Teachers would receive an 8.1% increase in base salary under the proposed budget. The budget is $1.05B higher than last year’s.
Each legislative session, the General Assembly is constitutionally required to pass a balanced budget for the next fiscal year, and this week’s column will be devoted to looking at the budget.
We fulfilled that obligation by passing House Bill 31, the Fiscal Year 2020 budget. The new budget is set at $27.5 billion, an increase of $1.05 billion, or 3.95 percent, over the previous year.
The House version highlights women’s and children’s issues including maternal mortality; education, including funding the largest pay raise in the state’s history for teachers and certified personnel; and additional funding for our most vulnerable Georgians, including the elderly and foster children. I’d like to highlight some of these items that we included in the House’s version of the new budget.
Economic Development
The budget promotes economic development across our state through several appropriations that will support our growing transit systems and revitalize rural areas. We focused on economic development in our rural communities by providing $300,000 for the creation of the Blight Removal and Code Enforcement (BRACE) program in the Department of Community Affairs. This program, recommended by the House Rural Development Council, will provide grants to communities with populations of 2,500 or less to initiate a free, neighborhood-level cleanup for run down areas.
Supporting the state’s transportation systems and infrastructure is another key element needed to increase economic development throughout Georgia. For this reason, the budget includes an increase of $38.6 million in new revenue for transportation, an increase of more than seven percent over our current budget.
Our focus on economic development stretches across various industries and issues, and I look forward to seeing the progress Georgia will make with the help of this funding.
Education
The House also remains devoted to improving educational opportunities statewide, and this commitment to K-12 and higher education is reflected in the budget. It includes a historic pay raise of $2,775 for each certified teacher and school personnel, including counselors, social workers, psychologists, special education specialists, speech and language pathologists, media specialists and technology specialists, in our public education system, which increases the base salary pay for teachers by 8.1 percent.
The House budget also appropriates $483 million for the Quality Basic Education program (QBE) and $121.9 million to the Department of Education for enrollment growth and training.
Through the Student Finance Commission, the budget provides the important HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships with $74.7 million for 22,000 additional awards. We also increased the award amount by three percent to match the rising costs of college tuition and keep in-state colleges affordable.
Our budget also ensures the success of dual enrollment programs by saving $4.1 million in limiting these programs to hardworking 11th and 12th graders during fall and spring semesters only.
To create safer schools for our children and based on the recommendations of the House School Security Study Committee, the budget appropriates $174,000 within the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA) to hire two school safety threat assessment trainers to work with local school systems to develop threat assessment plans.
Finally, 4-H centers throughout the state would receive $150,000 in bonds for security improvements and $747,600 to contract with local law enforcement to provide security when students are present.
Funding Medicaid. Fighting opioids.
The House also emphasized funding for health care in HB 31. In order to provide better access to quality health care in Georgia, the FY 2020 budget includes $78.4 million in the Department of Community Health for Medicaid growth, as well as an additional $68.3 million to replace federal funds in Medicaid programs due to a reduction in the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage.
We also included funding to tackle the opioid epidemic, which is devastating communities and negatively impacting our workforce. We’re fighting back by including $4.9 million for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to invest further in residential treatment of addictive diseases, which would add six new facilities across the regions in Georgia. The House added an additional $29 million in behavioral health services to increase bed capacity and outpatient services, as well as annualize the cost of crisis centers that serve our communities.
Services for the elderly and kids
HB 31 funds a variety of programs and projects that assist some of our most vulnerable Georgians. It includes $1.4 million for home-delivered meals for an additional 665 households and $1.3 million to fund 17 additional adult protective services caseworkers, bringing the total to 172.
With more than 13,000 children in the state’s foster care program, we must provide adequate resources for these children. The budget includes $9.8 million for Out of Home Care and $940,000 to implement a pilot program recommended by Governor Kemp that would follow-up on closed foster care cases to continue to look after these children.
Gang Task Force and accountability courts
Finally, our version of the budget allocates $563,380 to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to help solve the crime lab backlog, $780,690 for six positions for the GBI unit at the Cyber Crime Center and $500,000 to implement a GBI Gang Task Force to help local governments prosecute gang activity, a growing concern in our state.
We also included an addition of $2.1 million to expand accountability courts which have been overwhelmingly successful throughout Georgia.
Cross Over Day approaching
We’re back at work right now for week eight of the legislative session. The “Cross Over Day” deadline is approaching, and I encourage you to contact us with questions or concerns regarding any issues or legislation that may interest you. My Capitol office number is 404-651-7737 and my email address is [email protected].
As always, thank you for allowing me to be your Representative!
About the author: Representative Terry Rogers represents the citizens of District 10, which includes portions of Habersham and White counties. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2011 and currently serves as the Governor’s Floor Leader and the Vice Chairman of the Economic Development & Tourism and State Planning & Community Affairs committees. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety and the Defense & Veterans Affairs, Regulated Industries, Human Relations & Aging, and Rules committees.
