3 Ways to Improve Future State Budgets

BY CHARLICE BYRD

The federal government hit its legal debt limit of $31.4 trillion in January. Congress now must decide whether to let the country continue borrowing money. Sound familiar? That’s because Congress has raised the debt ceiling 78 times in the past 63 years. Unfortunately, increased spending is not exclusive to the federal government. Our state has a similar spending problem. The passage of a balanced budget is the only constitutionally required action for the Georgia General Assembly each session. This session, we passed the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget of $32.4 billion, up 7.4% from the FY 2023 budget.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some admirable policy priorities, including $3.1 billion to fund the Quality Basic Education Act fully, the most ever spent in Georgia on public education; a $4,000 pay increase for law enforcement officers; a $2,000 pay bump for all other state employees, including public school teachers; and $1.25 million for a new Georgia State Patrol satellite post in Buckhead.

However, I believe addressing spending and the role of government, and implementing real budget reform for Georgia, need to be a top priority. Here are a few ways we can improve the budget in the future:

• Cut corporate subsidies, including tax credits. In the FY 2024 budget and previous budgets, examples of programs that could be cut include a $130 million subsidy to train electric vehicle workers,

$166.7 million in local corporate subsidies and $92 million for insurance companies to subsidize health insurance premiums.

• Remove the responsibility of funding HOPE from taxpayers. The FY 2024 budget asks Georgians to foot a $61.2 million bill for HOPE scholarship recipients. Georgians originally were promised that Georgia Lottery funds would cover the cost of HOPE. In the future, the state needs to focus on coming to an agreement with the Georgia Lottery Corp. to increase the percentage the lottery system gives out.

• Pay down state debt. Georgia had the largest state surplus of funds in recent history in 2023 — $6.7 billion. However, the FY 2024 budget does not allocate those funds to pay off the state’s debt, which accrues hundreds of millions per year in interest. Instead, the state is using the funds for new programs, or increasing spending on existing programs. Paying down the debt must become a priority.

I am working on creating an open dialogue with the House Appropriations Committee to address these budget issues.

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