Georgia House passes spending plan with some teacher raises

ATLANTA (AP) - Yes - in part - to teacher pay raises. No to many proposed cuts to programs.

The Georgia House on Tuesday passed its version of the state’s 2021 budget, a plan that would give teachers $1,000 of the $2,000 pay raises sought by Gov. Brian Kemp and use the remainder to stave off cuts to various programs.

The House passed the proposal, which would spend $28.1 billion in state money and $54.2 billion once federal and other money is added in, by a vote of 134-35. It goes next to the state Senate for more debate.

The proposal equates to an increase of about $566 million in funding over this year’s budget, House Appropriations Chairman Terry England said.

“Salaries and the impact of budget cuts have dominated our conversations,” England said, adding that the House tried to “strike a balance” between the two.

While the governor’s original budget proposal would have directed the vast majority of that new money to teacher pay raises, the House has “taken a little bit of a different route,” England said. The House budget redirects some of that new money to boost pay for other state employees, in addition to protecting programs and agencies against budget cuts.

In addition to a $1,000 pay raise for certified public school teachers, the House proposal also includes funding for 2% merit raises for state employees and employees of the university system, as well as targeted raises of 2% to 5% for state jobs that England said have “egregious” turnover rates. England said previously that those raises would cost more than $120 million across all agencies and would improve morale while reducing training costs.

Lawmakers are trying to write a budget even as state revenue growth has slowed, following lawmakers’ cut of the state’s top income tax rate in 2019. The Republican governor had proposed more than $300 million in cuts this year, even while proposing the pay raises.

England said House budget writers agreed with about 80% of Kemp’s cuts, which sought to eliminate more than 1,200 vacant positions.

But in some areas, the House spending plan has taken a sharply different approach. More than $30 million over Kemp’s budget would be added for mental health and substance abuse treatment in the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities

The House would give the Georgia Bureau of Investigation another $6 million to support crime lab and other operations. The state Department of Agriculture, proposed for sharp cuts, would get $6 million more than Kemp proposed. Most cuts to county public health departments and physician training would be avoided, and public defenders would get more.

Several Democrats spoke in opposition to the House budget.

House Minority Leader Bob Trammell of Luthersville questioned why the budget didn’t include funding to fully expand Medicaid as called for under the Affordable Care Act, a concern Georgia Democrats have voiced for years.