ATLANTA – The General Assembly gave final passage Thursday to a $27.5 billion mid-year budget suddenly made larger by the addition of $100 million for the state’s response to coronavirus.
Gov. Brian Kemp asked for the emergency appropriation on Wednesday. The money will come from the state’s reserves.
“The Revenue Shortfall Reserve is there for things like this,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn, told his legislative colleagues before the House approved the mid-year budget 166-1. The Georgia Senate had passed the mid-year budget earlier Thursday 53-1.
The final version of the mid-year budget, which covers state spending through June 30, is the product of a joint House-Senate conference committee, which met in recent days to work out the two chambers’ relatively few disagreements over line items.
“There were not a whole lot of differences,” England said.
Besides the money for the state’s coronavirus response, the conferees agreed on a $132.8 million increase in the mid-year budget to reflect enrollment growth in Georgia public schools of 6,193 students since lawmakers adopted the original fiscal 2020 budget a year ago.
The conference committee also added $5 million in stabilization grants to rural hospitals, increased funding for mental health services by $8.2 million, restored $4 million in cuts Kemp had recommended for Georgia’s public defenders and accountability courts and put back $1.3 million in reductions to public libraries.
The mid-year budget now heads to the governor’s desk for his signature.