Gov. Brian Kemp signed what he called an “historic” $36.1 billion state budget Tuesday containing healthy raises for state employees and public school teachers.
The fiscal 2025 budget, which takes effect July 1, represents an increase of $3.7 billion over the fiscal 2024 budget the General Assembly adopted last spring, including record spending on education and mental health and significant increases for public safety.
“This budget is the biggest demonstration of our priorities,” Kemp said during a ceremony inside the Georgia Capitol. “Because we refuse to spend beyond our means, we’re able to invest in these core areas while cutting taxes at the same time.”
The budget provides 4% cost-of-living raises for most state and university system employees, with an additional $3,000 for workers in state agencies suffering high turnover rates, including law enforcement officers and welfare workers. Teachers will get a pay raise of $2,500, bringing the total to $9,500 since Kemp took office in 2019.
Addressing both education and public safety, the spending plan earmarks $108 million in grants to upgrade security on public school campuses. Every public school in Georgia will get a grant of $45,000.
“We want to and we will keep our children safe,” said Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington.
Also in the public safety arena, the budget provides $10.7 million for a technology upgrade inside state prisons to head off a flood of cellphones and other contraband being smuggled in to inmates. Another $4.8 million will go to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to launch a gang task force in Columbus.
The budget kicks in additional funding for a number of programs already underway, including $20 million for a state reinsurance plan begun last year that aims to hold down health coverage premiums and $6 million for the Rural Workforce Housing initiative, also launched in 2023.
“Every Georgian should be able to live in the same community where they work,” Kemp said.
On the mental health front, the budget puts $16.5 million toward a network of behavioral health crisis centers across the state.
Despite the record spending, Kemp and the General Assembly also are continuing to reduce taxes, which they can afford to do thanks to a $16 billion budget surplus. The legislature signed off this year on the governor’s proposal to accelerate a state income tax cut lawmakers adopted last year.
Altogether, the governor and General Assembly have returned more than $5 billion to Georgia taxpayers, Kemp said.
Gov. vetoes data center tax break bill
Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed a dozen bills Tuesday that the General Assembly passed this year, including legislation that would have temporarily suspended a state sales tax exemption aimed at attracting data centers to Georgia.
Republican legislative leaders supported House Bill 1192, arguing the rapid growth of data centers is putting a strain on the state’s energy grid. But business leaders – notably the Georgia Chamber of Commerce – urged Kemp to veto the bill.
In his veto message, the governor wrote that the timing of the measure would have left companies planning to set up data centers in Georgia in the lurch.
“Only two years ago, the legislature extended these tax exemptions for an additional three years, through 2031,” Kemp wrote.
“The bill’s language would prevent the issuance of exemption certificates after an abrupt July 1, 2024, deadline for many customers of projects that are already in development – undermining the investments made by high-technology data center operators, customers, and other stakeholders in reliance on the recent extension, and inhibiting important infrastructure and job development.”
Representatives of the data center industry also maintained that cutting off the tax break would send the wrong message to corporate prospects, making them likely to take their business to states that offer the sales tax exemption.
Other bills Kemp vetoed on Tuesday include House Bill 1019, which called for doubling the statewide homestead tax exemption from $2,000 to $4,000, subject to a referendum.
The legislation was part of a tax-cut package introduced by House Republican leaders early in this year’s session. In vetoing the bill, Kemp pointed to a major 11th-hour change that he argued made the measure untenable.
“After the Senate Finance Committee changed the exemption amount, the Senate adopted a floor amendment late on the final day of the legislative session to return the bill to its original form,” the governor wrote.
“This amendment, however, did not change the language of the constitutionally required voter referendum, which references a $10,000 exemption. Voters would therefore be approving a different exemption which the legislature did not pass, while the statutory language would never receive the voter approval needed for it to take effect.”
Kemp also vetoed Senate Bill 368, which would have prohibited foreign nationals from making political contributions. In his veto message, the governor noted that such contributions are prohibited under federal law.
In addition, the measure would have imposed additional state-level requirements on “agents of foreign principals,” including some that were not intended by the bill’s sponsor, Kemp wrote.
This story comes to Rough Draft Atlanta through a content partnership with Capitol Beat.