Georgia’s governor and its legislature are working on an annual state budget that will come to about $37.7 billion. As usual, a lot of that money is spoken for even before the debate starts.
The Georgia Department of Education has the single-biggest budget line by far in Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposed budget for the year that will begin July 1, at $13.65 billion. K-12 public school systems get state money based in large part on a formula that sends money based on the number of students in the system and the training and experience of their teachers. As the number of students rises, state spending on education does too.
Add in universities, technical colleges and pre-K programs, and state education spending will come to almost $20 billion. Most of this money comes from regular tax dollars but about $1.6 billion is from lottery funds that must be used for pre-K, college and university scholarships.
Georgia has about 1.7 million K-12 students; and it has about 600,000 students getting lottery-or state-funded scholarships and grants for higher or pre-K education. We already know their needs next year will be the biggest single slice of the budget.
Billions in health care spending is already broadly set by formulas, laws and population too. Georgia’s share of Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids is a big part of the $5.54 billion budget for the Department of Community Health. If more adults and children qualify for this insurance for low-income folks, Georgia will need to kick in more money to meet the growing need. About 1.7 million Georgians are enrolled in Medicaid.
Georgia’s prison system budget is also tied to a population — the roughly 53,000 inmates in state custody. As that number rises or falls, the prison bill would too.
Legislatures and governors can and do change the budget — for example, by granting raises to teachers or prison guards. But even shifting $100 million one way or the other wouldn’t change the broad outline of spending.
Gov. Kemp and the state House and Senate must come to agreement on the budget by the time the annual legislative session ends on April 4.