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A sure sign that Georgia’s coffers are flush with an unprecedented budget surplus is that for the first time in memory, the state plans to fund its annual list of building projects with cash instead of bonds.
The budget proposals Gov. Brian Kemp released during the first week of the 2024 legislative session call for spending more than $2 billion of the surplus on what the governor’s office described as “historic” investment in education, public safety, tax relief for Georgians, and infrastructure improvements across the Peach State.
“A strong economy and conservative fiscal management of state revenues … has led to record job growth, historic investment in communities from Bainbridge to Blue Ridge, $5 billion in tax relief, and enough funds saved to operate state government for months in an emergency, not days,” Kemp declared Thursday in his annual State of the State address to a joint session of the Georgia House and Senate.
Kemp’s $37.5 billion mid-year budget includes $1.9 billion for capital projects, all funded with cash. It’s a significantly larger pot of money than the $800 million to $1 billion the state’s annual bond package usually contains.
That capital investment doesn’t include other new spending in the governor’s budget recommendations designed to take advantage of the bulging surplus.
The list of new spending in the mid-year budget includes:
- $1.5 billion for transportation improvements, including $659 million for construction projects in the state Department of Transportation’s existing pipeline and $641 million aimed at improving the movement of freight.
- $500 million to reduce the Georgia Employees’ Retirement System’s debt.
- $450.9 million to build a new state prison.
- $400 million for…
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