Georgia’s budget crisis is not due to funding the wrong priorities or waste and inefficiency. Georgia has a revenue problem. To avoid devastating cuts to such vital government services as education, healthcare, and public safety, Georgia needs a balanced approach
Using a more balanced approach to budgeting would reduce the cuts, such as budgeting additional revenues through increasing the cigarette tax,enacting a new top income tax rate, improving tax collections, suspending or ending tax breaks, increasing fees, and closing corporate
Over the next three to five years, the state needs between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in surpluses to rebuild the Revenue Shortfall Reserve (RSR). In order to do so, lawmakers should take a balanced approach to state budgeting that
The governor’s proposed Department of Human Services (DHS) budget cut 138 eligibility workers in FY 2011. Eligibility workers process applications for Georgians in need of “safety net” supports. Georgia should use new federal funds to increase the number of eligibility
Education does not escape the governor’s proposed cuts to agencies for the upcoming year. Adjusted for inflation, per student state spending on K-12 education and the University System will fall to their lowest levels in a decade.
The Department of Human Services is facing a wide variety of budget cuts in the FY 2011 budget proposal. These cuts come on top of the cuts already implemented in the FY 2010 budget.
Due to the “Great Recession,” state revenues have continued to decline through the first six months of the current fiscal year (FY 2010). This decline is resulting in a FY 2010 budget shortfall of an additional $1.4 billion, for a
The enacted fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget spared the Department of Community Health (DCH) from large-scale program cuts because enhanced federal Medicaid funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as well as additional Tobacco Settlement funds were
This report provides recommendations to reform the criminal justice system in Georgia. This system has experienced rapid budget growth due, in part, to Georgia’s tough on crime policies and the rising age of inmates and their associated healthcare costs. These
The Georgia Budget & Policy Institute works to advance lasting solutions that expand economic opportunity and well-being for all Georgians.
Georgia Budget & Policy Institute
The Georgia Budget Primer is GBPI’s signature annual examination of state revenues and investments. It outlines Georgia’s budget changes, trends and impacts regarding taxes, education, health care, human services and criminal legal systems. This year we are taking special care to describe how federal funding contributes to Georgia’s budget.
Submit public comment on Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage program extension by February 20th – just complete this easily fillable form:
