Comité Appropriations del Senado, 18 de febrero de 2026

Transcripción

119 turnos. Seleccione un tiempo para reproducir ese momento del video.

1. 0:02:26

   Check, check.

2. 0:14:39

   Hey, guys, it's seven thirty-one. If you don't mind, try to make your way to your seats.

3. 0:15:02

   You don't have to get that quiet. We are actually still awaiting a quorum, but I did wanna get you to a point where I could count, so...

4. 0:15:21

   Need one more senator.

5. 0:15:29

   Tell you what we can do, though. We can go ahead and get started with some of the, the other items. Uh, Senator Goodman, do you mind leading us in an invocation?

6. 0:15:38

   Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Honored to. Uh, y'all pray with me, please. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for today, Lord. We thank you for loving us. We thank you for the gift of salvation. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to be able to come here today and, uh, discuss this budget. And, uh, Lord, we thank you for all the work that, uh, the chairman and, uh, all the members of the committee and the staff have, have put into, uh, getting it to this point, Lord. And we know that everything in this world belongs to you. This is your money in the end, Lord, and we just, uh, we just ask that you give us wisdom and discernment as we go about, uh, allocating that money, Lord, in the, on the best interest of, of the people that we represent.

7. 0:16:14

   Thank you, Lord, for all your many blessings. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

8. 0:16:18

   Amen. Thank you. Members, welcome to the first Appropriations, uh, Committee meeting of twenty twenty-six. We've got two bills on the agenda. The first one's going to be Senate Bill three ninety-two by Senator Albers. Senator Albers, you wanna go ahead and come on up to the podium? We still are lacking one member for quorum, I believe.

9. 0:16:44

   There he is.

10. 0:16:52

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If you're ready, I'll begin.

11. 0:16:54

    Go ahead.

12. 0:16:56

    Senators, today we've got Senate Bill three ninety-two in front of you, the Waste Reduction Act of two thousand and twenty-six, also known as zero-based budgeting. This is something the Senate has led on for a very long time. In fact, a few of us were here in two thousand twelve when we passed, at the time, Senate Bill thirty-three. This is a continuation of that bill that went into law that year in twenty twelve, but it was sunset in two thousand and twenty. Let's talk about what zero-based budgeting is, because many of you here do this every day, either in your home finances or in your businesses.

13. 0:17:34

    Zero-based budgeting takes a different approach to just taking what we had last year and adding a few percent or removing a few percent based on where the revenue estimates said. What it does is it promotes fiscal responsibility and taxpayer accountability. Rather than just taking those numbers, we have to justify each dollar. It allows us to really focus on having taxpayers first. What it also does, it eliminates waste, duplication, and obsolete programs. So in traditional budgeting, we take a step back and we says, "Is this program still necessary?

14. 0:18:09

    Is it duplicative? Are we doing this in other places in government? Is there a more efficient way to do these type of services?" It also makes sure that we are not underutilizing any resources or initiatives, and we're getting rid of any administrative bloat. In addition, it aligns our spending with our stated priorities. Today, we often talk about things that we're passionate about, such as public safety, education, healthcare, infrastructure, focusing on things like tax relief.

15. 0:18:39

    Rather than just basing our budget on history, it makes sure it aligns those goals. It also encourages performance-based governments. Again, most of us in the business world make sure we're aligning those two together. What's the mission? What's the measurable outcome? How are we tying those two things together? What's the cost justification? And what are the alternatives that are out there that we maybe haven't explored up to this point? This allows us to make sure we're looking at to make sure things are designed or redesigned to make sure we're meeting those goals.

16. 0:19:14

    It also increases transparency. Zero-based budget, budgeting makes sure that our citizens that we serve can see what those programs cost. They can see why they exist and how we deliver them. It improves and strengthens both our legislative oversight as well as that of the executive branch. Whether you chair a committee, you're a subcommittee chair for appropriations, you're in leadership, or you're just voting on the budget, it makes sure it's reevaluating each and every one.

