June State Revenues Down

Gov. Sonny Perdue says net revenue collections for the month of June dropped by 15.7 percent from the same month a year ago. The governor says that for the fiscal year, the decline was 10.5 percent. Figures released by the governor's office show revenues for last month of $1,364,350,000 compared with 1,618,879,000 for June 2008, a decrease of more than $250 million. Declines were seen in collections from income tax, sales tax and motor fuel tax. Worsening revenues have forced state agencies to make substantial budget cuts and to furlough workers.

(Associated Press)

New Fiscal Year Continues Budget Pain

Governor Sonny Perdue warns of more pain as the state flips the page into a new fiscal year today. The continued weak revenue stream forced constant cuts to the budget through fiscal 2009. Now for the new month, Perdue has already asked state agencies to voluntarily cut spending by another 3-percent.

Now into fiscal 2010, Perdue says moving forward the operative phrase is "right-sizing expenditures.":

"The budget act gives the Governor the right to withhold allotments to meet up with revenue expectations. I'm going to meet with Legislative leadership after the end of the year and determine if we want to take that route or if they would like to come back for a special session where we readjust the budget."

Concerning the end of fiscal 2009, Perdue earlier had mentioned the possibility to perhaps tap the state's rainy day fund for up to $400 million to make ends meet.

DHR Re-organization Begins Today

Governor Sonny Perdue has high hopes for the restructuring of health and social service agencies in the state. That begins today with the arrival of the new fiscal year.

Basically, the sweeping changes will spread the services previously handled by two agencies—Department of Human Resources and the Department of Community Health—to three. The main reason is to help Georgia to get a better handle on its failings in mental health, which has been under the federal microscope over the past year.

Governor Perdue says he’s confident of future success for the newly-created Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities:

"I firmly believe by separating these functions organizationally, the resulting standalone department focused on mental health will be a nimble, flexible and responsive unit…better able to fully implement the commission’s recommendations."

Advocates are hopeful, yet worried about whether the state’s continued budget crisis will cripple the effort.

Perdue says other areas of concern, like access to vital records, should be better handled in the new set-up.

Officials Get First Road Stimulus Project Rolling

The first of hundreds of road projects injected by federal stimulus dollars got rolling today in Georgia.

A four-mile stretch of highway in Hapeville near Atlanta’s airport is the inaugural project. The resurfacing work represents more than $900,000 of the state’s transportation stimulus share. Once all projects are allocated, over $900-million will be used in work across the state.

State and federal transportation officials at Tuesday’s press conference trumpeted the creation or preservation of hundreds of jobs with the stimulus. But Governor Sonny Perdue says the state needs to have a long-view plan on managing budget issues once the well of stimulus money runs dry:

"If you become dependent on them, there are going to be tough decisions in the future. So we’re trying to manage state government in a way of transition—using these federal stimulus funds, but hopeful that our state economy will recover soon."

The rollout of additional road projects continues over the next few weeks and into the fall. Thus far, a combined $119-million in work has been awarded.
State officials say another $250 million will soon be certified to round-out Phase One of money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. By fall, it's expected Phase Two money to be awarded will total $370 million.

Perdue Asks For More Budget Cuts In July

Governor Sonny Perdue is calling on state agencies to continue tightening their belts into the next fiscal year.

State revenue numbers are not expected to show much—if any—improvement into July. Because of that, Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley says a letter sent to agencies today is asking for voluntary cutbacks in budgets next month:

"The check they receive so to speak from the state for their July operations will be the full amount. We’re just asking them to continue doing the things they’ve been doing...hold back spending where possible. The hope is we will achieve a 3-percent reduction in July."

Brantley says in order to balance the end of this fiscal year, officials may have to tap up to $400-million of the state’s rainy day funds. That would leave little into going into fiscal 2010.

He says additional state budget cuts through 2010 are likely.

Reactions to Voting Rights Act Ruling

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue says he's disappointed by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that keeps alive the Voting Rights Act. Perdue, a Republican, filed a brief to join a Texas case that challenged a section of the statute as an outdated provision that was crucial to protect voting rights during the civil rights era but is now unnecessary. The section requires all or parts of 16 states to get Justice Department approval before making changes in the way elections are conducted. It was designed in the 1960s to prevent racial discrimination at polling places. Perdue says he looks forward to the day when the provision is declared unconstitutional or "applied to all 50 states rather than singling out a few."

