By Ashley Speagle
Correspondent
ATLANTA — Despite signs of economic growth, Georgia revenue and employment numbers will climb only gradually, state officials said Tuesday.
Gov. Sonny Perdue, speaking during a joint legislative appropriations committee meeting, predicted a $2.6 billion hole in the budget for the fiscal year that begins in July 2011, partly because the federal stimulus is coming to an end.
And Dr. Kenneth Heaghney, the state’s economist, told state lawmakers that although the economy is stabilizing, revenue growth won’t reach its 2007 peak again until fiscal 2014.