Proposed GA budget could give schools more funding. Teachers to get $1k bonus
Following a year defined by the coronavirus pandemic and calls for racial equality, Gov. Brian Kemp said Georgia is “resilient” as he laid an optimistic blueprint for 2021 and beyond during his State of the State address Thursday.
The proposed changes to the 2021 state budget featured no new cuts to state agencies or widespread layoffs of state employees. School districts would receive more than $1 billion during the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years to offset previous spending cuts.
Rural Georgia residents and entrepreneurs would get a boost from targeted initiatives to support businesses and expand broadband internet access — a continued priority for Kemp.
Kemp also plans to announce significant changes to Georgia’s citizen’s arrest statute following the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020. Combating rising COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths remains a goal in 2021.
“We will win this fight against COVID-19. ...In Georgia, our people are the foundation. Despite incredible loss and unprecedented challenges. Georgia is still standing,” Kemp said. “Our house, built on a sure foundation, survived the storm. This state, while battered, is not broken; a better brighter future is right around the corner.”
No new budget cuts in 2021 amended budget
After slashing more than $2 billion from Georgia’s spending plan in June as COVID-19 negatively affected state revenues, Kemp announced no new cuts would come in the amended $26.3 billion budget.
The governor credited the CARES Act, conservative state budgeting and the “measured reopening” of Georgia’s economy for staving off additional cuts and keeping the state’s rainy day fund strong. No new taxes would be required. Georgia, Kemp said, finds itself in a position that other states should “envy.”
“Our careful planning and measured approach was rewarded in spades,” Kemp said. “Other states are looking at further cuts to employees and essential services. For aid, they’re now forced to turn to a dysfunctional and distracted Washington D.C.”
Schools get $1.2 billion in increased funding
Georgia’s public schools would get an increase of $1.2 billion in funds to offset cuts made last year. That includes $647 million in 2021 and another $573 million in fiscal year 2022, which starts July 1. Kemp also announced that he and state schools superintendent Richard Woods will give teachers and other education employees a one-time, $1,000 supplement through funding from the Governor’s office and the CARES Act.
“The daunting task of teaching Georgia’s next generation in the midst of COVID has been anything but easy,” Kemp said. “So many educators went the extra mile to help the children in their classroom who don’t have the best home life.”
New rural innovation fund and broadband infrastructure grants
Kemp also put forth two targeted initiatives to spur economic growth and development in rural parts of the state.
The governor’s proposed budget includes a new $40 million rural innovation fund to act as a funding pool for Georgia businesses and entrepreneurs. In step with previous efforts, an additional $20 million would go toward establishing a rural broadband infrastructure grant program in 2021 and $10 million in 2022.
“Many of the economic, medical and other challenges that are facing rural Georgia cannot be fixed with a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach,” Kemp said. “These issues are best addressed through targeted, innovative public-private solutions that meet the needs of specific communities — not just today, but five, 10 or 25 years down the road.”
Kemp’s recommendations are among the first steps in the budget process. The legislature will review the governor’s recommendations and develop an appropriations bill.
Changes to citizen’s arrest laws
Kemp also announced his intention to modify the state’s citizen’s arrest statute following the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020, saying Arbery was a “victim of a vigilante-style of violence that has no place in our state.”
The announcement comes after Kemp signed a new hate crimes law last year. Kemp also expressed support for law enforcement, saying that as long as he serves as governor, Georgia “backs the blue.”
“The deranged behavior that led to this tragedy was excused away because of a law that is ripe for abuse and enables sinister evil motives,” Kemp said. “I believe that we can take another step toward a better, safer and more just future for our state. We can again send a clear message that Georgia is a state that protects all of its people and fights (injustice) wherever it is found.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 3:09 PM.