17. 0:19:47

    It supports long-term financial responsibility, something Georgia's always been known for, but we constantly have to stay ahead of that. We have pension obligations. We constantly have growth, whether they be in Medicaid, additional people coming into our great state, enrollment in schools, our economic cycles as they go up and down as we follow the economy, and of course, maintaining things such as our triple A bond rating and are mandated to have a constitutionally balanced budget.

18. 0:20:21

    It encourages innovation and efficiency. It gives us the opportunity to say, "Can we consolidate these services or adapt new technology that could help do things better, faster, and cheaper?" Make sure we're automating our outdated systems and procedures and restructure operation. It's really creates a culture of continuous improvement, which is what we always want in government. And finally, the overall advantages, we're talking about important things like tax cuts, which are wonderful.

19. 0:20:51

    Putting money back in our family's pockets. This is a mechanism that helps get it there, whether it be eliminating the income tax, reducing property taxes, giving more tax rebates back. It allows us to finally do and continue to do what we know is best, which is follow what the private marketplace does and using spending right. So in front of you, you've got this bill, which is an additional timeframe with no sunset now to continue zero-based budgeting, which means once at least every ten years, each area is gonna have to build their budget from the ground up.

20. 0:21:29

    They're gonna look back two years during that process. They're gonna make sure that all those programs are effective, as I just mentioned. Doesn't mean they can't do it more often, and I'm gonna encourage everybody here to do it even on a quicker cycle, but it's going to be a minimum of that amount of time that they're gonna go through and rebuild their budgets. It's a pretty straightforward piece of legislation. I would be glad to yield for questions, and I hope you're favorable for support so we can get this bill passed and show Georgians that once again, Georgia will lead the way on their tax dollars and spending.

21. 0:22:02

    Thank you, Chairman Al-Albers. Anybody have any questions for the senator concerning Senate Bill three ninety-two?

22. 0:22:11

    Chairman Harbison.

23. 0:22:12

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Regarding the two departments you specified, are those the only two departments which would be subject to the Zero-Based Budgeting Act or just all of them? I know you specified those two only.

24. 0:22:28

    Uh, they will all be, uh, encompassed under zero-based budg-budgeting, Senator. A couple of them are called out specifically 'cause the way they're highlighted in the budget. But all, uh, everywhere that we appropriate dollars will all be under, uh, this bill.

25. 0:22:42

    And secondly, isn't this something we pursued decades ago to try to make sure we watch the budget, uh, as, as we try to do anyway? Ha- we sort of drifted away from that. Is that true?

26. 0:22:55

    Well, in twenty-twenty, this bill actually sunset, so it has not been done for the last six years. So this gets us back on track doing that.

27. 0:23:03

    Thank you.

28. 0:23:05

    Chairman Dolezal.

29. 0:23:07

    Thank you, Chairman Albers, for bringing the bill. Um, I was doing research on this in the off session, and when this pr- when, uh, former Pro Tem Schaefer passed this bill, it, it kinda got watered down through the process, and it became a quasi zero-based budget bill, which essentially required these agencies to submit these zero-based budget reports as opposed to, call it, actual line items for all of the expenses that are in their budget as they were originally intended. What does this bill actually require the agencies or OPB to produce?

30. 0:23:40

    That's a great question. Thank you. I know you've been a great champion on this as well, uh, Senator. Uh, if you look, uh, down in the bill, uh, beginning on lines thirty-four, uh, it will talk about that, uh, the agencies will work together to do a two-year look back on what their spending was for each program, object class, and revenue source, and then it continues on to talk about the purpose and effectiveness, efficiency, uh, equity measures, uh, and other indicators of what they did, so when they're building the budget for the next year, those factors are put in place.

31. 0:24:13

    But I think in, in leading to your question, this then also puts us as legislators in a different position as well. Um, obviously, all the subcommittee chairs, both in the Senate and the House, meet with each one of the department heads and agencies as they propose their budgets. It's also up to us to have the accountability to make sure they did that, and when we go through those line items, we're not just looking at the changes from last year, we're mandating where they have been and seeing that. And I would encourage, and I know many of you do, to make sure when we're not in session, that's the time to do the deep dive.

