DEL.ICIO.USSTATE BUDGET CRISIS
Georgia’s ‘pork’ projects put on notice
Ax could fall on state-run golf courses, halls of fame
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, October 13, 2008
The state’s financial situation is so dire that lawmakers are contemplating a pork-free diet.
They may close prized, but expensive, state-run golf courses or turn them over to private companies to run.
Elissa Eubanks/AJC
Senate Majority Whip Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) says lawmakers have a ‘real challenge’ ahead of them.
They’ve put a hold on doling out politically popular community grants for things like high school football uniforms and theater improvements until they see if the fiscal situation improves.
And they’ve even talked about cutting off funding to taxpayer-subsidized halls of fame that have long been the pet projects of powerful lawmakers.
As state agencies face spending cuts of up to 10 percent because of the economic slowdown and a budget shortfall, lawmakers say they are finding it harder and harder to justify legislative largesse.
“We’ve got a real challenge ahead of us,” state Senate Majority Whip Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) said during a recent budget hearing. “We ought to start from the standpoint of what is fundamental to state government. A whole bunch of things are in gray areas.”
The golf courses, local assistance grants and halls of fame cost the state less than $10 million out of an annual budget of about $20 billion.
For lawmakers, local assistance grants, called “pork” at the Capitol, show the folks at home that they can bring money back to their districts.
Legislators from outside metro Atlanta also see such spending as a way to help small-town Georgia.
But times have changed. During a recent budget hearing, Department of Natural Resources officials raised the prospect of closing a South Georgia golf course in Fargo that costs about five times more to operate than it brings in from greens fees.
State Sen. George Hooks (D-Americus), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the state doesn’t really have much of a choice.
“We would be severely criticized, when we’re cutting Medicaid and education, if we keep these golf courses afloat when they are losing money,” Hooks said.
Seabaugh said much the same during a meeting last week in which senators reviewed the budgets of the Music and Sports halls of fame in Macon and the Golf Hall of Fame in Augusta.
“I don’t know why we continue to give taxpayer dollars to these halls of fame,” he said. “We ought to put them on notice that on January 1, we aren’t going to have the money to give them operating funds.”
Some won’t let the projects go without a fight. Cities, counties and school districts worked hard to get lawmakers to approve the 470 local grants during the 2008 session. They say the projects are important to their communities.
Senate Appropriations Vice Chairman Greg Goggans, whose district includes the money-losing golf course in Fargo, said the facility helps promote economic development. A golf course could help attract conferences or tourists to Fargo, for instance. Goggans (R-Douglas) said the DNR could raise greens fees there and turn a profit, saving the course.
“If we can come up with the money, I ask you not to close this,” Goggans told DNR officials.
Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Kenneth Stewart said the state’s halls of fame improve the quality of life in Georgia.
The state has spent more than $60 million on the various halls and museums over the past 15 years. Taxpayers are still paying off a $6 million bond meant to start the Golf Hall of Fame, which never was built. Gov. Sonny Perdue cut off funding for the Golf Hall last year, but lawmakers approved spending $110,000 this fiscal year for a new strategic plan for the Augusta facility.
The fact that the Senate is even holding daylong public budget hearings in October points up the extent of the state’s financial problems.
Traditionally, the governor spends the fall putting together a budget proposal. The House and Senate start holding major hearings on spending plans when they return for their legislative session in January.
But they say the size of the potential shortfall means they can’t put the budget off until January.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, the Senate’s president, has directed his chamber to look for “nonessential” spending because he thinks the state will have to downsize by 10 percent over the next few months. Cagle, a Republican who is running for governor in 2010, has also made it clear to senators that he will oppose any tax increases next year.
He argues that businesses are shedding costs in the current economic downturn, and state government should, too.
“Is it going to be painful? Yes. It’s going to be very painful,” Cagle said.
“Do you want to prioritize your funding for golf courses, or do you want to prioritize your funding for needy children, for K-12 education or for public safety?”
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