Gov.-elect Nathan Deal said Wednesday state government was too big for taxpayers and called for downsizing of the state's 104,000-member workforce.http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/deal-state-government-workforce-778417.html?cxtype=rss_news
The state's high personnel costs are a key obstacle in meeting budget obligations, Deal said.
"We're going to have to downsize in that department as well and that's tough, because sometimes there are people who are doing very good jobs," he said. "But because of the change in circumstances, we may not be able to justify those in the public sector any longer."
The challenge Georgia faces, he said, is that while tax dollars have dwindled, government still has a structure in place that anticipates much more money to sustain it than is available. The situation requires that government shrink to match its means, he said.
According to 2008 Census data, the state of Georgia and local governments in the state employed a total of 604,002 people.[3] Of those employees, 498,404 were full-time employees receiving a net pay of $1,728,268,497 per month and 105,598 were part-time employees paid $110,993,986 per month.[3] More than 55% of those employees, or 354,531 employees, were in education or higher education.[3]
Deal has also mentioned that Georgia is in arrears to the federal government for $454 million in loans to its Unemployment Trust Fund and is due to repay those funds in November 2011.[8] http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Georgia_state_budget
Perdue exempted K-12 schools from the latest cut, but not the university system. It will affect agencies that hand out driver's licenses, educate college students and run parks, prisons and health care programs that cover more than a 1 million Georgians. Those agencies employ about 90,000 people.
The move, which will save the state $25.5 million per month, is a preemptive one, the governor's office told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Congress could still come through with the stimulus money before the end of the year. But it's far from certain.
Perdue and lawmakers approved a budget for this fiscal year, which began July 1, that counted on about $375 million in extra federal Medicaid stimulus money. About 30 states wrote the the extra money for Medicaid, which provides health care to the poor and disabled, into their budget plans.
But conservative Democrats and Republicans in Congress stalled the funding, arguing that it added to the burgeoning federal deficit. Lawmakers such as U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) say they can only support it if there are offsetting spending cuts.
"Our national debt has now surpassed $13 trillion and we cannot continue spending at this alarming rate," Isakson said. "This is a painful debate, but it is a necessary debate.”
Bert Brantley, the governor's spokesman, said the state needed to react quickly to the possibility it might not get the money.
"The main thing driving this is we don't want to wait until January to make some of these adjustments if they are necessary," Brantley said.
Georgia's state budget has been cut more than $3 billion during the past two years.
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