32. 0:24:48

    We've got a great Senate budget team and analysts that will allow us to take those deep dives with them off session. And look, I, I think that the folks in the state do a great job at our agency heads, but this is that forced accountability. It makes us look at things that we may not normally have looked at.

33. 0:25:04

    Yeah. A- as you know, I had actually had leg council work on the same bill, and then discovered you had dropped it, and I, I signed yours. Uh, uh, when I was talking through, with them... And I'm really loud, I'm sorry. Um, when I was talking with them through the process, I don't know what the actual deliverable here is. Not one... Leg council could not tell me what an equity measure was. Um, for example, um, the departmental and program purposes, I think that's more so language. What I want to make sure that we get to is that when we look at whatever agency's budget, that the base budget is no longer the base budget in a zero-based budget year, but literally it is enumerated what every element of that budget is- And this was the same first version they gave me of that.

34. 0:25:51

    I'm not sure that that's what this is going to produce. Um, and I think we moved this today, but before we bring it to the floor, I would love to get with you and ledge council and make sure that the language produces what I think you and I intend for it to produ- produce because I know that I think this is the old version of what had gotten watered down through the process back in whatever year this passed the first time. I just want to make sure we get what we're looking for.

35. 0:26:13

    And Senator, I'd be glad to work with you. I'll use a good example. Uh, many years ago, uh, I passed a study committee to look at all of our tax credits, incentives, or even now I call them subsidies. And with that, we ended up passing Senate Bill six, which put a performance measurement in place for those incentives to make sure we had a return on investment. At the time, while that language was vague, we actually developed the template that we ended up working, and the Department of Audits now uses those type of metrics and templates in order to do that. So I would love to work with you on this bill, but also I think it's incumbent upon us to set the expectation and template of what we as a Senate want to see, which I believe then the House and the Governor can all use together.

36. 0:26:52

    Thank you.

37. 0:26:53

    Great.

38. 0:26:53

    Three more-- um, a couple more questions. Remind you, we do have one other bill we have to do this morning. Mr. Pro Tem.

39. 0:27:02

    Thank you, Chairman. Uh, Senator, certainly, I'm in, in full favor of the concept of this. I guess I'm thinking about the practicality of it when over half our state budget is really formula-based, um, and you highlight a couple of them, uh, K through twelve education and the, uh, the university system of Georgia, but also we have Medicaid that's formula-based. Um, how-- and, and I don't know what this means without in any line forty-four and forty-nine, without in any way limiting the generality of the other provisions.

40. 0:27:42

    One moment.

41. 0:27:42

    I don't know what that even really means, but how would-- and from a practical standpoint, how would this apply to formula-based funding?

42. 0:27:53

    That's a great question, uh, Mr. Pro Tem. Let's use, uh, Medicaid as an example. We get those tax dollars in, but then we administrate that. So we've got huge departments of people, we've got large systems in order to, in fact, to make that happen. And some of it works very efficiently, and I think some of us have, uh, fielded many a phone call, uh, and email over the years with some challenges there. This is going to make sure that when they're building those operational budgets that support that, they're gonna go back to ground zero and say, "Are we aligning with meeting that?

43. 0:28:26

    Do we have the right staff, the right training, the right system, the right process and technology?" So when they come back to us with a, with a very large budget, that it's aligning those goals and objectives. Even though the dollars may be coming in at a certain level, how we spend them is going to be why zero-based budgeting is so important.

44. 0:28:45

    Okay, last question, Senator Parent.

45. 0:28:49

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning. Um, I appreciate the conversation we had yesterday diving into a little more details about this. I, too, um, in concept, very much support the idea. Um, and as I-- as we talked about, I'm very interested in, like, what the sweet spot would be to where the work required to, to produce a zero-based budget does not outweigh, in some ways, like, the savings and the sense of doing it. And, um, to that end, I had looked at a little bit of our history in this, and I was a few minutes late, so I don't know if you went over some of the history, but I know that Jimmy Carter did zero-based budgeting when he was governor.

