ATLANTA - Georgia taxpayers could soon see the elimination of some state programs and the consolidation of others that duplicate services, Gov. Sonny Perdue said Thursday.
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He had just received news that tax collections were off 2.6 percent during the fiscal year that ended June 30, compared with the previous fiscal year. His staff estimates that at the end of the current fiscal year, the state treasury will have $21 million in reserves - enough to run the government for about 2 1/2 hours.
Some lawmakers had predicted that such dire revenue figures would prompt Mr. Perdue to call a special session of the General Assembly, but his advisers say he has the authority to keep the budget balanced without the legislators' involvement.
Mr. Perdue wouldn't say which services might be cut or moved from agency to agency, but he noted that 66 cents of every new dollar of state spending since 2000 has gone to just five areas: education, prisons, transportation, social services and health care. He said he's waiting to get information from each state agency head on what every program does, whom it serves and how much it costs.
Not every agency chief has given Mr. Perdue's staff the information. On Thursday, the governor brought all agency directors together for a scolding.
"You don't want to still be packing your bags when the budget train leaves the station," he told them.
In June, Mr. Perdue's staff sent each director a questionnaire that was to be completed by July 3, but many were returned incomplete. Agency heads were to rank every program under their control, from most to least important.
Mr. Perdue's approach differs from past budget processes in that it looks at programs individually rather than at each of the major departments they come under. He is trying to get the directors to document each program's effectiveness - often a tougher task for government than for businesses.
One agency head who's eager to see the change is Lonice Barrett, the commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources.
"What this is going to do is set the stage to put the money where it needs to go to serve customers out there who are paying the bill," he said.
The weak tax collections put more stress on the change in the budget process that Mr. Perdue had intended to make anyway.
Tommy Hills, Mr. Perdue's chief financial officer, told reporters later in the day, "We hope that we can manage the process."
Needed savings could come from not filling jobs that become vacant through retirements and resignations, Mr. Hills said. But the governor isn't ruling out layoffs as a possible solution.
Bart Graham, the commissioner of the Department of Revenue, said, "Things are negative, but we don't think this is a crisis mode."
Reach Walter C. Jones at (404) 589-8424 or wjones@morris.com.
