Georgia’s lawmakers are moving not only to regild the iconic dome on state Capitol, but the entire complex.
Lawmakers on Monday with little dissent agreed to spend $392 million to build a new legislative office building for themselves and to renovate the 1889 Capitol building.
Gov. Brian Kemp approved increasing state spending to pay for the project, saying lawmakers expressed a “strong desire to address the long-term capital needs for our historic Capitol building and the surrounding area.”
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Kemp must still sign the bill, which boosts spending of state revenue by almost $5.5 billion over the $32.5 billion that lawmakers approved last year.
Senators and House members agreed to a state budget that would include money for $1,000 bonuses already paid to state employees and teachers, additional roadbuilding, new dental and medical schools, and paying down some state debts. Kemp must sill sign House Bill 915, which adds money to the budget running through June 30.
Total spending, including federal aid, college tuition, fines and fees, would rise to $68 billion.
Plans call for an eight-story building across Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from the north side of the Capitol in downtown Atlanta, said Gerald Pilgrim, the deputy executive director of the Georgia Building Authority. The site includes two smaller state office buildings that are partly vacant.
“This budget provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pay cash and the full cost to protect the safety and security of building occupants and improve public access to the Capitol Hill complex, for the construction of a new legislative office building, as well as over $83 million to restore the historical integrity of this building that was built so long ago,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Hatchett, a Dublin Republican, told House members Monday.
Georgia’s not alone. Alabama is constructing a new building to hold chambers for its House…
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