ATLANTA --- State employees and teachers would receive a 2.5 percent cost-of-living raise under the $21.2 billion budget that passed unanimously in the Senate on Friday.
They're the lucky ones. Facing sluggish tax collections, budget writers slashed overall spending by $245 million below what Gov. Sonny Perdue proposed in January.
The big loser is schools, which had been hoping the state would finally replenish austerity cuts that have affected districts for six years. Republican lawmakers wanted to replace the full $141 million in proposed cuts for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Instead, they were able to add just $56 million.
The Senate replaced most of the 2.5 percent cut to Georgia's prison system that had been championed by the House. Georgia's inmate population is among the fastest-rising in the nation.
"We want the public protected," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill told senators Friday as they prepared to vote on the spending plan. "We are not going to allow prisons to be closed."
Republicans in the House complained that the Senate version slashed a proposed pay increase for corrections officers. Low salaries for the officers is making it difficult for them to recruit and retain staff.
The parents of HOPE Scholarship students bound for private colleges in Georgia got some good news in the Senate budget. The scholarship award would rise from $3,000 to $3,500 a year at private schools, the first increase in at least a decade, Senate budget officials said.
LOCAL SPENDING
The budget included several local items, with some getting more than the House had asked for and some less:
- MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GEORGIA: $7.2 million for expansion, including a proposed campus in Athens, was untouched. But though Senate lawmakers would raise the bond funding for the proposed School of Dentistry from $60 million to $65 million, they would not fund a proposed "medical commons" building that would be the centerpiece of Augusta expansion. The school would get almost $1.2 million to renovate and equip an umbilical-blood, stem-cell research center and for a microscope system.
- FORT DISCOVERY AND THE NATIONAL SCIENCE CENTER: $1.4 million cut by Gov. Sonny Perdue was restored. The House had restored $500,000.
- POWDERWORKS CHIMNEY: The Senate approved $175,000 to preserve the structure, up from the $100,000 recommended by the House.
- GOLF HALL OF FAME: The Senate sliced $100,000 that the House had set aside for the facility.
-- Morris News Service
Comments
This article didn't say how much the budget increased over last years, it just mentioned that the increase wasn't as large as was liked. I have a hard time understanding politico budget speak. It's kind of like a code. If plans were for a 15% increase in spending and there was only a 10% increase, the budget would be referred to as having been cut by 5%, when in truth it hadn't been cut at all.
Did you also notice that they gave a 21.2 Billion dollar or 2.1% raise for teachers but cut the school budget to give it to them??? Does this make ANY sense to anyone???
It is interesting that GA has enjoyed several years of surplus revenues due to a booming economy. The tax surplus for FY 2006 totaled $762 million and an additional $370 million was added in FY2007 bringing the total surplus to $1.2 billion. Interestingly, public education has been underfunded (at the minimum limit set by law called QBE) by this governor and general assembly for 6 consecutive years. House Appropriations Chair Ben Harbin commented that, "If we're going to have a formula, we should fund it." The combined total of underfunding is now over $1 billion during the Purdue’s tenure in the governor’s mansion.
During this period the same governor and general assembly has send fit to raise teacher salaries every year at an average of 2% to 3%. While I am not opposed to teachers/educators being fairly paid, most citizens don’t realize that the teachers are already guaranteed a “step increase” for every year of experience. Essentially, this group has received two raises per year for the past 6 years while the state has underfunded basic education. This “double-whammy” has shifted the burden to local boards and taxpayer and resulted in a law suit by over 1/3 of GA school districts against the state. See www.casfg.org for more information.
Granted, public education is not perfect, but it is the only vehicle most of the children in GA have for obtaining a quality education. We need non-partisan input in the political process, less micromanaging by state government, total removal of the federal government from public education, and stronger laws to address important issues if we are going to see our public schools flourish. It would also help if the governor would fund schools at the minimum level set by the laws of our state. Unfortunately, many of our current elected officials are hell-bent on seeing their self-filling prophecy of “failing schools” become a reality so they can promote vouchers and so-called school choice. Public education has become a political football, and our children are the ones loosing the game.
Yes Deborah Elliot, it makes perfect sense. Right now, the big problem with the public school system is finding and keeping GOOD teachers. I think you will agree that test scores in recent years have been anything but GOOD. One might ask, "Well if test scores are so bad, why raise teacher salaries?" It seems as if we are rewarding bad teaching by doing this...
Right now the state needs some way to attract teachers that have a passion to teach, a willingness to try new things, and an assertive disposition, a real go getter, a person that will get things done. Unfortunately, those people are fast leaving the teaching field and re-thinking their majors.
In a recession, which we are in, a pay raise of 2.5% is not exorbant. Could it be used for other things...absolutely, but as a parent of two children who are in Columbia County Schools, I want my children to have the BEST teachers, and if this helps attract GOOD teachers, then I am for it.
The teacher's union is the reason for keeping under performing teachers employed while giving them raises.
Your child's education is way down on the list.
Intheknow, I have to agree about the Teacher's unions. Thank the NEA, one of the biggest DIMocRAT support organizations in the country.
No teacher's union in GA people, never has been. And Jimmy, let 'em know what the "step increase" is so they don't think it's as huge as you hint. In many cases it averages $150 dollars. Divide that by 12 and then take out the income tax and you're talking about chump change in the greater scheme. I guess you could say they are getting a tank of gas or two. Besides, with the cost of living running well above 4%, it's not like teachers are making headway and lining golden nests; they are losing ground like everyone else. Oh, lest some forget, considering the levels of education, degrees, and training required to teach (and remain a teacher) teachers are paid far below other professions. Nobody sits in college and says "I'm gonna be a teacher 'cause I wanna be Rich!"
Until Jimmy Carter invented a Cabinet position for Education, the schools were a state and local domain. If the Federal tier of management did not exist, think how much more money could be left in Georgia for educating Georgians. Someone in the past gave away our control, and now we have to deal with that legacy. And because of that Federal encroachment, our schools are more like managing prisons than teaching. Duh.
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