Georgia Senate approves budget with $105 million cut to university system

The Georgia Senate on Thursday passed a version of the 2023-24 state budget that included significant cuts to the University System of Georgia teaching budget.

The vote was 51-1 in the Senate. The Senate and House versions of the budget must still be reconciled before a final version is passed.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a version of the state budget, HB 19, that cut $18 million for the employer share of health benefits that was introduced by Gov. Brian Kemp and approved by the state House. It also includes an $87 million cut to the teaching budget — a block of funding for student instruction, as opposed to research or other agencies under USG — to be replaced with unspent funds carried forward from the past year.

The total cut is about $105 million when compared to the Gov. Brian Kemp's initial budget proposal. But USG puts the cut at $113 million after including reductions to other budget lines. In contrast, the House passed a budget with less than $10,000 difference from the governor's proposal overall for the USG teaching budget.

"The $113 million decrease would significantly impact all 26 USG public colleges and universities, many of which are already experiencing a negative budget impact due to declining enrollment," USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue was quoted as saying in a statement. "These additional funding reductions would impact teaching budgets, staff and students. We are confident these things will resolve themselves by the end of the session.”

State Sen. Blake Tillery, chair of the appropriations committee, said the Senate was not consulted on the addition of the $18 million for health benefits, which made it "low hanging fruit" to cut. The rest of the cut was because the Senate needed to balance additions elsewhere, and USG can carry forward unused funding from years past to compensate for the cut. USG has $504 million in carry-over funds, Tillery said.

"The House had a hit to Medicaid of about $110 million, roughly. We were able to put that back," Tillery said on the Senate floor. "If that was their $100 million move, then ours was probably on Regents."

The amount of money cut is also similar to $105 million already passed by lawmakers for a new electronic record system for Augusta University in the mid-year budget. That comes as AU Health is exploring a partnership with the Atlanta-based hospital system Wellstar.

Electronic records:State proposes $105 million to update Medical College of Georgia's electronic records

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The Wellstar Health System has come under fire after it closed the Atlanta Medical Center and Atlanta Medical Center-South, bringing complaints from the NAACP and politicians. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has reported that the disputes over funding are in part due to proposed changes to the Certificate of Need requirement, which restricts where new health care facilities can be built. Wellstar opposes the changes while Lt. Gov. Burt Jones backs it.

"As a faculty leader, it's disappointing that higher education is an innocent bystander in a political fight," said Georgia American Association of University Professors President Matthew Boedy, an associate professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia.

Boedy said USG has already faced budget cuts in recent years, and said further cuts could harm the mission of the states institutions for higher education. The cuts, he said, was roughly twice the budget of some of the state colleges.

Wellstar declined to comment, as did AU Health/Medical College of Georgia. USG had no comment on the negotiations with Wellstar.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: University System of Georgia faces budget cuts in state Senate budget