Media News
Legislature reaches deal on $17.8 billion budget
4/29/2010
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Aaron Gould Sheinin and Jim Tharpe
April 28, 2010
With just hours remaining in the 2010 legislative session, House and Senate budget negotiators struck a deal on the state budget late Wednesday night, clearing the way for final adjournment today.
House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) said the budget conference committee had reached agreement after nearly a week of negotiations on the $17.8 billion state budget.
“We didn’t have substantial differences between the House and the Senate,” Ralston said. “That’s a product of the economic climate we’re in.”
The budget contained little in the way of frills as the state in 2011 will spend $3 billion less than just three years ago.
Ralston had few details of the compromise late Wednesday night and the agreement still must be approved by the full House and Senate today, the final day of the 40-day legislative session. But the spending plan, which takes effect on July 1, earlier passed overwhelmingly in each chamber — 120-52 in the House on April 14, and 49-2 in the Senate a week later.
The negotiations between the two chambers were mostly over how deeply cuts could be made and which programs could be spared heavy-handed reductions.
The spending plan was built with about $300 million in new taxes and fees. That included more than $200 million in new revenue from a tax on hospital profits and more than $90 million from a series of fee increases on everything from court filings to vanity license plates to professional licensing fees.
Another $280 million came from the anticipated sales of bonds leveraged against a fund created to help small municipalities build water and sewer projects.
Having a budget deal resolved the final major hurdle of the session.
“I had four things I wanted to get accomplished this session and this completes it,” Ralston said, noting that a water conservation bill, a transportation spending plan and ethics reform were the others.
Legislative officials said the agreement included an unknown level of funding for the Georgia Arts Council. The original House version of the budget had eliminated funding for the arts commission, while the Senate restored the full $900,000. The agreement between negotiators included some of the money for the council, but not the full $900,000.
The legislative officials, who were not permitted to speak on the record about the negotiations, said the budget also fully funded Medicaid and included lower than expected cuts to the Department of Education and for school nurses.
Gov. Sonny Perdue will have to sign the bills into law. Meanwhile, Perdue could make his final appearance before the Legislature on Thursday, though plans for such an appearance had not crystallized Wednesday. Perdue is finishing his second term and cannot seek re-election.
Expect these highlights Thursday:
House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) will make a final-hour push to pass a revamped abortion bill that removes many of the original proposal's most controversial elements on race and gender.
Ralston said the abortion bill now before the House, Senate Bill 529, is unacceptable as written. He will propose an alternative that is more constitutionally sound and not designed to encourage a court fight.
A gun bill written by Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) will come to the House floor. One of the more controversial provisions would have allowed guns on college campuses, except in dormitories. It has been watered down so that licensed gun owners can carry in the parking lot of a college, jail or courthouse. Also out is a provision that would have allowed church leaders to decide whether they would welcome licensed gun carriers in their houses of worship.
The House is also poised to give final approval to legislation intended to bring the biggest property tax reform in decades. A bill written by Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers would mandate that property owners receive annual assessment notices, have a longer window for appeals and see a projection of each year’s tax bill in advance.
