ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Friday introduced his budget plan for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. State lawmakers will begin considering the proposal next week. Some details of state spending under Deal’s plan:
-Total spending: $45 billion
-Total spending for K-12 and higher education: $11.9 billion
- Would add more than $500,000 for 10 additional workers to more quickly process applications and complaints made to professional licensing boards.
- Would add $25,000 to Georgia’s Supreme Court justices’ salaries, along with a $15,000 increase for the state’s Superior Court judges. The court produces its own request to be submitted to lawmakers along with the governor’s budget. Justices make an annual salary of $167,210.
- Proposes $800 million in borrowing to fund building and other projects across the state. Deal’s administration expects state lawmakers will add $100 million in additional proposals.
- Recommends a task force submit a plan by Aug. 1 for helping hospitals pay for indigent care. Deal has refused President Barack Obama’s Medicaid expansion, creating a problem for hospitals. Obama’s proposal assumed very few people would lack health insurance, allowing the U.S. government to reduce payments it makes to hospitals for treating poor and uninsured patients. Georgia refused the Medicaid expansion, meaning many low-income patients do not have insurance. Hospitals must still treat those patients, but they get less money for doing it.
-HOPE scholarship awards for in-state college students increase by 3 percent. Tuition rates for the 2016 school year haven’t been set. Tuition has increased every year since at least 2002.
-Requests about $4 million for equipment and $2.6 million to establish the Georgia Film Academy, run by the university and technical college systems. Georgia’s tax credits make it a popular location for film and television shoots, but production companies have said they struggle to find people with the right skills to work behind the scenes.
-Parking facilities at the new Atlanta Falcons stadium would cost the state about $23 million.
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