ATLANTA — Two more Baldwin County prisons would close and the horse park at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry would get a major expansion under Gov. Sonny Perdue’s latest budget recommendations.
In Macon, Mercer University’s medical school would see a cut to the state grant it gets. The state sports and music halls of fame would again take cuts.
In Forsyth, the state’s Public Safety Training Center would get a major face-lift.
Perdue’s budget proposals were released Friday, and now they’re subject to major tinkering in the Georgia House and Senate. But Perdue has recommended that Bostick State Prison close in May. Men’s State Prison would close in January 2011, and private prisons in Wheeler and Coffee counties would be expanded to add 1,500 beds.
Baldwin County also is in line for a new private prison, according to new state Rep. Rusty Kidd, I-Milledgeville. Kidd said this week that the Georgia Department of Corrections would decide this month between two competing construction bids, one of which would be built in Baldwin.
Perdue, who has often favored his native Houston County in his budget, put in $9.1 million to expand the new horse park at the fairgrounds. This would be phase three of that project, including a new arena, concession facilities, a third practice ring and covered walkways throughout the facility, fairgrounds spokeswoman Michele Treptow said.
The previous two phases of this project cost the state a total of about $16.9 million.
Perdue has also recommended a $1.88 million cut for Mercer University, starting this year and continuing through fiscal 2011. The university’s medical school, which uses the money to train doctors who plan to stay in Georgia, would get $21.5 million in fiscal 2011, compared to the $24.56 million it got in fiscal 2008.
Perdue also recommended 8 percent cuts for the sports and music halls of fame in downtown Macon, which together would still get about $1 million a year.
The Legislature has targeted these museums for additional cuts in the past, though, and local legislators will likely have to do what they can to head off further cuts.
When it comes to bond-financed construction in the midstate, the Perry horse park appears to be one of the state’s more expensive new investments in Middle Georgia. But the governor’s proposal also includes:
$5.5 million for various repairs at Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth.
$2.47 million for equipment at the new teacher education building under construction at Macon State College. The state put more than $20 million into building the facility last year.
$1.5 million for building renovations at Fort Valley State University.
$500,000 for repairs to various buildings at the Department of Veterans Service campus in Millegeville.
$60,000 to plan for a new 150-bed Youth Development Center in Baldwin County. The current center there has been closed by the state.
There is also significant money for transportation projects, school construction and repairs to state buildings in the budget and, though that money is budgeted statewide, a portion of it will be spent in Middle Georgia.
