House and Senate budget writers approved a $19.3 billion spending plan that includes $111 million in last-minute money for economic development projects.
The spending plan for fiscal 2013, which begins July 1, does not include cost-of-living pay raises for most of the state's more than 200,000 teachers and employees. State employees haven't received cost-of-living raises since shortly after the start of the Great Recession.
Much of the new economic development money comes from the national mortgage settlement agreement. About $44.7 million would go to the state's program for rural economic development projects, and $67 million would be spent on other economic development grants.
Earlier in the month, a spokesman for Gov. Nathan Deal said the governor wanted the money to go into state reserves.
But Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the governor decided to use the money instead for a "deal-closing fund" to help attract new businesses and help existing ones expand.
"This closing money will make us the most competitive in the Southeast -- if not the entire nation -- in this category," he said. "This is another step in making Georgia the No. 1 place in the nation to do business."
Budget writers also added nearly $3.5 million to pay for upgrades at the Department of Revenue to handle a key part of the new tax plan approved last week. The measure would have car buyers pay a title fee, rather than sales tax or property taxes, on their cars.
Two more projects for Atlanta were cut. Earlier in the session, the House redirected about $15 million in bonds approved earlier for the College Football Hall of Fame and a Georgia World Congress Center purchase to other projects. In the final plan, House and Senate budget writers eliminated $750,000 in funding for a state history museum at the old World of Coca-Cola building and $5 million to build a new student services and academic building at Atlanta Metropolitan College.
The budget agreement paves the way for the end of the 2012 legislative session. Traditionally the budget is one of the last things lawmakers approve.
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