Georgia House leaders say ‘no’ to many of Gov. Kemp’s budget cuts - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Six months after Gov. Brian Kemp ordered state agencies to cut spending, House leaders reacted Tuesday by backing a mid-year budget that restores funding for everything from public health grants, mental health services and efforts to train doctors to agriculture research and court programs to keep non-violent offenders out of prison.

The House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to make major changes to Kemp’s proposal to cut $200 million in this year’s budget. The full chamber will vote Wednesday and then it will be the Senate’s turn to tweak the spending plan.

Next up for both will be Kemp’s $28.1 billion budget for fiscal 2021, which begins July 1. That proposal includes $300 million in spending cuts, but also pay raises for teachers and state employees earning less than $40,000 a year, and could produce a more contentious fight over state spending.

The votes Tuesday came after the House and Senate took a week-and-a-half-long break from the 2020 session to review Kemp’s proposals.

Kemp ordered state agencies in August to prepare plans for 4% budget cuts this fiscal year and 6% next year to both respond to slow tax collections last year and provide enough money for the governor’s priorities, including a $2,000 teacher pay raise and his effort to attack gangs.

About three-fourths of the budget — money that goes to K-12 schools, colleges, the health program Medicaid and transportation — was exempted from reductions.

Under state law, the governor sets the estimate of how much tax money the government is expected to bring in next year. Lawmakers can’t spend more than that, so to make up for things they want to add, they must cut elsewhere.

A major part of Kemp’s savings would come from eliminating about 1,200 vacant state positions, some of which — including crime lab scientists and guards in the juvenile justice system — lawmakers say need to be filled.

House budget-writers made preliminary changes last week, deciding to restore money to fund more food safety inspectors in the Department of Agriculture and to ensure staffers at the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, don’t have to take days off without pay.

House budget writers rejected Kemp’s proposal to cut funding to accountability courts. The courts, which were greatly expanded by his predecessor, allow defendants to avoid prison time if they stay sober, get treatment, receive an education and find a job. The courts are set up for drug addicts, drunken drivers, the mentally ill and veterans who’ve been charged largely with nonviolent crimes and low-level offenses and have been highly popular with lawmakers.

The House reduced cuts the governor proposed for the Agriculture Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, two areas of vital interest to rural lawmakers, who hold most of the top positions in the House.

The House said no to Kemp’s cuts in funding for Morehouse and Mercer medical schools for preparing doctors, and to his proposed reduction to the Rural Health Systems Innovation Center at Mercer, a project rural lawmakers started a few years ago to help improve health care in rural Georgia.

House leaders also reduced cuts Kemp proposed for mental health, substance abuse treatment, autism treatment and grants to county public health departments.

They also put money into the budget to hire three scientists and two lab technicians at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab, which tests rape kits, DNA and firearms. Lawmakers feared not filling those positions would lead to an increased case backlog. House leaders also rejected cuts to the state’s public defenders, who represent indigent defendants in court.

Support real journalism. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today. See offers.

Your subscription to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution funds in-depth reporting and investigations that keep you informed. Thank you for supporting real journalism.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"Many" - Google News
February 18, 2020 at 09:12AM
https://ift.tt/2vLAWWY

Georgia House leaders say ‘no’ to many of Gov. Kemp’s budget cuts - Atlanta Journal Constitution
"Many" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QsfYVa
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini