Gold Dome Live is moving!
Our new spot will allow us to get the news to you even faster and make commenting easier. Please bookmark the new site and sign up for our rss feed:
http://blogs.ajc.com/gold-dome-live/
AJC.com > Legislature > Georgia Beat > Archives > 2005 > March > 03 > Entry
House spending plan includes some pork
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pork is back on the menu at the Capitol.
The new Republican House is proposing a $17.4 billion spending plan for next year — approved by the Appropriations Committee this morning — that is loaded with $3.5 million worth of local projects the GOP commonly called “pork” when Democrats ruled the statehouse.
In addition, the proposal adds more than $40 million in college and technical school building projects favored by top lawmakers.
Much of the special project money went to the districts of Republican leaders, including at least three in the district of House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans). The plans includes $180,000 in park and renovation money for St. Simons Island, a wealthy coastal community represented by House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island)
“Obviously, they couldn’t stand it, they had to do their special projects, which they railed against for years,” said House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin).
The Republicans, like past Democrat leaders, noted that the local projects — ranging from volunteer fire department equipment to historic preservation — were only a tiny piece of the state budget. And they added that the three pages in the budget document dedicated to hometown money were less than Democrats used to add. During some years, the Democrats would add 25 pages of local projects.
Nonetheless, it stood out in the budget, which will be considered by the full House Friday, because the state’s fiscal crisis the past few years has made it difficult to fund such projects.
Harbin said his chamber’s plan adds $33 million toward state employee health coverage to reduce insurance premium increases expected July 1, and eliminates millions of dollars in spending cuts hospitals were expected to suffer across the state.
It also includes $2 million for a new mentor program for science teachers, which lawmakers say is a major need in schools. Many students who fail to graduate from high school do so because they can’t pass the science section of the state graduation test.
“I think we put people over politics,” Harbin said.
Harbin said the local projects had to meet certain criteria. They had to bolster economic development and education or provide other vital community services.
“We decided at the start that there wouldn’t be any band uniforms, there wouldn’t be any ballfield lights,” he said.
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s original budget proposal for fiscal 2006, which begins July 1, was already top-heavy with bonded construction projects. It contains about $1 billion worth of new bonds for next year.
House budget writers added several more, including $4.9 million for renovations at the Georgia Tech historic civil engineering building, $4.9 million to renovate the social science, library and Wilson buildings at Kennesaw State University, $5 million for an addition to the student center at Gainesville College and $1 million toward a library in Hall County.
Permalink | |
