state troopers and other officials by another $13 million to keep up with cities’ bid , counties and neighboring states to be able to compete.
Hatchett said members of the House wrote $3 million more for State Forestry Commission employees and $2.3 million more for driver-licensing employees, driven by similar needs to compete for workers.
The House of Representatives would spend $1.25 million to create a state police post in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, a state response to crime concerns in the affluent area after Kemp and lawmakers rejected a proposal to allow Buckhead residents to over to vote for Atlanta’s secession.
House Budget Clerks are also proposing money for a new Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate cold cases, more forensic scientists to analyze gun and drug evidence, and sex-assault nurse examiners.
Hatchett said members of the House of Representatives opposed Kemp keeping the two-tier system of HOPE scholarships because students who meet the more stringent Zell Miller scholarship requirements should be “awarded at a different level” because “they during worked hard through high school.”
Currently, regular HOPE recipients who graduate from high school with a B-average receive 90% of tuition. The House plan would pay 95% but not all tuition as Kemp had suggested. Zell Miller recipients would continue to receive full tuition.
The House of Representatives would use the savings from reduced spending on public college scholarships to increase HOPE scholarship payments to private colleges by $15 million and pay higher health insurance costs for preschool teachers employed by public school districts.
The House of Representatives would double spending to $20 million on a new program to meet the financial needs of college students who are about to graduate from two-year and four-year colleges. Representatives would increase funding for colleges to teach nursing, trucking and aviation.
The budget would also increase Medicaid payments to health care providers so they can raise workers’ wages.
“As you all know, there is inflation,” Hatchett said. “We have many agencies and people who help our citizens through this state who, like everyone, compete for workers.”
In a further acknowledgment of inflation, the House of Representatives is set to again award $500 in bonuses to 54,000 retirees in the state employee pension system, as lawmakers first approved this year. Retirees in this plan do not receive periodic cost-of-living increases.
Representatives would also mandate $35 million in spending on various mental health programs, part of a push to improve services. Georgia would create 375 more slots to pay for home services for people with intellectual, developmental or physical disabilities. The state funded 500 this year but still has thousands on a waiting list.
Georgia would spend $2.8 million to provide routine dental services to adults on Medicaid. Now only emergency dental services are paid for.
The state would also send another $20 million from gas taxes to cities and counties for road works. Hatchett said this is part of a five-year plan to increase local street funding from $200 million to $300 million.
