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As coronavirus spreads, so does gloomy outlook for Georgia budget

Ejaz Tarar stands next to his makeshift sign keeping customers six feet apart while cleaning the inside of the Food Mart in Newton County on Thursday, March 26, 2020, in Newborn. The store laid down tape to mark six foot barriers for customers. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Ejaz Tarar stands next to his makeshift sign keeping customers six feet apart while cleaning the inside of the Food Mart in Newton County on Thursday, March 26, 2020, in Newborn. The store laid down tape to mark six foot barriers for customers. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Ejaz Tarar stands next to his makeshift sign keeping customers six feet apart while cleaning the inside of the Food Mart in Newton County on Thursday, March 26, 2020, in Newborn. The store laid down tape to mark six foot barriers for customers. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

By JEFF AMY / Associated Press 4 min read

For answers to frequently asked questions about the coronavirus, click here.

ATLANTA (AP) – Deaths and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Georgia continued to increase Saturday, even as lawmakers tried to grapple with what the respiratory illness will mean for state finances.

State House Speaker David Ralston and the top budget writers in the House and Senate say efforts to cut income taxes or increase pay for teachers or other state employees are probably dead for this year. They all assume state revenues for the upcoming budget year beginning July 1 are likely to dive from previous projections, and say even the patched-up budget for the rest of this year may overflow again in red ink.

“I think the initiatives we talked about in the version we passed are not going to go forward,” Ralston, a Blue Ridge Republican, told The Associated Press on Friday. “That includes the teacher pay raise and the 2% merit raise (for other state employees) and the tax cut.”

The number of deaths in Georgia from the disease caused by the new coronavirus rose to 69 at noon Saturday, more than doubling in four days, according to data from the state Department of Public Health. The number of confirmed infections rose to 2,366, more than doubling in three days. Cases were reported in 108 of Georgia’s 159 counties.