With the economy improving, a lot of people are tugging at Gov. Nathan Deal’s sleeve trying to get him to include spending for them or their agency in next year’s budget.
But after years of fiscal austerity, no number may be bigger, at least symbolically, than $315 million. That’s about what Deal put in his election-year budget this year to allow school districts to increase school days, cut furloughs and, in some cases, give teachers raises. And that’s about the amount of money the governor will need to find for next year’s budget to make sure the state doesn’t backslide on what he did this year.
State tax collections continue to grow — up 4.9 percent in the first five months of the year — but Deal will also have to consider more money for salary increases for everyone from prison guards to judges, more funding for massive state pension and health care systems, and upgrades in other areas of state government.
Some teachers opposed Deal’s re-election because of years of spending cuts and what they saw as a botched effort to corral costs in their health insurance. Many thought the extra money last year — which they saw as more of a reduction in previous spending cuts than anything else — was politically motivated.
Deal is likely going to want to prove to them that they’re wrong, so he’ll work hard to include the $315 million in next year’s budget. We’ll find out if he does when he releases his budget proposal during the first week of the 2015 legislative session.
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