The Georgia Senate’s spending plan for next year, which includes deep cuts to higher education and Georgia Public Broadcasting, easily cleared the chamber. But more changes are expected in the coming days.
The Senate passed the budget with a 51-to-1 vote, with a Republican casting the lone dissenting vote.
House budget writers quickly pushed back on the Senate proposal, and the $32.4 billion spending plan is now being negotiated behind the scenes. Wednesday, which is the last day of the session, is the looming deadline for lawmakers to wrap up the one task they are constitutionally required to do each year.
State senators passed a budget Thursday that bumps a pay raise for law enforcement up to $6,000 — up from the $2,000 teachers and other state workers would receive — and restored the 100% funding for the state’s HOPE scholarship, back to where Gov. Brian Kemp originally set it.
But the Senate’s budget would also slash Georgia Public Broadcasting’s budget by $3.7 million — or 26%.