ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate passed a $25.9 billion fiscal 2021 state budget Thursday that would avoid some of the deepest spending cuts lawmakers have been facing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The budget, which cleared the Senate 40-13 on the next-to-last day of the 2020 legislative session, would reduce state spending by $2.2 billion. That’s substantially less than the legislature’s appropriations committees had been contemplating earlier in the budget review process.
The smaller reduction would allow lawmakers to cancel all furlough days for teachers and state employees and restore some of the painful reductions that had been slated for behavioral and public health, public safety, agriculture, rural hospitals and child welfare services.
The six-member joint House-Senate conference committee that negotiated the budget deal Thursday took advantage of a more optimistic revenue forecast Gov. Brian Kemp released recently after receiving a smaller-than-anticipated decline in tax receipts resulting from the coronavirus-driven recession.
Legislative budget writers also drew down $250 million from the state’s general fund reserves and $50 million from Georgia’s share of the national tobacco settlement to help offset some of the impact of the cuts.
As a result, the budget would reduce state spending across the board by 10%, a significant improvement over the 14% cuts the governor and legislative leaders had ordered up from state agencies.
Still, the conferees were forced to make difficult decisions, said Rep. Terry England, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
“There was no option but to have to make some of these cuts,” said England, R-Auburn. “They were not done out of malice but out of necessity.”
While the final version of the budget would do away with furloughs for teachers, it still slashes the state’s K-12 student funding formula by more than $900 million.
However, England noted that local school districts will able to offset some of that reduction with about $457 million in federal aid earmarked for Georgia schools in one of the coronavirus-relief measures passed by Congress.
The budget also includes $19.7 million to fully fund six months of Medicaid coverage for low-income new mothers in Georgia. While the General Assembly just passed a bill authorizing the post-partum coverage expansion, the money to pay for the initiative had been in doubt.
The budget conferees also found enough funding to restore grants to county health departments that had been under threat.
But Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson argued the cuts could have been reduced further or eliminated entirely had the Republican-controlled General Assembly not lowered Georgia’s income-tax rate two years ago.
The dismal budget climate was not just the result of the lockdown of Georgia’s economy to discourage the spread of COVID-19, said Henson, D-Stone Mountain.
“The tax cuts of the past have put us in a vulnerable position,” he said.
Meanwhile, lawmakers passed a separate bill earlier Thursday reducing their own annual salaries by 10% to show solidarity with the spending cuts the various state agencies are absorbing. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over the Senate, volunteered last week to take a 14% reduction in his yearly pay.
The House will vote on the budget on Friday, the final day of the 40-day legislative session.
ATLANTA – Restaurants, supermarkets and liquor stores would be able to make home deliveries of beer, wine, and distilled spirts in Georgia under a bill that has cleared the General Assembly.
The state House of Representatives gave the legislation final passage 114-45 Thursday, two days after it cleared the Georgia Senate overwhelmingly.
Supporters argued legalizing home delivery of alcoholic beverages is particularly timely in the midst of a global pandemic that has forced Georgians to shelter in their homes.
“COVID-19 has shown we need this in the state of Georgia,” said Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton.
As has been the case with other liquor-related legislation the General Assembly has passed in recent years, the home-delivery bill is subject to approval by local voters.
“A local community can say, ‘Not in our town. Not in our city,’ ” said Rep. Brett Harrell, R-Snellville, who introduced the bill into the House.
The Senate loaded up Harrell’s bill with a number of other related provisions as it made its way through that chamber.
It would broaden the so-called “Sunday brunch bill” the legislature passed two years ago allowing restaurants, hotels and wineries to serve alcohol on premises starting at 11 a.m. on Sundays. Under the new bill, the law would be extended to sales of liquor by grocery stores for off-premises consumption.
The legislation also would expand the current law allowing tastings of limited amounts of beer, wine and spirits from wineries and distilleries to package stores.
The measure now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
ATLANTA – Initial unemployment claims in Georgia fell again last week as the jobless rate declined throughout the state.
Out-of-work Georgians filed 125,725 first-time unemployment claims last week, down 6,272 from the previous week, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell in all of Georgia’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and regions. Statewide, joblessness in May declined to 9.7%.
“These positive indicators are promising for Georgia’s job market,” state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said. “I believe we are beginning to stabilize our economy, allowing Georgians to again focus on employment and spending.”
The improving jobs numbers follow several months of highly volatile economic performance statistics. After posting the lowest unemployment rate in Georgia history early this year, the business lockdown resulting from the coronavirus pandemic forced the state’s jobless rate to a record high.
As the economic downturn deepened, the labor department processed more than 2.7 million initial unemployment claims during a 14-week period beginning in mid-March, more than during the last seven years combined. More than 1 million were determined to be valid, and 91% of those claims have been paid.
Since mid-March, the most initial claims by far – 677,982 – have come from the accommodation and food services job sector. The health and social assistance sector has accounted for 322,892 claims, followed closely by retail trade with 308,934 claims.
The labor department has paid out more than $6.9 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits during those 14 weeks.
More than 101,000 jobs are listed online at EmployGeorgia.com for Georgians to access. The labor agency offers online resources for finding a job, building a resume, and assisting with other re-employment needs.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives has given final passage to two health-care measures aimed at improving outcomes for new mothers and elderly Georgians.
The House voted unanimously late Wednesday to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income mothers in Georgia and impose additional regulations on the state’s elder-care homes in the era of COVID-19.
In both cases, the state Senate made changes to the bills, which had originated in the House earlier in this year’s legislative session, before the General Assembly took a three-month hiatus to discourage the spread of coronavirus.
House Bill 1114 authorizes the state to apply for a federal waiver that would allow Georgia to offer Medicaid coverage to income-eligible women up to six months post-partum. The current Georgia Medicaid program only permits coverage for up to two months.
The bill also would extend Medicaid coverage to lactation specialists for mothers having trouble feeding their babies.
The Senate amended the bill to make the expanded coverage subject to the availability of funding for the initiative, a key consideration in light of the state’s current budget woes.
House Bill 987 increases training requirements for staff members in elderly care facilities and raises the number of staff who would have to be on site at any given time to watch over residents. It would also increase fines for violations or if a facility causes a resident’s death.
When the bill reached the Senate, it was amended to require elderly care homes to report when residents or staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Senators also set out specific cleaning procedures and put in a provision requiring facilities to keep on hand at least a seven-day supply of protective equipment including masks and gowns.
“We’re going to be a leader in this country on taking care of our elderly in assisted-living facilities,” said House Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, who sponsored both bills.
Both measures now head to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
ATLANTA – Legislation intended to put some transparency into the discharge of harmful ethylene oxide gained final passage in the General Assembly Wednesday.
The state House of Representatives voted 150-1 to require manufacturers that use ethylene oxide to report any waste spills or gas releases to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) within 24 hours. The director of the EPD then would post the information on its website.
Ethylene oxide is used primarily to sterilize medical equipment, a particularly important function in the era of coronavirus, said Rep. Don Parsons, R-Marietta, chairman of the House Committee on Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications. Parsons presented Senate Bill 426, a bipartisan measure that the Senate passed in March, on the House floor on Wednesday.
State Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, introduced the legislation last winter after public concerns were raised over unreported releases of the cancer-causing chemical at a Sterigenics plant in Smyrna and a facility in Covington operated by BD Bard.
