When Gov. Nathan Deal offered his 2014 budget to the Legislature, he let lawmakers know that he would leave $100 million in bond money on the table for them to divide among their districts.
The move has variously been described as shrewd, smart and blunt – a maneuver through which Deal smoothed the way for his own priorities by giving legislators a chance to sprinkle in some of theirs. And when the Legislature passes the $19.8 billion budget this week, Deal is expected to get pretty much everything he wants from lawmakers, and they will get lots of local projects to brag about when they go home.
“It’s a brilliant move on his part,” said Tom Lewis, longtime lobbyist for Georgia State University and onetime chief of staff to Gov. Joe Frank Harris. “Every year, the Senate is gonna want a few projects, the House is gonna want a few projects. The governor has reached out in a pretty strong way and said, ‘This is what I want to do for you.’
“Hey, all politics is local.”
Before Deal served in the seemingly compromise-free U.S. Congress, he was a Georgia state senator in an era of political strongmen who could fight ferociously all session, but also make deals in the end to get things done. As governor, Deal is largely avoiding budget fights by publicly giving lawmakers the upfront go-ahead to add their projects.
“Gov. Deal treats the General Assembly as partners in the budget process, and he sets aside a certain amount each year to allow legislators a degree of decision-making authority on projects and programs,” said Brian Robinson, the governor’s spokesman. “The relationship between the legislative and executive branch during the Deal administration provides for a positive give-and-take and a spirit of cooperation.”
Bond debt and the ‘balanced’ budget
Georgia’s Constitution requires that the state balance its budget every year and forbids the kind of deficit spending that keeps the federal government running. In fact, the state borrows upward of a billion dollars every year by issuing bonds for projects it couldn’t otherwise afford. It’s like a mortgage: few people can buy pay $300,000 in cash for a house, but many can take out a 30-year loan that enables them to pay for the home gradually.
In this way, by spreading the cost over 20 years, the state can finance new buildings on college campuses, renovate libraries, build a road or repair a dam that has begun to weaken. Bond projects also create thousands of jobs across the state, providing work for architects, engineers, builders, construction workers and others.
“With interest rates low, now is the time to borrow,” said Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “It’s an opportunity to do some things we need to do.
“It also creates construction jobs. A lot of (the projects) are in communities with high unemployment and it gets people back to work. But the long-term benefits for the state by building these facilities are greater than the short-term benefits.”
Until the Great Recession, lawmakers typically found money to fund millions of dollars worth of local projects — ball field lights, school band uniforms, tourism promotions — by cutting something the governor recommended or coming up with a new pot of money. Sometimes governors left room in their budget recommendations for such projects, sometimes not. The local projects were commonly called pork.
Once the recession hit, bond projects became the legislative currency. The governor would recommend a list of projects, the House would cut some and add its own, the Senate would cut some of those and add its projects, and a deal would be struck that often padded the total in the end.
Sometimes governors would allow the extra projects, sometimes they’d use the line-item veto to strike projects nearest and dearest to legislative leaders.
Deal’s predecessor, Sonny Perdue, pushed through some of the largest borrowing packages on record in Georgia, but he also didn’t shy away from vetoing local bond projects that lawmakers added to the budget.
Deal has sought to manage the state’s debt by limiting new borrowing. The billion-dollar annual bond packages of the past have been trimmed. But he also wanted to make sure his priorities — such as funding for the Savannah River harbor deepening — got through smoothly. And, as a former state lawmaker, he understood the importance of giving legislative leaders achance to include their own priorities in the budget.
So he recommended to lawmakers in January that the state borrow about $850 million, but he left room for legislative leaders to add projects important to them.
A million here, a million there
Most of what they added — so far — has come from lengthy priority lists approved by the boards of the university and technical college systems, and most are relatively small-dollar projects in the districts of budget committee members.
The House added $4.4 million to renovate the Sturgis Library at Kennesaw State University, whose chief legislative patron is Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on higher education. It added $2.25 million to design and construct a health sciences building on Southeastern Technical College’s campus in Swainsboro, which is represented by another budget subcommittee chairman, Rep. Butch Parrish, R-Swainsboro. That was later upped to $8.2 million by the Senate.
The House voted to borrow $2.5 million to buy equipment for a new building at Lanier Technical College’s campus in Winder, which is represented by House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn. Lawmakers voted last year to borrow $16 million to construct the building, but technical college officials said construction hasn’t begun. Enrollment at Lanier Tech was down more than 20 percent between the fall of 2010 and 2012.
When the project was initially approved last year, England said the local school system donated the land, and other potential savings made the project a deal for the state. It was not on the technical college board’s priority list.
The House voted to borrow $1.5 million over 20 years for a dam repair project in Milton, represented by House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, R-Milton.
The Senate added money for three library renovation or construction projects - two in North Georgia and one in Perry - all in the counties of appropriations committee members. It agreed to borrow $4 million to add space at Georgia Gwinnett College. Gwinnett’s Senate delegation includes President Pro Tem David Shafer, R-Duluth and Appropriations Vice Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford.
The Senate even tacked on two projects long coveted by the minority Democrats: $16.5 million for a new science building at Clayton State University, and $3.8 million for science building renovations at Atlanta Metropolitan College. The Senate added the Clayton State project last year, but the budget conference committee — all Republicans — took it out of the budget during last-minute negotiations.
‘Never seen it as blunt and honest as this’
Alan Essig, a former legislative budget analyst who now runs the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said some past governors have given legislative leaders private approval to pad the budget with local projects. What’s different about Deal is that he’s being publicly upfront about it. “It’s the first time I have seen it as blunt and honest as this,” Essig said.
Deal’s strategy has won praise from lawmakers.
“It has been a collaborative relationship,” said Ehrhart, who has had his share of rows with governors in the past. “As governor, you’ve got 90 percent of the (budget pie). It is easier for him to sell his priorities if some of our priorities are important to him.”
Rusty Paul, a former Republican lawmaker who served on Perdue’s transition team, said giving lawmakers some leeway makes it less likely the governor’s priorities will be targeted for cuts.
“Governors tend to be my way or the highway kind of people,” he said. “I think it’s both smart politics and wise policy to allow other elected officials to make some decisions. After all, the elected officials are the ones who are ultimately responsible to the taxpayers.”
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