[January 25, 2016] | This week, the General Assembly began what is arguably one of the most important weeks of our 40-day session, otherwise known as ?Budget Week.? Needless to say, our second week under the Gold Dome was busy and resulted in significant progress, especially in the amended budget.
Each session we are constitutionally required to pass a balanced state budget, and this week, the House and Senate Appropriations committees and subcommittees met for a series of joint budget hearings to review Governor Nathan Deal?s budget proposals and begin crafting two budget bills: the Fiscal Year 2017 (FY2017) budget and the Amended Fiscal Year 2016 (AFY2016) budget. The full fiscal year budget uses a projected state revenue estimate to guide state spending from July 1 to June 30 of the following fiscal year. The amended budget is a check at the half-way point. It allows us to continue to balance the revenues, expenses, and needs accurately.
Gov. Deal released his budget recommendations last week (a thick book), and this week, he presented those recommendations in detail before the joint House and Senate Appropriations committee. If you want to look at it online, go to http://opb.georgia.gov. This week?s joint budget hearings allowed us to closely examine the governor?s recommendations, while also hearing testimony from the various state agencies vying for state funding. We also get to question them and probe their spending requests.
Our state has seen substantial economic growth in recent years, which is evident in both Gov. Deal?s amended FY2016 and FY2017 budget proposals. We have seen an increase in state revenues each of the past three years, but perhaps the most astonishing growth we have seen is in our state?s population. Between 2000 and 2015, Georgia?s population grew by more than two million, making us the eighth largest state. Due to this revenue and population growth, we are able to allow for ?new? funding to account for adjustments in the AFY2016 budget, including $109,913,685 for K-12 education for a mid-term adjustment growth. Additionally, the AFY2016 budget proposes an increase of $1,651,892 to support the information technology applications utilized by local school systems. The governor also proposed an adjustment of $14.9 million in this year?s amended budget to provide grants to local school systems to improve internet connectivity and for live online instruction and other digital resources for students and teachers. In the digital world that we live in, it is important that our students have access to the technology and resources necessary to be successful in life.
The AFY2016 budget proposal also makes other funding adjustments in education, impacting students planning to attend our colleges and universities. Since 2012, the number of Zell Miller Scholars at both public and private universities increased by more than forty percent. To account for this increase in eligible individuals, the governor has allocated an additional $30.3 million for AFY2016 and $59.1 million for FY2017 for Zell Miller and HOPE Scholarship recipients. I am pleased to see the addition of these funds in both the amended and full budget recommendations. Many students rely on these scholarships, and I hope that by attending college in Georgia, those students will also eventually continue to live and work in our state.
Next week I will spend some time on the priorities Gov. Deal has set forth in the 2017 budget.
Committees? work is put on hold when Appropriations meetings are going on all over the Capitol so our members can make wise decisions on how we spend your money. Anyone can attend these meetings and most of us spend our time going to as many as we can. Members are drafting bills and entering them for consideration every day and the exciting work of the committees will start this upcoming week.
Finally this week, the House and Senate voted on an adjournment resolution that set the legislative calendar for the remainder of the 40-day session. Day 40, the final day of the 2016 legislative session, or ?sine die,? will be Thursday, March 24. We have a very aggressive and busy schedule from now until then, and as we continue through this legislative session, I encourage you to reach out to me with your questions and concerns.
As your State Representative, I want to know what issues are most important to you, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss them with you. I also encourage you to visit your State Capitol, where you are always welcome to visit me at my Capitol office, located in room 401. You may also call my Capitol office at 404-656-7857 or reach me via email at rick.jasperse@house.ga.gov.
As always, thank you for allowing me to serve as your Representative.