Deal budget almost to the fiscal finish line

Gov. Nathan Deal has to be feeling pretty good about himself right now and he has every reason to crow a little bit. The state Senate passed his $49 billion 2018 budget that mostly follows what he proposed during his State of the State address in January.

While it’s not quite time to shout victory, the House and Senate have to negotiate the differences between their two versions, the budget is well on its way to passage by the March 30 deadline for the end of the session.

Deal’s budget was developed with the assumption that revenue growth would be 3.6 percent higher than the amended Fiscal Year 2017 budget. He was ahead of target in January when the tax collections were up 7.5 percent over the same period in 2016, but February collections were down 5.6 percent.

The fiscal 2018 budget that begins July 1 has a number of items that will make state workers happy, too. It includes a solid 2 percent raise for state employees, and unlike last year, teachers will get the raise because the governor didn’t pull shenanigans this time; he simply put the raise in his budget rather than forcing some school systems, including Bibb County, to raise taxes to accommodate the raises.

One group of state employees, those dealing with child protective services, will receive a 19 percent raise, and while this will help slow the revolving door in that department, more work will be needed to continue to lower the case loads those workers carry.

Another group that will be happy are retired state employees who will get a 3 percent one-time bonus for the second straight year.

We have written at length about the 20 percent pay raise for the state’s law enforcement personnel. And while we applaud that move we continue to recognize the squeeze that puts on local law enforcement agencies that can’t afford to match the state’s pay scale that can reach more than $60,000 without hitting the rank of corporal.

There was an effort to legislate a cure, but the medicine was too expensive, nor was it ready for field testing.

Doctors and nursing homes will also like Deal’s budget which will increase payments for caring for Medicaid patients; provide more money for the poor and disabled and children’s autism services.

The spending doesn’t stop with people. The state has decided to invest in infrastructure, lots of it, some of it with borrowed money, with more than $1 billion in construction projects that run the gamut from a new states court building to new college facilities.

Aside from the spending there is one item that could die in the negotiations. The Senate approved $485,000 to bring itself into the 21st century. It has finally decided to, after trying to shut down all video communication in committee meetings, to stream those meetings over the internet.

The House has been streaming its meetings for years. This move will make the body much more transparent. We will soon see if they included the money just to shut critics up only to take it out in the negotiations. As hard and long as some members fought against openness, anything is possible.

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Deal budget almost to the fiscal finish line."