(Associated Press)

New Middle Georgia Fishing Area

People in Middle Georgia now have one more place to go fishing, thanks to the state and recent rains.
Flat Rock Public Fishing Area opened this morning in Perry. The two-million dollar lake was delayed for a couple years due to the drought. Three years ago the state stocked it with large mouth bass, channel catfish, and bluegill bream. It's nearly 100 acres.
The lake has been in the planning stages for ten years. It will eventually be part of a nearly 900 acre state park when the state has more money. Governor Sonny Perdue has been a big proponent of fishing with his multi-million dollar and widely criticized Go Fish campaign. He came for the opening and says fishing is a good investment.

"We spend money on reservoirs. We spend money on creating access opportunities. Go Fish is about having real access to these beautiful parts of Georgia that we want people to be exposed to. So it's an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars."

Perdue says fishing stands to bring millions in tourism dollars to the state. The Flat Rock Fishing Area is managed by the Department of Natural Resources and will employ two full-time employees.

State Revenue Numbers Continue Tumble

The state’s revenue numbers continue to struggle. The Governor’s office says collections for May were down more than $200 million, or 14.4%, from the same month a year ago. Bert Brantley is spokesman for Governor Perdue:

"It’s all relative...14.4% down is better than 20% down, but it’s not as good as 0% down or even an increase. This is the reason why we’ve had to cut spending...this is the reason why we’ve had additional cuts even since the Legislature has come in."

For the fiscal year set to end June 30th, collections are down 10-percent. Because of that, the state’s reserves are being tapped to make up the difference.

Meanwhile, state agencies remain under an order from Perdue to cut spending this month by 25% in order to meet a balanced budget.

Budget Cuts Threaten Superior Courts

Leaders of Georgia's judicial branch are arguing it should be exempt from deep cuts ordered this week by Gov. Sonny Perdue. The Council of Superior Courts said Friday that it should be immune from Gov. Sonny Perdue's decision to slash the funding for state agencies by 25 percent in June amid falling tax collections. Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears called such a move "unconstitutional" in a letter she sent Thursday to Perdue. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland, who is the council's president, warned state budget officials that such a move could shut down superior courts across the state for two weeks.

(Associated Press)

Obama Official Offers Water War Help

Georgia’s protracted legal-fight with neighbors Florida and Alabama over water supply from the Chattahoochee basin has extended nearly two decades. Earlier this year during a trip to Washington, Governor Sonny Perdue met with Obama administration officials hoping for a fresh look at the situation. At the time, a promise was made for an official to visit Georgia for a first-hand look at the major reservoir in the battle-Lake Lanier. That happened Wednesday with the Interior Secretary’s trip south.

This morning, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took a helicopter tour over the north Georgia reservoir:

"My own view of Lake Lanier as I walk away from it is it’s one of the great assets here in the state of Georgia that has multiple uses including the generation of power that we use in homes and industry here in GA."

Getting a full sense of the scope of Southeast water issues was a charge given by President Obama to Salazar when he took the reigns of Secretary of the Interior in January. Flanked by Governor Sonny Perdue at a state Capitol press conference, Salazar said the water war is one of the "cardinal issues" for his department.

While Lake Lanier has benefited from good rainfall that’s swept the state in recent months, Perdue acknowledged the basin is still recovering—it remains about five feet below normal.

Meanwhile, in the tri-state fight for Lanier’s water, a Florida U.S. District judge is considering the latest arguments made earlier this month. The question-whether metro Atlanta is entitled to use Lanier as a main drinking water source.

Perdue says costly legal wrangling is going nowhere:

"Ultimately, one litigation leads to another litigation to another appeal, and as Secretary Salazar so wisely talks about what he accomplished in Colorado, the ultimate solution is a mutual agreement among the three affected states."

As attorney general for Colorado in 2002, Salazar helped engineer a tri-state water agreement between Colorado and neighboring Kansas and Nebraska. After tens of millions of dollars spent in the courts, the Governors and attorney generals of those states hashed-out a deal themselves:

"It’s a model that essentially projects what the water supply entitlements are to each of the states, and sets forth an agreement under which any disputes are in fact resolved. And it’s worked well. I’m hoping some of those lessons that we’ve learned in those kinds of situations might be useful here."

