With state finances looking a little better this year, the General Assembly Tuesday gave final approval to a spending plan that borrows about $130 million for new college projects in metro Atlanta and puts big money into economic development efforts.
The House voted 143-24 and the Senate 45-0 to pass the $19.3 billion state budget for fiscal 2013, which begins July 1. Unlike in most previous years, there was no real debate. The budget -- which increases state spending by about $800 million next year -- now goes to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature.
State spending is still down about $2 billion from what it was when the Great Recession hit, said House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn. Per capita state government spending is about 20 percent less than it was a decade ago, he noted.
But England said after years of dramatic spending cuts in everything from schools to state parks and prisons, lawmakers are seeing things improve, albeit slowly.
"I think the economy is starting to turn," England said. "We still have some big things out there that we have to take care of .... but we are getting our feet under us again. It's not one of those things where we just have to go in and whack, whack, whack, cut, cut, cut."
The state budget touches the lives of most all Georgians. The money goes to help pay to educate about 2 million students and provide health care to about 1.6 million Georgians. It allows the state to build roads, provide park space, patrol highways, incarcerate inmates and regulate key industries.
Budget writers worked over the weekend to come up with the final plan, which spends about $39.5 billion overall, including federal tax money.
Next year's budget does not provide cost-of-living raises for most of the state's more than 200,000 teachers and employees, but that's not a change. Most state employees have not had a cost-of-living raise since shortly after the start of the recession.
Some Atlanta projects got nixed from the budget, including $750,000 for a state history museum at the old World of Coca-Cola building downtown. Lawmakers also redirected $10 million earlier approved for the College Football Hall of Fame to other projects.
Among the big metro Atlanta college projects that made the cut was a $59 million engineered biosystems building at Georgia Tech, a $25 million allied health building at Georgia Gwinnett College and $25 million to buy property for the North Fulton campus of Gwinnett Technical College. UGA would also get $52 million for a vet school building.
In addition, the spending plan puts $111 million -- much of it from the national mortgage lawsuit settlement -- into new economic development efforts. Deal had originally leaned toward putting the state's take from the settlement into reserves. But he decided to put it into an economic development programs designed to make local communities more attractive to new and expanding businesses.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, commended the governor for "putting the money right where it will do the most good."
Elizabeth Appley, lobbyist for the Georgia State Trade Association for Nonprofit Developers, which advocates for increased access to affordable housing, called it "extremely disappointing" that state leaders decided to spend the money on economic development projects instead of putting it into efforts to help Georgians affected by the foreclosure crisis.
Georgia received the money as part of a multistate settlement that addressed accusations that lenders abused the mortgage process, including using deceptive practices, filing improper documents in bankruptcy court and submitting falsified documents in foreclosures.
Appley said the money could have gone for housing counselors, foreclosure and legal assistance, remediation and anti-blight programs.
"All of these are worthwhile causes that would have the effect of meeting the needs of these families who have been so dramatically affected by foreclosures in this state," she said.
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