46. 0:29:28

    And then I believe the first time, um, it-- more recently, a bill was passed, I believe Governor Perdue vetoed it. And then, and then when you and I were, I think I might have been in the house or it was, it was like ten, fifteen years ago. What did that bill-- can you remind me what that bill from ten or fifteen years ago did that sunset and just the history of how it actually played out? I think that's relevant for the committee's consideration.

47. 0:29:52

    Certainly. That was Senate Bill thirty-three, uh, and that was signed into law in two thousand and twelve. It sunset in two thousand and twenty. Uh, and at that point, uh, it put in basically the language that you see today on this current bill, which is Senate Bill three ninety-two. Uh, it did two things. One, it prompted them and mandated that they build the budgets that way once every ten years, and they had the report on it. However, the, the biggest emphasis of this, and I just wanna make sure people understand, it then becomes our jobs, uh, here as senators and certainly in the House to work with their budget analysts and work with their subcommittee chairs and of course, our chairman of appropriations to make sure they're following through with that.

48. 0:30:32

    And we have to ask those tough questions. We have to make sure that we're not just getting the, the, the changes from last year and plus or minus a few percent based on whatever the governor's estimate's at. It's drilling down and making sure we're doing it right. Does it take more time? Absolutely, it does. Should we be taking more time? We sure should.

49. 0:30:50

    Okay, can I ask a follow-up? I, I definitely don't disagree with anything you said. I'm just curious how, if we sort of had it on the books but didn't do it, how are-- how is that gonna change-

50. 0:31:01

    Well, I can tell you that, that, that a lot of us did it, uh, and probably some did it to more degree than others. I know, uh, some folks tend to be a little more, uh, focused and organized in one area than others do. Uh, but it's incumbent upon us at the end of the day to enforce, uh, these measures. Uh, otherwise, we can pass lots of bills, uh, and nothing will happen. But, uh, I, I, I have great confidence in our Senate from our, uh, Senate budget office, our analysts, as, uh, well as this, uh, this team to get it done.

51. 0:31:28

    Thank you.

52. 0:31:30

    Any other questions? Thank you, Chairman Albers. Is there a motion? Uh, got a motion from, uh, Senator Ginn. Sorry, took me a second. Apologize. And then I think a second. Is there a second? Chairman Hatchett. Um, any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye.

53. 0:31:51

    Aye.

54. 0:31:51

    Opposed, no. And it passes unanimously. Thank you. The next bill, we have one more bill. It's, uh, House Bill 973, the state's amended fiscal year budget. Appreciate Speaker Burns letting me carry this one. The, um, a lot of work goes into this on the back end, as you know. OPB's been working on this bill for months. Uh, agencies have been working on this since we literally passed the fiscal year budget, uh, almost now nine months ago. We also have been working with our colleagues in the House, and let me remind you first what amended budgets are generally used for.

55. 0:32:25

    They're used to true up issues that we've had previously. They're usually not used to start new programs. They're usually not used to start new positions. While that has varied mu- uh, a little bit since COVID, we've s- it's varied because of what we've seen with revenues. We've been able to use the hardworking tax dollars that people have sent to the state to invest in critical infrastructure and needs, and this budget continues part of that. It also returns to the point, though, of, of whether or not new programs should be started and new positions should be started in preparation for what we think will be the last few budget years that finish out this decade.

56. 0:33:03

    I wanna... It is incumbent upon me, though, to echo again that there's no way we could be at the position we are now without the folks who've helped us get here, and that would be Rick Dunn in the Office of OP-- Office of Planning and Budget underneath the governor, and of course, uh, Chairman Hatchett and his House budget team, who spent many hours and deliberated o- over the items that we will now deliberate on here. We also could not be here without our Senate Budget Office, who I'm not gonna take the time to name specifically now. We'll save that for the floor. But I appreciate everything you've done each day to get us ahead and have us prepared now.

57. 0:33:34

    I think our subcommittee chairs would say that they would be, uh, much less prepared to be here today without your help, and thank you for what you've done in the off session and then what you've done over the past sixty to ninety days to get us here. I think you owe them a round of applause, you subcommittee chairs.

