Georgia House passes mid-year budget with new spending.

ATLANTA - The Georgia House of Representatives has overcome the majority and approved a mid-year budget for the 2024 fiscal year amounting to $37.5 billion, with a surplus of $5 billion for new expenditures.

Among the major expense items:

• 1.5 billion dollars for improving transportation infrastructure, including 659 million dollars for projects currently underway.
• 509 million dollars for projects aimed at more efficient freight movement,
• 200 million dollars for improving local roads,
• 100 million dollars for renovation projects,
• 53 million dollars for airport assistance.

Moreover, for the first time in memory, this spending plan allows the state to fund large capital projects with cash rather than through borrowed financing. The budget for the middle of the year allocates $450 million for the construction of a new prison in Washington County, $178 million for the construction of a new dental school on the Armstrong campus of Georgia Southern University in Savannah, and $50 million for the construction of a new medical school at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Government employees and teachers will receive a one-time bonus of $1,000, an initiative announced by Governor Brian Kemp in December to help reduce turnover in public schools and institutions.

All these increases in spending were part of the mid-year budget recommendations presented by Kemp to the General Assembly last month. However, the House made its own additions.

The version of the mid-budget chamber includes:

• Increase in daily compensation for counties housing inmates in state prisons from $22 to $24 per day.

Budget writers also allocated $60 million for improving the infrastructure of state psychiatric hospitals and set aside $10.4 million for the construction of a new crisis center for children and adolescents in Savannah.

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