(Georgia Recorder) — The state House backed a revised $40.5 billion spending plan for this year that sets aside hundreds of millions of dollars for hurricane relief and to close security gaps in the state’s prisons.
As of now, a total of $811 million will go toward hurricane recovery efforts, with House lawmakers adding $197 million Thursday. The governor sets the limit on how big the budget can be, but lawmakers can move money around and put their own mark on the spending plan.
Hurricane Helene devastated communities along the eastern side of the state, killing 34 people and ravaging crops and farms along the way. The state is also in line to receive federal aid through a package passed late last year.
House added $35.6 million to the state budget for rural hospitals and another $150 million for loans for farmers and timberland owners.
“This hurricane had a $5.5 billion impact on agriculture and timber, not including future losses. This storm had a much larger impact than anything any of us have ever seen, and it forever changed lives and the landscape of our state,” said state Rep. Matt Hatchett, a Dublin Republican and the chamber’s top budget writer.
The budget now includes $333 million aimed at making the state’s prisons safer after a wave of violence attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice, which warned last year that the conditions violated the constitutional rights of inmates against cruel and unusual punishment. The feds accused the state of being “deliberately indifferent” to the unsafe conditions.
Hatchett described the spending on prisons as “just the beginning of a costly but crucial endeavor.”
The proposed spending in the House plan is slightly less than the governor’s proposal. The House dialed back a plan to build four 126-modular correctional units to house inmates while the other capital and security improvements are underway. Instead, the budget now covers two such buildings.
But even that raised some eyebrows.
“Let me first say how important it is that we do the hurricane relief, and we’re pleased to see that in the budget, but I’ve got to ask you about these modular corrections facilities,” said House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, a Columbus Democrat.
Hatchett tried to assure her that they are “very sturdy buildings.”
Other money was redirected to body cameras and tasers for correctional officers, a new “Over Watch and Logistics” unit to boost real-time monitoring of the facilities and other security initiatives.
The budget also includes additional money for school security in the wake of last year’s school shooting at Apalachee High School, where two students and two educators were killed.
Now in addition to funding campus security grants, the budget includes $3 million to start a proposed threat assessment system that is part of the House GOP leadership-backed school safety plan that was unveiled this week.
Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Duluth Democrat, questioned whether the state’s budget writers had factored in the impact of potential disruptions to federal grants. Last week, the Trump administration ordered a spending freeze on grant and loan programs until it was blocked by the courts.
Without directly answering the question, House Speaker Jon Burns responded that the state relies on a “conservative fiscal approach” to balancing the budget.
The budget cleared the House with a 166-to-3 vote, making it the first bill this year to pass the House. Burns noted the vote was ahead of schedule because the funding is “so, so important to the people of Georgia.” It now heads to the Senate.
Once lawmakers button up the revisions to this year’s spending plan, the focus will turn to the new budget that starts on July 1.