58. 0:33:56

    Let's start running through the budget. I'm gonna hit it in program areas and bounce a little bit 'cause there's certain things I wanna highlight, and some things you know are just cleanups from, from other line items. Maybe it's vacancy scrapes. I'm not gonna hit every single one of those. Some of the lower dollar items I may not hit. I'll start you with the Senate's budget. In the Senate's budget, you'll see an add of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That's to match the House add. We will always do that every year. We represent the same number of people and just to remain with parity among the branches and, and among the chambers. Uh, you'll see the Senate add five hundred and fifty thousand dollars there.

59. 0:34:28

    We've heard from our folks at, uh, Employees Retirement System. They've let us know that for years they feel like inflation has deflated the value of the monies we have. The House added fifty million dollars to the budget. The Senate will...

60. 0:34:49

    be that as far as it goes for being heard by the Senate, you've been heard, and we wanna make sure that we, uh, match what the House did as far as it goes as assisting our, uh, employees who've retired and previously worked so long for the state. We know that we have an issue in corrections. And in corrections, we are going to have to build a new facility. You know we're working on that already in Washington County. Through this time, the House budget added two hundred and twenty million dollars, really out of surplus funds, for moves in the private prison market.

61. 0:35:20

    Through our work with our subcommittee chair, we realized that we might be able to do that slightly cheaper if we use certain mod units on state land already owned. The Senate's budget takes the two hundred and twenty million dollars that the House moved for private prisons and for, uh, extra prison beds rather, and puts it instead at a hundred and eighty million dollars to open two modular facilities to hope with, help with the overcrowding that we're seeing currently, at the same time to address, uh, space needed for modernization and moving forward in the, the jails, um, having space so we can fix the locks in jails.

62. 0:35:55

    And, uh, one thing I wanna highlight that doesn't have a dollar item to it, for many, many years, this body has stressed maternal fetal mortality, attacking that issue, and working to make sure that our mothers and babies in this state are born to, uh, healthy. I know it's been a champion, an issue of the chair lady who, uh, chairs Children and Families. As of today, we asked our, the agency to pull the numbers. There are eighteen thousand women today who are able to have the extended postpartum care that we enacted in this body first, uh, because of you.

63. 0:36:31

    We fully funded that once again, and while it's not an additional line item on this budget, I think it's something we should highlight and something that you should be proud of. When you're asked how you're attacking that issue, there are eighteen thousand women who are now receiving that postpartum care who would not have been able to receive that three years ago. We know our forest industry has felt the effects of not only Hurricane Helene, but market forces that have left them at a spot where they're wondering what markets are left to exist for especially pulpwood.

64. 0:37:05

    The Senate's budget puts twelve million dollars into a program we use to address this with, uh, Georgia Tech. We hope that, uh, uh, in combination with other programs, there's over twelve million dollars there. Uh, eight point nine on a pos- on a position with or a program with Georgia Tech and other forestry-related initiatives totaling over twelve million dollars. At the State Elections Board, the House, uh, agreed with the governor on a cut of four hundred and... five hundred and forty-four thousand. The Senate rejects that cut and returns the State Elections Board to its full funding.

65. 0:37:39

    Continuing on addressing critical needs, the Senate's budget places over two billion dollars into investments in roads. We stuck with the House number on the I-75 corridor expansion, and we also moved a few numbers around that related to, uh, building of bridges and capital maintenance. The overall in- reinvestment in the amended budget in roads is over two billion dollars. The Senate's budget also addressed a critical structural shortage that many of you have discussed at DHS, Department of Ham- uh, Human Services and our DFCS program.

66. 0:38:15

    The Senate's budget places over eighty-nine million dollars in the state budget to fill this hole, and includes an additional fifteen million dollars at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation related to reporting of issues related to child endangerment.

67. 0:38:32

    The Senate has championed issues concerning health, not just fetal, uh, maternal and fetal medicine for many, many years, and the Senate's budget includes twenty million dollars in graduate medical education, including three facilities and three upgrades, uh, necessary at Thomasville, at St. Joseph's/Candler in Savannah, and, and Brunswick at Southeast Georgia Medical Center.

