Federal Welfare Dollars Going To State Programs

Georgia is using federal welfare dollars - called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families - to replace state money for child welfare programs. That's the finding in a new report from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. The study found that Georgia is increasingly funneling the TANF funds to adoption assistance and child welfare programs that had once been funded with state dollars. The result is that there are fewer TANF dollars to help needy Georgians find employment. The study calculated that there will an 11 percent drop in TANF funds in fiscal year 2010 than the year before. That's mostly because there is a smaller pot of money to carry over.

(Associated Press)

Georgia Not Alone In Budget Shortfall

The Peach State is in good company when it comes to being in a financial crunch. Across the country, more states are reporting budget problems and the size of the gaps has increased, according to a new report by the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL).

Nationwide, the budget gaps for the current fiscal year (FY) are $47.4 billion; for FY 2010, which begins July 1, that imbalance jumps to $84.3 billion.

Corina Eckl, fiscal program director for NCLS, called those figures “absolutely alarming, both in their magnitude and in the painful decisions they present to state lawmakers.”

Georgia has a projected shortfall of $2.2 billion this year, and state officials are currently working on rewriting the budget for FY 2010. To this end, they are awaiting revenue numbers for January, which are expected to be low.

Republicans not counting on help from Washington

Georgia State Republican leaders are snubbing the massive federal bailout package saying they’ll balance the shrinking state budget without Washington’s help.

All of Georgia’s republican U.S. House Representatives voted against the stimulus package. Even though the state is facing a 2.2 billion dollars budget shortfall.

Meanwhile on the state level, Republicans budget writers are not waiting for federal who are writing the state budget stand firmly with their congressional counterparts. Chip Rogers is the state Senate majority leader. He says the stimulus package sends the wrong message.

“My fear is that what we're going to see is a rewarding of bad behavior, and that's not uncommon out of our federal government,” Rogers says. “You're going to take states like California and New York who have done an absolute miserable job balancing their budget and reward them for their bad behavior by bailing them out, whereas states like Georgia and Indiana and places that have done a good job and have been fiscally prudent- we're ultimately going to pay the price.”

So Georgia budget writers are forging ahead. They’ve already spent 11 days on the budget. According to the constitution they have 29 left. And Roger’s says lawmakers will not take a break and wait for federal help.

“Regardless of what congress does, we need to handle Georgia's business. And the longer we wait, particularly with fiscal year 09 amended budget, every day that goes by there is less money and less flexibility. “

One thing Rogers and fellow republicans vowed to do is find $428 Million dollars at least this year to fund the Homestead exemption grants which save homeowners about 2 to 300 dollars a year. Senate President pro temp Tommie Williams says state employees may need to work less to make ends meet.

“You can't get to 428 million dollars without...without furloughs. And frankly, many of the agencies are already furloughing, so we'll...we'll look throughout the budget and those that we can furlough we will,” Williams says.

He vowed that public safety and the prison system would not be required to furlough. He also says that should Congress pass a stimulus plan that includes money for Georgia, he would like to spend it on Transportation..

Governor Not Counting on Federal Money

During budget hearings at the capitol today Governor Perdue said he went through his budget like a surgeon cutting out everything that's not needed. He says he is not banking on extra federal help to balance the budget.

"There's a lot of rumors out there now," he said, "but nobody is cutting any check."

Pedue says he doesn't have the money to fund the Homeowners tax relief grant which costs the state over $420 million each year. That means local governments may be forced to raise property taxes and homeowners could see their bills go up by $200 to $300 in some places. Perdue says he turned over every stone but couldn't find the money.

"If you can find a rock we haven't looked under," he told lawmakers, "then let's open it up together and I will rejoice with you."

Georgia faces a $2.2 billion budget shortfall this year and state economist Kenneth Heaghney warned lawmakers that things may not look up until later this year. He used words like skyrocketing unemployment, deteriorating labor market and sharply falling corporate growth, to describe Georgia's economy. Heaghney says Georgia, like the nation is in a deep recession.

"The average recession in the post World War II era is 10 months. We're already in it for 13," Heaghney testified before the joint house and senate appropriations committee.

Heaghney says the federal stimulus package and monetary policy on the federal level could help Georgia's economy later in the year. But he warned that any recovery would be weak.

Governor Gives State of State Today

How much deeper budget cuts will need to go for Georgia to get through the budget crisis should get some answers this morning. Governor Sonny Perdue will deliver his best answers this morning at 10am in his State of the State address. Perdue will make his speech in front of the full General Assembly in the House chambers at the State Capitol.

A reminder that you can access the speech live online through our website--go to
gpb.org/lawmakers/stateofthestate. GPB radio listeners can tune into their local station at 10am to hear the Governor's address live.