Current economic conditions have forced the Georgia House of Representatives to spend the past two weeks focusing on ways to further cut state spending. Last year, when creating the FY 2010 budget, the General Assembly reduced state spending by approximately $2.6 billion due to the economic downturn.

Unfortunately, that was not enough. We must continue to reduce spending due to lagging revenues.

 
As we begin writing the FY 2011 state budget, we are faced with cutting another $1.05 billion from the budget. Over the past two weeks, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have held a series of joint meetings with state agencies and departments to discuss funding needs and possible ways to reach the necessary budget reductions.  One such hearing, held by a joint meeting of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Higher Education, received a lot of attention lately due to a misunderstanding about funding for Georgia’s colleges and universities.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BOARD OF REGENTS

The Board of Regents, the governing body for all public colleges and universities in Georgia, reduced its budget from $2.3 billion in FY 2009 to $1.939 billion under the Governor’s recommendations for the FY 2011 budget. Despite this decrease of $361 million, the funding for the Board of Regents still makes up 12 percent of the state budget. These reductions required by the Regents are in line with other state agencies.

In order to determine the current state of Georgia’s colleges and universities, a joint meeting of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Higher Education asked the Chancellor of the Board of Regents to make a list of possible cuts by the Regents if the state was forced to eliminate an additional $300 million from their budget. The Chancellor sent letters to the state’s 35 colleges and universities asking each to submit proposals for what their share of the $300 million in cuts would be -- using the assumption that tuition would not increase.

Under the proposal submitted by the University of Georgia, the school recommended cutting half of the University’s Cooperative Extension Service offices throughout the state and eliminating all Georgia 4-H programs. Decreasing these programs would save the university $11,304,861. Other institutions chose to cut spending by reducing hours of operation for university libraries, limiting research funding, eliminating administrative positions, and merging various offices.

The General Assembly has not proposed or endorsed any of these ideas. My colleagues and I will have a say in the final state budget and I will work to make sure that important programs, like 4-H, remain in place.

WATER LEGISLATION GETS FLOWING

Also this week, the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee unanimously passed House Bill 1094, the Georgia Water Stewardship Act of 2010. This legislation will require the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and other agencies to examine their practices, programs, policies, rules, and regulations in order to develop programs and incentives to encourage voluntary water conservation and enhance the state’s water supply.  It will also require the use of high efficiency toilets, showerheads, and faucets in newly constructed buildings. 

As Gov. Perdue negotiates with the governors of Florida and Alabama on the future of water rights, it is important that we responsibly manage our water resources. Water conservation legislation like House Bill 1094 will not only save millions of gallons of water, but it will also continue to demonstrate that we know how to manage our natural resources, which will strengthen our position at the negotiating table.