68. 0:38:57

    We wanna address, address those fellowship programs especially, and while these don't, we hope that in creating these residencies now allows us to move into more fellowship programs in the later in the future. Next-Gen 911. Our sheriffs and our emergency management professionals have told us that, uh, we've known for years that if we don't get off this copper backing and onto fiber, that we're gonna have an issue as more and more telecommunications companies simply just turn off their copper. It's a nationwide issue, and Georgia is lagging slightly in how we've been able to address it.

69. 0:39:30

    Uh, some of our other states are already, uh, ahead of us on this. While the governor's budget had nine million dollars in, the House matched around only that nine million dollars. The Senate's budget cuts that back to five million, but points us to another program, the BEAD program, where over nine hundred million dollars has already been allocated to Georgia. Due to a change in federal rules that we expect, that's already happened last week, we expect to see it in code, uh, a little bit later this week. We have directed that that nine hundred million dollars be first used to prioritize our next generation program.

70. 0:40:02

    If we are correct, and this nine hundred million can be used for this purpose, that should fully cover all the costs associated with this program.

71. 0:40:11

    Next-Gen modernization is clearly something that, uh, we want to help our local communities address. The Senate did not alway, uh, and there's a couple more adds, let's talk about in critical needs and infrastructure as well. At, uh, as it relates to GEFA, the House budget, I believe, had around thirty to thirty-five million in for gas lines. The Senate pluses that up to fifty-five million. We pull the number slightly off of some of the water resources that the House had for rural initiatives, tier those instead to tier one counties, and leave thirty million dollars in that program.

72. 0:40:44

    All of the Senate adds, uh, all the Senate's changes were not adds, however. In the homelessness program, we know the governor put fifty million initially. The House matched that. We had a few, a little bit of trouble understanding the inception of this program and where the end all match was going to be. So we reduced that number to twenty-five million, took fifteen of that twenty-five million, and I'm really proud about what we did here, worked with our Department of Veterans Services and gave them fifteen million dollars, slightly more than they think is necessary, to completely eliminate homelessness among our veterans community.

73. 0:41:20

    In, uh, USG, you'll see that we're gonna fund m- various buildings, including a building at, at the University of West Georgia, and eighty-eight million dollars to the Guggenheim Aerospace, uh, Building at Georgia Tech. We did, though, take a s- a slight trim back to the Dreams program. We still wanna support it. We support it at the one hundred million dollar level. Uh, we again understand the purpose of this dollar is, is to use to match other, uh, grants that we think are coming in and other, um, philanthropic donations. We do think that, well, a hundred million dollar level allows them to do this.

74. 0:41:53

    Uh, and it also allows us to take and move a little bit of money to something you're gonna see later on that, that we're also pretty excited about. The governor's budget had six hundred and twelve million dollars in for a two thousand dollar one-time employee supplement. When we looked at that and calculated taxes on it, and also looked at some of the plans moving through the House and the Senate, we realized that the Senate's income tax plan will provide more than that two thousand dollars to the average state employee. However, we didn't want to just leave the average state employee without any, uh, one-time supplement at all.

75. 0:42:24

    We reduced that to twelve hundred and fifty dollars. That is enough on average to pay the taxes, still provide a one thousand dollar supplement, and if the Senate's income tax plan passes, they should receive a roughly an additional two thousand five hundred dollars in tax savings. On some of the specific items of senator requests, the Senate supports the FODAC program at two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. We support the BOOST program with an additional two point five million dollars. We support various outdoor recreational activities that were requested by senators for their district.

76. 0:42:55

    I've already told you about the Georgia Tech building and the GME building. We support the Side by Side Brain Injury Trust program at three hundred thousand dollars, and we support an over one million dollar addition in East Central Georgia related to healthcare for areas like Hancock County, Washington County, and areas in s- sort of in our lake community that we know are in a, um, a slightly, uh, I think it's fair to call it a medical desert.

77. 0:43:23

    The Senate's budget also supports additional funding for our Blueberry Breeder program, which we know puts us in competit- or puts us in a position to be competitive with surrounding states.

