Georgia House to vote on amended 2021 budget Thursday

(The Center Square) – The Georgia House is expected to vote Thursday on changes to the state’s spending plan for the rest of the fiscal year.

The Amended Fiscal Year (AFY) budget for 2021 was approved by the House Appropriations and Rules committees Wednesday. Rules Committee Chairperson Richard Smith, R-Columbus, said it would be placed on the House calendar for a floor vote Thursday.

House Appropriations Committee Chairperson Terry England, R-Auburn, said the committee worked fast to complete the budget in case the pandemic worsens. Lawmakers were forced to temporarily cut the session short last March because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

England said budget writers have been strategizing since fall, “trying to figure out what the economy was going to do, or is doing” and figuring out what revenues the state would have and “what holes” from the budget they could “fill.”

Gov. Brian Kemp directed state agencies last year to reduce the state’s $28 billion spending proposal by 10%. The General Assembly passed a $25.9 million budget in June for fiscal year 2021.

AFY budget proposals by Kemp and the House reflect a $654 million increase in spending from the original fiscal 2021 budget, bringing total spending to $26.5 billion.

Budget writers must consider Kemp’s proposal in their spending decisions, and England said they didn’t stray far from the governor’s plans.

The House committee allocated $10.24 billion to the Department of Education, reflecting a $647 million difference from the $9.6 billion that was allocated in June. Kemp’s proposal reflected a $10.27 billion allocation, or $37.8 million more than the House’s AFY proposal for education.

The House Appropriations Committee restored cuts from the judicial system and the Department of Agriculture in its proposal. The Department of Agriculture would see an increase of more than $3.1 million if the House version is approved. Kemp recommended a $2.2 million increase.

Facing criticism about the state’s lack of funding for the Georgia Department of Public Health amid the pandemic, England made a point of acknowledging Georgia’s ability to support the agency through federal COVID-19 relief.

“They have had a tremendous amount of money come to them on the federal level,” England said. “Right now, I think they’re sitting somewhere about a billion dollars in federal money that they will be receiving in the next week that’ll be going to the COVID response, but there are some things that we can do.”

The House version of the AFY budget includes nearly $286,000 to hire a chief medical officer, a deputy commissioner of public health and a chief data officer to support the agency with COVID-19 response. It also includes $18 million to replace and upgrade the public health surveillance system for vaccinations and more than $15 million to support the state’s plan to vaccinate people in its HIV/AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

One of the state’s biggest expenses under the House’s AFY proposal is state vehicles. Lawmakers want to spend $38.6 million replacing 500 school buses across Georgia. The buses come standard at $7,700 each, England said. The state also would cover the cost of upgrading the vehicles with safety features, he said.

“Before somebody says it. I know that we’ve got a lot of [school] systems that are not running buses right now. It doesn’t matter,” England said. “The buses sat there. They’re a year older. So, it puts them a year closer to their expiration date, but a lot of systems have been using these buses to take meals out to children during the week. So they are putting miles on them, but remember as soon as we get done with this pandemic, there’ll be children back on those buses again.”

The House AFY proposal also calls for purchasing or replacing 321 vehicles for the Georgia State Patrol, 12 vehicles for the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, 53 vehicles for the Department of Community Supervision, 93 vehicles for the Department of Agriculture, 25 vehicles for the Department of Driver Services, 76 vehicles for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, 26 vehicles for the Department of Natural Resources and 16 vehicles for the State Board of Pardons.

Both chambers of the General Assembly must agree on an AFY budget before the spending plan is sent to Kemp for final approval.

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