ATLANTA — The state House completed its proposed adjustments to the current year budget, sending the Senate its changes to Gov. Brian Kemp’s spending plan for the state through June.
The $42.3 billion amended fiscal year budget approved overwhelmingly Thursday left the governor’s plan mostly intact, but there were a few significant changes.
The House trimmed $80 million from Kemp’s $1.8 billion project to add express lanes to I-75 south of Atlanta. The lawmakers also cut $25 million from the governor’s $325 million proposal to establish a college scholarship fund for students from low-income households.
The House instead put money into myriad projects, including prison cells, mental health facilities, rural infrastructure and medical education.
One major switch saved a bit of money. Kemp wanted to return $1 billion to taxpayers in the form of one-time income tax rebates averaging $250 per filer ($500 for married couples).
The House wants to return $150 million less, and to different people. The proposal passed by a 167-5 vote would return $850 million to homeowners through property tax relief grants.
“This grant will reduce next year’s tax bills for homeowners, and we will continue to eliminate property taxes on your home,” said Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, chairman of the House Appropriations committee.
Property tax relief is a priority for House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington. He has said he wants to gradually reduce homeowner property taxes until 2032 when they would be abolished.
The Senate, meanwhile, wants to reduce and then eliminate the state income tax.
The House added several big-ticket items. It wants to spend $220 million to design and build a new private prison for low-risk inmates, which would free up 480 beds in state prisons.
The House proposal also adds nearly $30 million to retrofit a building at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro for a new optometry college. And it puts $27 million towards a new hospital in Atlanta to create bed space for mental health and forensic patients and adds $50 million for rural infrastructure projects. It also puts nearly $83 million toward a deficit in the Division of Family and Children Services, with $1.6 million to restore four foster care support contracts that had been cut to save money.
The Senate will now have a chance to make its own amendments to the mid-year budget as the House turns to the full budget for fiscal year 2027, which will fund government starting in July.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat, an initiative of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.