78. 0:43:43

    That GSFC, our financing board, and used it to pay, uh, debt service. We think there's actually a constitutional question about whether or not that can be done. So instead of using that fifty million dollars, uh, that is, is real, it's grown in interest as we put state dollars, uh, dollars towards bond projects rather than bonding them. That fund, we think, has a little over a hundred and fifty million dollars in interest right now. Instead of putting that fifty million as the House did towards debt, the Senate's budget takes and places that on three projects instead.

79. 0:44:14

    We place it on a project concerning nursing in Athens, Georgia at the University of Georgia. We place it on the optometry program at Georgia Southern, and we place it on a K9 facility at the Department of Public Safety. We still support those programs, but if you look in your budget, you'll see a zero state funds item and instead another fu-- an other funds item that is the interest that we have accrued off of the cash we've placed into GSFC over the past three years. We also inc-included funding for a library at Little Westy, for a GBI upgrade in Conyers, and for a Department of Defense fa-facility, our National Guard facility in Walton County.

80. 0:44:59

    Last but not least, the Senate's budget, while I think it addresses safety and critical needs, it, uh, takes a hard position concerning mental health. We've heard from our sheriffs that their jails are overrun, that they're holding people for competency hearings, sometimes two and-- two years or more. And we've also heard from them that if they can't handle the, the, that their jails are becoming the mental health facilities for the state.

81. 0:45:33

    The Senate's budget places four hundred and nine million dollars into building a new state mental health hospital. It will be the first hospital we have built since the nineteen sixties, and a three hundred-bed facility that we believe is critical to addressing the needs we've heard from the public safety community, especially our sheriffs. And I need to tell you why we're doing it now and why the House didn't really have the opportunity to do this. We have been under a settlement agreement with the federal government concerning our mental health facilities and DBHDD since twenty-ten.

82. 0:46:11

    That's sixteen years. The settlement was renewed in twenty sixteen. On January twenty-first, twenty twenty-six, uh, Commissioner Kevin Tanner and the US Department of Justice entered into a me-memorandum releasing our Department of Behavioral Health from that settlement, from various portions of that settlement. And just last Thursday, a federal judge agreed that Georgia's improvements allow us to come out from under that Olmstead decision. That means we are strategically placed now to move fast to solve this problem with forensic beds and mental health issues.

83. 0:46:49

    The Senate does not want to wait. We don't wanna wait three months, six months, nine months to address this. That settlement was signed, or that release was signed by the federal judge on Thursday. Six days later, this Senate's budget is before you in committee, and we are asking you to invest almost half a billion dollars, four hundred and nine million, to support those sheriffs, to support those police chiefs, and to get this problem resolved.

84. 0:47:22

    This budget addresses safety, it addresses critical needs, and it also addresses returning money to taxpayers. As you know, the House's budget, um, well, let's start with the governor's budget, included roughly one point one three billion dollars in income tax rebates to individuals. Two hundred and fifty dollars for the individual, five hundred dollars if you're married and file jointly. Our Senate bu-- plan obviously went a little bit further than that when we reduced the, uh, passed our plan reducing your state income tax.

85. 0:47:55

    It adds almost five times that dollar back to the average taxpayer. The Senate's gonna support the governor's plan of rebates at the two hundred and fifty dollar and five hundred dollar level as well. But we also found the space in our surplus to support the House's plan of homeowner tax relief grants at roughly eight hundred and fifty million dollars. That means that we are in this budget allocating, appropriating, asking that our reserves of roughly two billion dollars be returned while handling these other needs to the people who sent it here to begin with.

86. 0:48:33

    I do feel this budget addresses our safety needs. I know it addresses our critical needs, and I know that it puts Georgia taxpayers first by returning money to them that they sent here to begin with in a time where we have already known that they're having a hard time paying for gas, groceries, and childcare. If there's any questions specifically about it, happy to answer any lines. Thank you again. Now, this is hard to believe my seventh year presenting the budget to you. Uh, I think that makes this my thirteenth budget. Um, twelfth budget perhaps.

