ATLANTA – The Georgia House’s budget-writing committee approved Gov. Brian Kemp’s $29.9 billion mid-year budget Thursday, a spending plan that includes long-awaited raises for teachers and state employees.
The budget, which covers state spending through June 30, would increase state workers’ pay by $5,000 and give teachers a $2,000 raise. The raise, combined with a $3,000 increase teachers received three years ago, would fulfill a promise Kemp made on the campaign trail.
The mid-year budget, an increase of $2.7 billion over the fiscal 2022 budget the General Assembly passed last spring, takes advantage of a strong Georgia economy that has produced higher-than-anticipated tax revenues.
State tax collections through January covering the first seven months of this fiscal year were up 17.9% over the first seven months of fiscal 2021.
The flush state coffers allowed the House Appropriations Committee to move some building projects originally scheduled to be financed by bonds in fiscal 2023 to be moved forward to the mid-year budget and paid in cash.
The list of accelerated projects includes $28.8 million for roof repairs at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta.
“It is a state asset, one of those things we have a responsibility to maintain,” said committee Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn.
The project list also includes an expansion of the public safety building at Jekyll Island and the transfer of state employees from leased space at 2 Peachtree St. in downtown Atlanta to the state Capitol complex.
“The cost to upgrade [2 Peachtree] to current standards far exceeds the value of the building,” England said.
The mid-year budget also fully funds the state’s K-12 student funding formula. The General Assembly cut the formula by $900 million during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago.
The Appropriations Committee also increased spending on programs aimed at improving health care across the state.
The Department of Community Health would get more money to cover the costs of travel nurses hired to boost staffing at nursing homes hit hard by COVID-19.
A newly funded initiative would provide $10 million to extend service-cancelable loans to Georgians training to become mental health-care workers.
“It may take four to five years for us to see the impact of it,” England said. “But when we do, we’ll know it.”
The full House of Representatives could vote on the mid-year budget as early as Friday.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.