Gov. Nathan Deal took a light touch to the state’s $23.7 billion budget this week, although he vetoed funding for a coastal Georgia sea wall and money for the National Infantry Museum just outside Fort Benning.
Deal signed the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, on Monday in Gainesville. It includes money to give raises to 200,000 teachers and state employees and more than $1.6 billion in construction projects.
Deal has traditionally vetoed little from state budgets that lawmakers pass, largely because his team plays a prominent role in negotiating the final product.
Other governors have been more aggressive in cutting legislators’ projects over the years. Almost a decade ago, for instance, Gov. Sonny Perdue vetoed $130 million in spending added by lawmakers.
But Deal has a working agreement with lawmakers that helps keep them in line: He tells House and Senate leaders up front that they can add $100 million in borrowing for locally important projects to the budget each year.
So Deal cut little from what legislators approved in March. His office released a short list of budget vetoes late Tuesday.
They included $600,000 the General Assembly wanted the state to borrow to build a sea wall on Hutchinson Island. In his veto message, Deal said the state doesn’t own the land where the sea wall would be built and was legally prohibited from using debt to finance the project because of that.
He also vetoed language in the budget calling for the state to provide $100,000 in funding for the National Infantry Museum near Columbus. The state had provided $500,000 in one-time funding for the museum previously, but the Senate added $100,000 to the budget for the facility for the upcoming fiscal year.
Some lawmakers blamed the veto on state Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, an ethics activist and leader of the push for "religious liberty" legislation who has been unafraid to criticize both the administration and legislative leadership. He was also blamed for costing Columbus State University some funding.
Deal also vetoed language in the budget that dedicated $100,000 to the Georgia Historical Society, whose lobbyist is former longtime Senate Appropriations Chairman George Hooks, and $25,000 for the Carl Vinson Institute of Government to study DeKalb County government.
A bill to create a DeKalb review commission did not pass the General Assembly, neither did legislation tied to $455,000 added to the budget by lawmakers to pay for earlier retirements for State Appeals Court judges. He vetoed the language calling for spending that money as well.
Finally, the governor vetoed language calling for the state to spend $50,000 extra for the retirement of workers from the General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Counsel.
The General Assembly passed Senate Bill 243, which would have allowed employees of the counsel's office to get retirement benefits through the well-funded Georgia Judicial Retirement System. Lawmakers argued that the change was needed to keep top legal employees in the office — which writes the bills lawmakers file and vote on — from leaving to take better-paying jobs.
High turnover rates have been a huge problem in several areas of state government, such as prisons and public health. Deal and lawmakers tried to address the problem by offering bigger pay raises this year to a wide variety of staffers, including law enforcement officers and nurses.
But Deal vetoed Senate Bill 243.
“Though I support the legislation’s goal of improving the recruitment and retention of qualified staff, the issue is not unique to the Office of Legislative Counsel,” Deal wrote in his veto message.
About the Author
