Sen. Bill Heath: Georgia’s Budget Outlook Shows Promise

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Georgia’s Budget Outlook Shows Promise

Sen. Bill Heath (R–Bremen)

As the clock struck midnight on March 20th, the Georgia General Assembly closed out a couple of months of hard work at the Gold Dome. Even though the legislature passed hundreds of bills this year, the only constitutional priority for the General Assembly is to pass a balanced state budget with no deficit spending.

Our state has seen its fair share of trying economic times since the height of the recession, which has required tough budgetary decisions and spending cuts to protect our state’s fiduciary interests. The good news is – after years of responsible budgeting on the state level – Georgia’s economic landscape continues to show modest, yet steady improvement.

Similar to any household budget, the State of Georgia has had to take a hard look at our spending priorities and minimize unnecessary expenses. The state budgeting process presents many challenges as legislators are required to meticulously account for every line item while determining the most efficient use of every taxpayer dollar. As a result, the budget or General Appropriations bill is usually transferred back and forth between both Chambers until the final line items are approved in conference committee.

This year however, appropriations committee chairs and specially-appointed conferees worked efficiently to send the Fiscal Year 2015 General Budget to the Governor’s desk on Day 39. From day one of the 2014 Legislative Session, the General Assembly demonstrated a strong resolve to reach a consensus prior to the day 40 midnight deadline.

Georgia’s $20.8 billion Fiscal Year 2015 General Budget represents a 2.9 percent increase from last year’s $20.2 billion budget. This year’s budget is reflective of our state’s continued fiscal restraint and steadily increasing sales and income tax revenues. Also noteworthy is the General Assembly has not raised taxes on hardworking Georgians while maintaining essential state services and operations with limited state resources. The increase in state funds from FY 2014 to FY 2015 is also proof of a slowly growing economy and will allow our state to reinvest funds in the areas hurt the most by the national recession.

Throughout the recession, the legislature and Governor protected budget areas related to education to the extent possible, never cutting education as much as other areas.  But, education did not see the increases that it had become accustomed to. With that in mind, the FY 2015 budget includes the following major educational line items:

• $535 increase for K-12 education, with $101 million for enrollment growth and training
• $314 million to increase instructional days, reduce teacher furloughs or increase teacher pay
• $14 million in capital funding to expand technology infrastructure
• $1.25 million increase in technical education for instruction
• $5 million to create Georgia Innovation Fund to award grants for the implementation and dissemination of innovative programs in public education funding in the Office of Student Achievement.

University and Technical College students will also be positively impacted through a 3 percent increase in the award amount for HOPE scholarships and grants, with an additional $9.4 million in lottery funds supporting the increase. In addition, $7.26 million has been allocated to create the Zell Miller Grant to cover full tuition costs for technical college students who maintain a 3.5 GPA.

I would like to commend Georgia’s hardworking teachers for continuing to educate Georgia’s students while bearing their part of the economic challenges. For the upcoming fiscal year, teachers did not receive specific salary scale adjustments outside of the normal Training and Experience adjustments; however, $314 million was added to the Quality Basic Education program to offset the austerity reduction to provide local educational authorities the flexibility to eliminate teacher furlough days, increase instructional days, and increase teacher salaries. Since Georgia’s teachers have not received a salary adjustment since 2009, this will hopefully ensure we are able to recruit and retain top level talent in our classrooms.

Although things are looking up financially now, Georgia still needs to remain prepared. Our nation isn’t out of the woods yet. But as long as we continue our fiscally conservative actions, we will be able to safeguard Georgia’s AAA bond rating and maintain our reputation as one of the top states for businesses, their employees, and their families.