Committee hears Perdue's '09 budget plans

There was some good news and some bad news from the Capitol, as Governor Sonny Perdue presented next year budget to the joint House Senate Budget Committee earlier today.

First the good news. Governor Perdue is confident the state will be okay if the nation's economy takes a downturn. Now the bad news, growth is slowing, tax revenues are down and competitors are nipping at the state's heels for a piece of Georgia's booming ports business.

The Governor got a round of applause from lawmakers with mention of water mismanagement when he said its time for Georgians to start taking control of their water concerns rather than rely on the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Perdue has asked lawmakers for 1-million dollars for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to fight identity theft. The Governor's proposed budget also includes a 94 million dollar plan to trim property and car taxes and a 142 million dollar tax cut for upper income retirees, based on a projected 3.4 percent growth in Georgia's tax receipts.

Also included in the budget, money for statewide trauma care.

Perdue wants 53 million dollars to shore up Georgia ailing trauma care network, including Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital. He called funding for trauma care statewide is a priority.

"I thought it was incumbent on us to try to resolve those in a framework that works for everybody, not trying to single out Grady for a one-time solution, but try to put a trauma system in place that will not only benefit Grady but would also benefit the other trauma hospitals across the state."

Perdue's nearly twenty-one and a half billion dollar state budget includes budget plan also includes for a 2-and a half percent raise for teachers.

If approved by the General Assembly, the budget authorizes the state to borrow about $1.2 billion to build new schools, repair the state's crumbling infrastructure roads and deepen the Georgia's harbors.