Salazar’s position as Interior Secretary doesn’t allow for the power to impose a solution to the tri-state water battle here. Instead, he says he wants to be "helpful when called upon":

"I do not see us as playing the role of coming in and hammering heads and trying to get the deal done. It really is something that has to come from the three respective states, and if we can play a facilitating role in that, we would be very happy to help."

Thursday, Salazar heads further south to meet with Florida Governor Charlie Crist to get that state’s perspective.

GA And Other States Get Stimulus Oversight

Georgia is one in a group of 16 states getting federal oversight of how it uses stimulus money, but not out of a reason of suspicion. The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, is following these particular states because since they hold a majority of the nation’s population, the group is getting roughly two-thirds of the stimulus funds.

Of the nearly $800-billion of federal stimulus money available, Georgia officials say the state in the end could realize around $7-billion. Bert Brantley with the Governor’s office says some aspects of Georgia’s own stimulus accountability model are being used by federal officials:

"The GAO actually took a lot of what we were doing, a lot of the templates and the documents we’re using to track the spending and are sharing that with other states as well—kind of a model for other states to look at and use. They really like the way that we had begun our work in tracking and reviewing the spending."

Governor Perdue earlier this year announced Georgians could track the state’s federal stimulus spending through the website: stimulusaccountability.ga.gov.

The GAO already issued a first review at the end of April. Brantley says the next will follow sometime in July, with reviews to continue for the next few years.

11 Year Fed-Oversight of State Juvenile Justice Department Ends

Federal justice officials have ended monitoring of Georgia's Department of Juvenile Justice. The announcement was made this morning by Governor Sonny Perdue and the state's Juvenile Justice Commissioner, Albert Murray.

In 1998, Georgia entered into a memorandum of agreement with federal justice officials. It was the result of a stinging federal report that detailed conditions of overcrowding, lack of staff training, poor medical care, and inmate abuse among the problems in the state's juvenile facilities.

The Governor today:

"...we have made strategic investments and placed a focus on improving the level of care these young people receive. Our goal in this agency is to ensure that every child coming through these facilities is treated as if they were our own son or daughter, and I want to thank Commissioner Albert Murray and the rest of the DJJ staff for making the needed changes and improvements to bring our system to the level Georgians expect and deserve."

The lead monitor for U.S. DOJ, Dr. David Roush, wrote in the final report that he has seen substantial improvement in many programs during his 10-year involvement with DJJ. Roush singled out DJJ’s Office of Medical Services and Office of Behavioral Health Services, which he wrote are used as models for juvenile justice systems nationwide.

Perdue Set To Sign '10 Budget

Today is the deadline for Governor Sonny Perdue to sign or veto legislation still on his desk from the General Assembly session. The biggest item remaining is the new $18.6 billion budget for the state. The blueprint for the next fiscal year includes deep cuts at state agencies, and using federal stimulus money to prop-up Medicaid and education.

But in the big picture, the just-released bad revenue numbers from April don’t bode well for fiscal 2010. State Senator Jack Hill is the Senate Appropriations Chair.

"We’re still not only in danger of not making revenue estimate for this year but we’re now under revenue estimate for 2010 which starts in July and there’s a whole set of problems that creates."

Senator Hill says if the trend doesn’t radically change over the next two months, the state would likely have to use up the $560 million in rainy day funds. Lawmakers then would have to rework the 2010 budget with two options in mind--call a special session to move more stimulus funds from 2011 back into the 2010 budget, or take a hard look at state government and do more cutting.

Billions of Dollars In New Hands

Gov. Sonny Perdue has signed an overhaul of the state's transportation bureaucracy into law. Republican leaders are hoping the changes help transform a dysfunctional bureaucracy that's lagging behind on badly needed road projects. The makeover gives the governor and state lawmakers new power over how infrastructure dollars are spent. The bill signed by Perdue on Tuesday stopped short of his original proposal, which would have replaced the 13-member state transportation board elected by legislators with a new agency.

(Associated Press)

Perdue Veto's Tax Credit Bill

Governor Perdue today vetoed legislation that would have given tax credits to companies who hire the unemployed.

HB 481 was called the Republican stimulus bill. The bill would have given a $2,400 dollar tax credit to businesses for each employee they hire now and keep for two years.

But in the waning days of the General Assembly Republicans added a capital gains tax cut that would have cut it in half in 2 years. Governor Perdue says that made the bill unsustainable in the long run.

