More than 57,000 state employees will receive a one-time $1,000 payment through this year’s mid-year budget.
Gov. Brian Kemp and the state’s highest-ranking GOP lawmakers called a press conference Wednesday afternoon to make the announcement. They did not take questions from reporters.
Kemp announced earlier this year that federal coronavirus relief funds would be used to give the state’s teachers and other staff a one-time $1,000 pay bump.
Now, $59.6 million will be reshuffled in this year’s budget to give state employees earning less than $80,000 the same treatment.
Those workers represent most state agencies, like the strained state Department of Public Health. Some state entities, like the Board of Regents, are excluded for now.
“We wanted to extend that $1,000 bonus beyond our teachers to many of our frontline state employees, who have also served our citizens through the worst days of this pandemic,” House Speaker David Ralston, a Blue Ridge Republican, said Wednesday.
Both chambers have made changes to the $26.6 billion spending plan that will run through the end of June. Final negotiations are now underway.
“I will say that, along with this group behind me and many more in this building, we have made tough decisions to protect both lives and livelihoods,” Kemp said. “And those early decisive actions are now paying off, and you can certainly see that with today’s announcement.”
This year’s spending plan is the same budget that lawmakers cut $2.2 billion from last summer while bracing for economic fallout from the pandemic. Instead, Georgia’s revenues have grown.
A new state report released Tuesday showed a 7.5% increase in last month’s revenues, a $175.6 million jump from last January. Revenues are up 6.3% – or nearly $900 million – so far for the year.
Kemp proposed erasing about 60% of the cut to public education, but Democrats have criticized GOP leaders for not going further to restore cuts made last year as the state sits on about $2.7 billion in reserves.
Sen. Blake Tillery, a Vidalia Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said after the press conference Wednesday he is mindful of the remaining economic uncertainty.
“It’s always easier to add than it is cut later,” Tillery said. “So, I want to make sure we’re extremely cautious and frugal with taxpayer dollars.”
This article is published in partnership with Georgia Recorder
