Just three line items totaling less than $2 million in the 2010 state budget met with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s displeasure.
Perdue on Wednesday signed the $18.6 billion spending plan, but unlike past years, he found little to quibble with in doing so.
The budget that now becomes law for the year beginning July 1 is $2.5 billion less than the budget passed during the 2008 session of the General Assembly.
“Cutting the budget has forced a number of difficult decisions, but we have managed the state in a thoughtful, conservative way to ensure Georgians are receiving value for their tax dollars,” Perdue said in a statement.
The budget includes $23 million for trauma funding and more than $1.3 billion in federal stimulus money for Medicaid and other programs. It avoids new health insurance premium increases for 225,000 teachers and state employees, but no raises.
The budget features more than $1 billion in year-to-year cuts as well as $1.2 billion in borrowing for construction projects, mostly for schools and libraries.
“It looks like we’re all pretty much in agreement,” House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans) said.
Harbin did say that the limited number of vetoes were a — pleasant — surprise.
“We’ve dealt with so many things in the past, this is kind of a signal that the governor and Legislature worked together in tough economic times,” Harbin said.
Harbin’s counterpart in the Senate, Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill (R-Reidsville), was likewise pleased, but not terribly surprised. Perdue didn’t have much choice, he said.
“There’s no spending in it much, so it really is just a lot of pain,” Hill said. “Frankly, this year, because we’re operating under such duress and all the pressure of cutting, the House and Senate worked together better than we have. There really weren’t many options anyway.”
Here are the items vetoed:
» $25,000 in general funds for the Georgia State Games Commission. The commission operates the state’s annual Olympic-style championship.
» $250,000 in bonds for the Herty Advanced Materials Development Center in Savannah to design and construct a covered biofuels testing facility through the sale of bonds. The state already issued $2 million in bonds for the center, of which $900,000 remains unspent.
» $1.6 million in bonds for the University System of Georgia to acquire a museum. Lawmakers approved the bond sale for Darton College in Albany to purchase a local museum of art. The only problem: the museum isn’t for sale.
Labels: 2010 state budget, Budget, Georgia, governor sonny perdue, vetoes
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Brian Vanderhoff @ 8:00 AM
