Politics

In New Budget, Deal Boosts Funding For Education And Child Protection Services

January 16th, 2015

Fueled by a steadily growing economy, Gov. Nathan Deal today unveiled a $21.7 billion budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. The plan boosts spending by about $900 million compared to last year and includes hundreds of millions in new money for public schools.

For the second year in a row, Deal wants to add more than $500 million for K-12 education. Half of that simply keeps up with enrollment. The other half, like last year, will go to local school districts to use as they wish.

Deal’s Chief of Staff Chris Riley says while the governor would like to see teacher pay raises and more school days, the local districts will ultimately decide.

“The governor would encourage them to put the money where needed. He trusts the local systems to do that,” said Riley.

Deal’s plan (pdf here) sets aside money so state employees can get a 1 percent pay raise. There’s also money for 278 new case workers at the Division of Family and Children Services, or DFCS.

Deal has reconsidered his campaign pledge to overhaul the state ethics commission, but his budget includes an extra $1 million for the agency to hire eight new ethics staffers.

In addition, Deal wants to add $23 million to complete construction of a parking lot near the new Atlanta Falcons stadium. Seventeen million dollars was slipped into the budget at the end of last year’s legislative session to begin construction on the parking lot. When the stadium project was announced, officials had said state taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook for any stadium-related costs.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate will debate the plan in the coming months and likely finalize a budget in March or April.