87. 0:49:05

    Jack had the last one in, in two thousand and one. The first one. In two thousand rather. So thank you for allowing me to do this once again. Thank you, subcommittee chairs, for the efforts you've put in here, and I'm happy to answer any questions or go into any further detail about any one item. Chair Lady, um, Kirkpatrick.

88. 0:49:24

    Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm grateful for, uh, backfilling the deficit at DHS, but isn't it true that that is a one-time fix and that we have a study committee going forward to try to be sure this doesn't happen again?

89. 0:49:38

    Uh, as you know, you're very well involved in this process, and, uh, thanks for your help in trying to address it. Senator Orrock.

90. 0:49:49

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I, I, I would, uh, ask, uh, for some more clarity on the Senate action on the Dream-

91. 0:49:58

    Dream

92. 0:49:58

    ... uh, program. The, the governor, uh, budget was three hundred million to launch the endowment to fund, uh, the, the- Financial aid for higher education, uh, we'd be the forty-ninth state to join in doing that. Uh, and then he, he additionally recommended twenty-five million, uh, to be able to, uh, it- it- it- put that to use in financial aid, uh, as the endowment, while the endowment continues, uh, to be built, uh, sufficient to the level that it can fully meet the need.

93. 0:50:37

    Uh, so I'm just asking for clarity on the Senate position on-

94. 0:50:42

    Sure

95. 0:50:42

    ... that allocation.

96. 0:50:43

    So, well, thank you, Senator. I know you've championed, uh, higher education for many, many years as well, before I was even here. The Senate's, what we looked at and said, "Hey, we, we do fund the Hope program if you've got a B average." I know you're, you're focused a- again, on, um, not necessarily on merit aid, but on needs-based aid. We have needs-based aid in our Reach program. Some folks already know about that as well.

97. 0:51:06

    I know.

98. 0:51:06

    And then what this also does is allows us to have one hundred million dollars. From our understanding from the chancellor and others is that they're going to seek private philanthropic contributions. We ac- had to decide where we wanted to spend other monies and, and what we ha- what we thought was, was most important. And while we support this program, we support the Dreams program, we're not sure that having three hundred million dollars allows you to gain any more in private philanthropic d- uh, contributions than having one hundred million dollars.

99. 0:51:37

    So we wanted to give him the tools necessary to move forward with this program and felt that the hundred million dollar level, while it is one of the largest, it's still one of the very largest items in this amended budget, we thought the one hundred million dollar line was sufficient.

100. 0:51:52

     And, and, uh, just to follow up, if I could, I might not, I might not have been clear, the, the House cut the, the twenty-five million out.

101. 0:51:59

     They did.

102. 0:52:00

     And what did we do vis-à-vis that, that twenty-five million, which it would, uh, actually put, uh, uh, students in seats in our colleges and universities, uh, with financial aid that's needs-based?

103. 0:52:16

     So you're right. The governor had the line at three hundred and twenty-five million.

104. 0:52:19

     That's right.

105. 0:52:19

     The House had the line at three hundred million.

106. 0:52:21

     That's right.

107. 0:52:21

     The Senate has the line at one hundred million.

108. 0:52:24

     I see. So, so the Senate cut, uh, cuts from the end- uh, from the endowment as well as eliminates the twenty-five million for financial aid.

109. 0:52:35

     I think it's, I don't think it's fair to call that a cut. It's still one hundred million more than they had last year, but it is less than what the governor's original proposal was.

110. 0:52:45

     Well, there was none last year.

111. 0:52:47

     Correct. And now there's a hundred million, so there's a hundred million more.

112. 0:52:50

     And so that still puts us, uh, far behind the other states who do seventy-five percent of their, uh, financial aid, uh, based on need as opposed to merit.

113. 0:53:01

     Yes, ma'am.

114. 0:53:02

     Thank you.

115. 0:53:04

     Are there any other questions? Happy to take a motion.

116. 0:53:09

     Move.

117. 0:53:09

     Moved by the Pro Tem. Is there a second? Second by the Whip. Any further questions? All those in favor, please say, "Aye."

118. 0:53:15

     Aye.

119. 0:53:15

     Opposed, "No." And it passes unanimously. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time. We're adjourned.