Budget crisis expected to dominate 2010 legislative session

The budget situation is currently the greatest challenge we are facing at the State Capitol. Georgia is constitutionally required to have a balanced state budget. In the midst of the economic recession, this has been a much more difficult task than it is during the good times.

During the last legislative session, we had to cut the fiscal year 2009 budget by $2.3 billion. Then we had to draft a new budget for fiscal year 2010 that was nearly $3 billion – or about 15 percent – smaller than the previous year’s budget. For the first time in many years, our teachers and other state employees did not receive a pay increase. There were more cuts to education than we would have liked.

As you have probably noticed on your latest property tax bill, the Homeowner Tax Relief Grant was eliminated. While many of us fought to keep this tax relief in the 2010 budget, the Governor and the legislative leadership were determined to eliminate those grants.

Now, the really bad news: since the end of this year’s session, the economic news in our state has only gotten worse. The latest revenue figures – through the month of November – were more than $1 billion off from the same period last year. Through the first five months of this fiscal year, state revenues have already decreased by 15.4 percent.

We were able to balance this year’s budget only because Georgia received more than one billion dollars in federal stimulus funding. There is no likelihood that money will be available next year.

The Governor has already ordered state agencies and departments to further reduce their budgets in the meantime. This has caused furloughs and reductions in services that will wind up touching all of our lives – whether in our schools, our health care facilities, public safety agencies or our court system.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

01|11|10
Georgia General Assembly
2010 Session Convenes
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