Perdue’s veto of a tax cut popular with Republicans drew a response from gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel. The Republican candidate issued a statement saying if she were governor she would have signed the bill.

Georgia Revenue Down for April

Governor Sonny Perdue says revenue Numbers for April were down over the same month last year. The state took in $360 million less than in April of 08. In fact it’s a drop of more than 20 percent. But officials warn that the number don’t tell the whole story.

They warn that last April numbers were inflated due to an accounting shift and had increased by 34 percent. Year to date however state revenue is down by at least 9 percent.

Governor Perdue says he thinks revenue numbers have hit the low point and that Georgia should be on the way to recovery for May and June.

Officials say they have enough money in reserves to get the state through the fiscal year, which ends June 30^th. However, there’s worry that the state will begin the new fiscal year without any reserves.

Here is Perdue's officials revenue statement.

Governor Perdue Announces April Revenue Figures

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue announced today that net revenue collections for the month of April 2009 (FY09) totaled $1,399,047,000 compared to $1,761,180,000 for April 2008 (FY08), a decrease of $362,133,000 or 20.6 percent.

The percentage decrease year-to-date for FY09 compared to FY08 is 9.5 percent.

Perdue Signs Two Bills To Boost Business

Businesses in Georgia could be in line for substantial tax breaks, following a pair of bills signed into law by the Governor.

One piece of legislation changes how tax credits are earned by companies doing business in the state—allowing bigger breaks for more higher-paying jobs added. The other bill would end the tax on business inventories—this however needs a constitutional amendment through a voter referendum.

Both measures moved through the Legislative session with little resistance.

Thomas Smith, assistant professor with Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, says even with state budget shortfalls, direct help for companies is good:

"I think we’ve got to worry about first thing’s first, and worry about the state budget second. And the first things we’ve got to worry about are--are the businesses able to do business? And if they can’t, then, who cares about the state budget."

Still waiting to be signed by Governor Perdue--legislation to give tax credits to businesses that hire unemployed Georgians for a certain length of time, and to reduce long-term capital gains which would be subject to federal taxes.

Public Defenders May Call for Gov Help

Officials with Georgia’s public defender system say they may need Governor Perdue to call a special panel to help them deal with deep budget cuts. System leaders say a gathering of the Fiscal Affairs Committee may be the best chance at this point to help them cope with the situation. The state-funded public defender system is facing lagging support from state legislators and mounting funding problems amid the economic downturn. It was also slapped with a lawsuit last month that seeks to halt prosecutions in hundreds of northeast Georgia cases until lawyers are provided to represent the defendants.

More Road Projects Get Fed Money

Governor Sonny Perdue has certified another 51 state road projects for federal stimulus money. The new round of work stamped for the go-ahead includes some needed bridge repairs, resurfacing projects, and another critical portion of the Fall Line Freeway bypass project in Wilkinson County. So far, Perdue has certified more than 100 road projects statewide, which represents 95-percent of federal funds required to be spent by the end of June.

'Super Speeder' Fines To Help Fund Trauma Care

Legislation signed into law today by Governor Sonny Perdue will slap excessive speeders on Georgia’s roads and highways with hefty fines. Money collected is aimed at injecting the state’s ailing trauma system with badly-needed funds.

Starting July 1st, drivers who go 20 miles an hour over the speed limit on Georgia roads will be hit with an extra $200 fine. The Governor’s office says a quarter of the more than 1,600 people who die every year from traffic accidents in the state, are caused by excessive speeds.

“We hope it will slow down people, where we don't have to issue tickets for speeding excessively.”

Governor Perdue wants to spend money collected from the fines on trauma care. It’s estimated the state’s fastest drivers could bring-in $23-million.

But that’s less than half the money the appointed state trauma commission had to work with last year. Ben Hinson is president of Mid-Georgia Ambulance in Macon, and a commission member:

“This is not enough...I don't know if could ever get enough to do everything we want. And if the trauma commission ever says that's enough, you've probably got the wrong members on the commission. We want it to get better every day."

Getting better includes getting emergency trauma service to pockets of the state severely neglected, especially in areas of rural north and south Georgia.

The Governor says he will again look to present a permanent funding model for a statewide trauma network in next year’s budget. Trauma officials estimate $80-million is needed to properly fund a statewide network--at least.