WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT – January 13, 2006

Questions remain on governor’s budget for education

By Rep. Hugh Floyd

The first week of the 2006 session of the Georgia General Assembly was highlighted by Gov. Sonny Perdue’s proposed state budget plan for fiscal year 2007, which for the first time during his administration reflects a significant investment in public education.

During the previous three years, the governor initiated a total of nearly $1.1 billion in education funding cuts, resulting in delays in reducing class sizes, little or no increases in teacher pay and local property tax increases in more than 80 school districts across the state.

But Wednesday, the governor asked lawmakers to approve an election-year budget that includes additional funds for education, including a 4 percent pay raise for educators and a $100 “gift card” for every teacher that will enable them to buy classroom supplies for their students. The governor is also proposing additional funds for the State Health Benefit Plan to keep educators from suffering new increases in insurance premiums.

The governor also proposed an increase in classroom construction spending and funds to pay for class size reductions in grades K-8. During the previous three years, the governor and his supporters in the General Assembly enacted legislation that delayed class size reductions that were mandated by the state’s education reform act.

Unfortunately, the governor’s plan still includes nearly $170 million in further cuts to the state’s basic funding formula for schools, which raises the question of whether the state would be imposing more unfunded mandates on our local school boards.

Education is one of state government’s most important obligations. These new funding proposals are overdue and will only partially undo the damage of three years of education budget cuts and delays in class size reductions. While we’re at it, lawmakers must be committed to reducing paperwork for teachers, protecting the HOPE scholarship, strengthening technical education programs and insisting that every child’s education be funded equitably and adequately throughout the state.

In addition to the new education spending, the governor’s budget proposal includes funding requests for a child care tax credit for working parents, 4,300 additional beds for the state prison system, a special GBI unit that would target crimes related to the production and sale of methamphetamines and a series of local land conservation grants.

In House floor action during the first week, the state’s new law requiring voters to produce photo identification when they go to the polls, which was rejected by a federal judge last fall, underwent changes aimed at surviving future court challenges.

The House voted to provide the photo IDs free of charge to voters who do not have them and to make them accessible in each of Georgia’s 159 counties.

The House also voted to ratify the governor’s action last month to reduce the state sales tax on natural gas from 4 percent to 2 percent, a move that will save Georgia consumers $2 on a monthly $100 home heating bill.