By State Sen. Ben Watson, MD.
The Georgia General Assembly was off this week for the traditional Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, and budget week at the capitol. The week was led off with the Governor introducing his budget numbers and requests for the amended Fiscal Year 2022 (July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022).
Each year, two appropriations bills are passed through the General Assembly and then signed by the Governor. The first to be passed is the budget for the Amended Fiscal Year (2022). This adjusts the current fiscal year’s budget, accounting for changes in school enrollment and other unanticipated needs. In this budget, the General Assembly made corrections to last year’s budget and seeing where there are shortfalls and over allotments. From there we repackage an amended budget to allow us to better use your tax dollars. We also look at what the Governor’s request for the 2023 Fiscal Year. In that budget, funds are appropriated and are required in the end to not exceed the expected revenues thus creating a “balanced budget.”
This week I will look at the highlights for the 2022 amended budget as it is the first of the two budgets we will vote on this session. The “big” budget is the vehicle in which we will review current programs and determine their success and introduce new funds to new programs to help Georgians.
As I mentioned last week, the Governor has asked the General Assembly to provide a tax refund to all taxpayers in Georgia. This is due to $1.6 billion surplus in the state’s revenues directly related to federal COVID response dollars and the fact that we kept Georgia “open for business.” We look to refund $250 to single filers and $500 for married filers. This is a chance to refund excess government revenues to the taxpayers instead of wasting the resources on frivolous expenditures.
The Governor also requested an additional $266 million to provide cost of living increases to all state employees whose pay was frozen over the past fourteen years when we were having tighter budgets. This will provide for a roughly $5,000 pay increase for many state employees.
Also included in the 2022 amended budget, the Governor allocated over $380 million to restore austerity cuts to the Quality Basic Education (QBE) program and $5,576,587 to restore austerity to other programs directly supporting K-12 instruction.
Governor Kemp fulfilled a major promise that he made when he first ran in 2018 to provide for a $5,000 salary increase for teachers across the state.
His proposed budget called for the final $2,000 pay increase for teachers, after previous budgets raising pay by $3000.
The budget allocates approximately $350 million for the Department of Education to provide the one-time $2,000 salary supplement to full-time employees and $1,000 to part-time employees, which includes QBE-funded instructional staff, school support staff, school administration, and central administration.
Additionally, the HOPE scholarship and grant programs have helped millions of Georgians afford their postsecondary educations, but as tuition and other costs have increased at some institutions, the HOPE program has not kept pace. This budget will provide an additional $79 million to fund growth in scholarship and grant needs and ensure that HOPE programs cover at least 90 percent of tuition at all Georgia public higher education institutions.
In the public health arena, almost $10 million in additional funds for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program and the Health Insurance Continuation Program to support Georgians living with HIV/ AIDS. An additional $8.5 million was asked for the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission, the first line of health care to those who suffer medical emergencies.
Thank you for your continued interest in the General Assembly session.
As your public servant, feel free to visit me at the Capitol or to reach out to me by phone or email. I am in 325-A Coverdell Legislative Office Building. My office phone number is (404) 656-7880 and my email is ben.watson@senate.ga.gov.
I look forward to continuing to serve you.
Watson represents Bryan County in the Georgia General Assembly.