North Georgia lawmakers say there’s no doubt that state education funding will be targeted for cuts as the General Assembly faces up to a $2 billion shortfall for fiscal year 2011-12.
Legislators convened n Monday, but the snowy weather that slammed Atlanta caused state officials to call off the session Tuesday before House and Senate members could start discussing budget solutions.
Rep. Jay Neal, R-LaFayette, a member of the House Education Committee, said Tuesday that education funding remains a focus for cuts but lawmakers want to minimize the impact on the classroom.
“We’ve got a big hole to plug,” Neal said.
He said the situation is made worse because about $1.8 billion in one-time federal stimulus funding that was softening cuts has run out.
“Education funding makes up about 56 to 58 percent of the total budget and, when you’re plugging that big of a hole, you have no option but to make cuts in that area,” he said.
Neal said two popular programs, pre-k and Georgia’s lottery-based HOPE program, could face changes.
“We may take a look at the possibility at cutting some slots [in pre-k]; there’s been talk of doing a sliding scale for fees for students enrolled in pre-k,” Neal said.
Neal and other lawmakers said during a December roundtable that some ideas to deal with HOPE’s problems include lowering scholarship amounts, raising eligibility standards or changing lottery payout amounts to shift more funding toward education.
Rep. John Meadows, R-Calhoun, said during the roundtable that one problem is that HOPE’s funding is split among scholarships, pre-k and Georgia’s technical schools, and the latter two continue to grow and demand a bigger share of funding.
On Tuesday, Rep. Tom Weldon, R-Ringgold, said state and local governments must seek more efficient ways to operate until the economy recovers.
The state budget has been cut by 23 percent since 2008, and the economy has forced state and local governments to examine their day-to-day operations, Weldon said.
“We’re back in the mid-’90s in terms of per capita spending in Georgia,” he said.
One revenue-generator could come from money already owed the state, he said.
“One thing we found last year is that we have nearly $1 billion in unpaid sales tax revenues that merchants haven’t paid,” he said. “I think some reform in that area is going to be necessary.”
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