House plan hands bill for bus drivers’ coverage to school districts

Plan seeks raises for judges

‘Just trying to level the playing field’

Bus drivers and teachers have lobbied the General Assembly hard for more than a month to reject Deal’s proposal.

House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn, said he supported giving part-time school workers insurance.

“We feel like there is a vital role these individuals play in transporting our students,” he said.

But he later added: “Everybody needs to understand those are local (school) system employees. Part-time state employees don’t get coverage. We are just trying to level the playing field with everybody.”

Lawmakers had agreed a few years ago to start increasing the “employer contribution” — money from school districts — to pay for full- and part-time “noncertified” school workers’ insurance. Under the House budget, districts would have to pay an additional $102.8 million.

At the same time, the budget includes an extra $280 million recommended by Deal to allow school districts to give raises and end furloughs that were prevalent during and after the Great Recession.

Shift in costs displeases educators

The added health insurance costs didn’t sit well with educators.

“I think the educators and education support professionals are simply tired with the funding shell game that is going on at the Capitol,” said John Palmer, a Cobb County school band director and spokesman for the group Teachers Rally to Advocate for Georgia Insurance Choices, or TRAGIC. “Budgets are priorities, and you can’t say education is a priority if you give money with one hand and take it away with the other.

“There are districts in Georgia that still cannot open their doors for the full 180-day school year. Do you think they will be able to afford insurance for bus drivers and cafeteria workers?”

Angela Palm of the Georgia School Boards Association said: “Just as the state has been able to start paying down the austerity cut so the districts can get the instructional time back to where it needs to be for students, this happens. How unfortunate.”

In their budget plan, House leaders also more than cut in half the increase Deal proposed to boost the staff of the state ethics commission, which enforces the state’s campaign finance and lobbying laws. Deal proposed adding four attorneys and four investigators to expedite complaints made to the commission; the House agreed to add two attorneys and two auditors.

The House leaders supported pay raises for the state's top judges. Supreme Court and Appeals Court judges would get $12,000 raises. Circuit public defenders would get $15,000 raises. Superior Court judges and district attorneys in circuits that don't provide big salary supplements would also get raises.

Loan program for students faces cut

Deal had proposed increasing the budget for low-interest loans for college students from $19 million to $25 million because of greater need for the loans. England said lawmakers found that the program had a high default rate, and they cut funding instead to $17 million for the upcoming year. Meanwhile, they increased by 50 percent Deal’s proposed budget for engineering scholarships for private Mercer University, a longtime pet program for Middle Georgia lawmakers.

The spending plan includes about $1 billion in new construction projects, mostly for k-12 schools, colleges and transportation.

The state would borrow $23 million for parking facilities near the new Atlanta Falcons stadium. Lawmakers approved borrowing $17 million for the project last year.

Deal’s efforts to remake Capitol Hill would also continue in next year’s budget. With Liberty Plaza across from the statehouse and several other projects completed, the governor included $6.5 million to demolish the former archives building just off I-20, and House leaders supported it. The building hasn’t been used as an archives for several years, and state officials want to tear it down and build a new courts facility on the location.