ATLANTA — State employees, including teachers, will face three more furlough days between now and June 30, but none in the next fiscal year under budget proposals Gov. Sonny Perdue announced Friday.
Perdue also announced another proposed cut in state education funding, which he put at “less than 3 percent.” Most other state departments would see 8 percent to 9 percent cuts in the governor’s new budgets. Perdue said he hopes the cuts can be absorbed without substantial layoffs, though there are some job cuts sprinkled throughout the budget.
The proposals also include a 1.6 percent hospital bed tax Perdue proposed last year to shore up state Medicaid funding. All but a few fully public hospitals would have to pay the tax, Perdue said. The ones who serve more of the state’s poor, and thus have higher Medicaid loads, would see a net benefit as new tax revenues are plowed back into the system, the governor said.
This proposal was shot down last year, but Perdue said the alternative to it this year is a 16 percent cut in Medicaid reimbursements to care providers.
“It’s become clear ... we are going to have to have new revenue in that area,” he said.
The governor’s budgets, an amended one covering the remaining six months of fiscal 2010 and a new one covering all of fiscal 2011, now go the General Assembly. State legislators likely will do some major tinkering before approving final documents. House budget hearings start Tuesday, and legislators will move nearly line-by-line through the governor’s proposals.
As part of his 2010 budget, Perdue is lowering the state’s revenue estimate for the rest of this year, an expected result of under-performing tax revenues because of the poor economy. The state initially planned to take in about $18.6 billion in fiscal 2010. Now that stands at about $17.4 billion, Perdue said. The result: furloughs and spending cuts.
Still, the drop in state revenues has steadied, and Perdue said Friday he thinks Georgia’s economy and state revenues are “through the free fall.” He predicted 4.2 percent growth for the new fiscal year, which begins in July.
That would mean total state revenues of about $18.2 billion.
But that growth wouldn’t be enough to spare the state more cuts in fiscal 2011. That budget includes about $800 million less in state funding to operate K-12 schools than the state spent in fiscal 2008, before the recession started. It’s likely that school class sizes will increase, and some systems could raise local property taxes to make up for the lack of state funds.
Democrats protested these cuts Friday, as they have each time Perdue and the Republican-dominated Legislature have cut education funding.
Some programs are targeted for complete elimination in fiscal 2011: the Regional Education Service Agencies that work with local school systems to improve teaching programs, the National Science Center and Foundation and the Georgia Youth Science and Technology Center. The RESAs, which cost about $12 million a year, were also targeted last year, but made it back into the budget before it was finalized.
Another program that would take a big hit: the Georgia Council for the Arts. The council, which doles out creative grants and keeps the state’s art collection, would see its budget cut more than 50 percent.
The governor also is recommending that National Board Certification bonuses for teachers be cut from the budget. That program gives certified teachers raises that were reduced last year and would now be eliminated.
Also Friday, Perdue came out against a cut in the state’s capital gains tax, unless it’s put in place after state revenues rebound. A priority for some in the Georgia House and Senate as well as Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, the proposed cut is one of several meant to spur the economy.
But Perdue vetoed this change last year and signaled he would do so again this year unless the cuts are tied to triggers and “robust growth” in state revenues.
As promised earlier this week, Perdue’s budgets include more funding for transportation projects and to care for mentally ill or disabled people in the state’s care. The extra $300 million Perdue wants for transportation projects would mostly be spent in metro Atlanta, home to the state’s worst traffic congestion, and in Chatham County, to improve access to the port in Savannah. With the exception of a sidewalk project in Toombs County, none of the projects are in Middle Georgia.
As for other capital spending, Perdue included $68 million to deepen the Savannah harbor. There’s money for 700 new school buses and 86 new pursuit vehicles at the Georgia State Patrol. There’s $168 million for new K-12 school construction and equipment purchases in the state, which is significantly less than in previous years.
Employee levels also would fall. By 2011, the state would have about 96,200 employees, not including K-12 teachers. In fiscal 2009, it had 101,000, the budget states.
In announcing his recommendations, Perdue again called on the Legislature to make “the hard choices” as it reviews his budgets.
“We can’t do everything we’ve always done and cut the budget,” he said.
To contact writer Travis Fain, call 361-2702.
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