Georgia House budget writers approve '24 spending plan

ATLANTA – The Georgia House Appropriations Committee approved a $32.5 billion fiscal 2024 budget Wednesday that prioritizes mental-health care and law enforcement.

The spending plan, which takes effect July 1, includes the $2,000 pay raises for teachers and state employees Gov. Brian Kemp requested in January. But it goes further by targeting additional $2,000 increases for law enforcement personnel at a cost of $13 million.

The budget also includes targeted raises for employees of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the state Forestry Commission, and the Department of Driver Services, agencies plagued with particularly high turnover rates.

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With the state sitting on a surplus of more than $6 billion, the budget would increase spending by more than $2 billion over the then-record fiscal 2023 budget the General Assembly adopted last spring. But it won’t satisfy everyone’s wish list, Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, the budget-writing committee’s chairman, told committee members before Wednesday’s vote.

“We looked at many needs,” Hatchett said. “Unfortunately, we can’t fund them all.”

For one thing, the committee stopped short of fully funding the Zell Miller Scholarship, which covers tuition at University System of Georgia colleges and universities for Georgia high school students with grade-point averages of 3.5 or better. Instead, the House budget funds 95% of the Zell Miller program and redirects the other 5% to help fund scholarships at private colleges and health benefits for public pre-kindergarten teachers.

The budget does fully fund the state’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) k-12 student funding formula with a record $13.1 billion in fiscal 2024. The QBE was not fully funded when Georgia was suffering leaner economic times, but full funding has been restored for the last several years.

Besides the extra pay raise for law enforcement employees, the House budget also would boost public safety by funding a new state patrol post in Buckhead for $1.25 million.

Rising crime in Buckhead was the key reason cited by supporters of legislation calling for separating Buckhead from Atlanta and creating a separate city. The bill fizzled after David Dove, executive council for Kemp’s office, wrote a memo raising a host of legal questions about the proposal.

The House committee also set aside $2.7 million for a Cold Case Specialty Unit within the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, $6.3 million for the free breakfast and lunch programs for low-income students, $8.2 million to boost the Technical College System of Georgia’s aviation, commercial driver’s license, and nursing programs, and a $20.1 million in funding increase for maintenance of local roads.

The Full House will take up the fiscal 2024 budget later this week or early next week.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia House budget writers approve 2024 spending plan