With primaries two months away, the House and Senate gave final approval Tuesday to an election-friendly budget that gives a little something to pretty much everyone.
Including, at the last minute, the Atlanta Falcons.
The spending plan for fiscal 2015 — which begins July 1 — pours more than $300 million extra into schools to eliminate furloughs, lengthen the school year and, if there’s money left over, give teachers pay raises. Some state employees will also get merit raises.
The budget pumps more than $800 million into construction projects, with the bulk of the money going to new schools, college buildings, libraries and the Savannah harbor deepening project.
It provides extra scholarship money to technical college students with top grades, more for health care programs for teachers and state employees and more for efforts to detect and diagnose autism in children. More goes to programs for seniors who get meals delivered to them, and more is spent helping marketing Georgia farm products.
And on the 39th day of the 40-day session, lawmakers agreed to set aside $17 million requested by the World Congress Center for parking for the new Falcons stadium. Another $14.5 million is included for equipment to help beef up the state’s response following this winter’s ice and snow storms.
via Budget passes, with a last-minute surprise | www.ajc.com.
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