Lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to a midyear budget that would add $300 million in new spending, including an extra $5.5 million to help pay for emergency services during the recent snow and ice storms.
About $130 million in the amended budget, which runs through June 30, is for costs related to public school enrollment increases this year.
The $20.2 billion amended spending plan goes to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature. Legislative leaders will now turn to finishing the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year before March 20, when the 2014 session is scheduled to end.
Most of what is included in the midyear budget was proposed by Deal during the first week of the session. At the time, however, the governor wasn’t anticipating the snowstorm that gridlocked metro Atlanta in January or the ice storm that caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of Georgians earlier this month.
State funds were used to help treat and clear roads, pay overtime for staffers and cover a host of other expenses during the storms. The governor dipped into his emergency fund to pay expenses. Officials say they don’t yet have a full accounting of the costs associated with the storms, but the $5.5 million lawmakers added was meant to replenish the emergency fund.
Lawmakers also added $58 million to pay for changes the Deal administration and the state Department of Community Health made in the State Health Benefits Plan, which provides coverage to 650,000 teachers, state employees, retirees and their dependents.
DCH changed the plan starting Jan. 1, offering a single provider and forcing plan members to pay much higher out-of-pocket costs. Teachers, retirees and state employees started a campaign to get the changes reversed.
Deal, who faces re-election this year, and his DCH board quickly changed the plan to eliminate many of the high out-of-pocket costs. That didn’t answer all the complaints, but it did cut dramatically into the savings the administration hoped to get from the program. Now protesters are trying to get the state to offer more plans and providers.
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