ATLANTA – The General Assembly gave final passage Monday to a record $40.5 billion mid-year budget that prioritizes hurricane relief and prisons.
The mid-year budget, which covers state spending through June 30, sailed through the Georgia House of Representatives 168-5 before passing the state Senate 55-1.
It increases state spending by $4.4 billion over the fiscal 2025 budget lawmakers adopted last spring, including a disaster relief package of $862 million for victims of Hurricane Helene, up from $615 million Gov. Brian Kemp requested in January.
“We know there’s pent-up demand for these funds,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, told his House colleagues before Monday’s vote. “People are still hurting.”
Another big-ticket item is $345 million for additional staffing for Georgia prisons as well as safety and security improvements. Of that amount, $50.9 million will go toward hiring additional correctional officers.
After reducing Kemp’s request for four new modular units to temporarily house inmates while crumbling infrastructure inside existing prisons is replaced, the House and Senate went back to the governor’s original recommendation of $80 million. Each of the units holds 126 inmates.
The mid-year budget also includes $18 million for body cameras, tasers, and surveillance technology upgrades and $17 million for drone detection equipment. Drones smuggling cellphones and other contraband into state prisons has become a major concern for prison officials.
The various funding increases follow the release last fall of a federal audit that criticized the state’s prison system for failing to protect inmates from widespread violence.
The House and Senate supported Kemp’s request for $501 million to increase surface water supplies in Coastal Georgia to supply the Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant now being built along Interstate 16 west of Savannah. Another $266 million is earmarked for water and sewer improvement projects elsewhere in the state.
Another $500 million is earmarked for the state Department of Transportation’s Freight and Logistics program, a series of highway improvements aimed at speeding up the movement of freight.
Lawmakers also backed the governor’s recommendation for an additional $50 million in school-safety grants, enough to provide every school in Georgia with nearly $70,000.
The House and Senate added $21.5 million to expand the state’s medical residency offerings, an initiative aimed at addressing a shortage of physicians, particularly in rural South Georgia. Another $38.5 million will go toward the growing demand for foster care.
The mid-year budget now goes to Kemp’s desk for his signature.