Georgia Legislative Watch

The AJC has a good article, though heavy on education, on some of the choices appropriators will have to make while trimming back the FY 2010 budget and crafting the FY 2011 budget:

For educators, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s final proposed budget cuts hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding to schools.

Under Perdue’s plan, k-12 schools will get less in state money during the upcoming year than they did when the governor began his second and final term in 2007.

Some school districts might have to raise property taxes to make up the difference in what the state is providing.

Georgia School Superintendent Kathy Cox told state budget writers Wednesday that Perdue’s proposed spending cuts endanger the progress public schools have made in recent years.

Speaking at a joint meeting of the House and Senate Budget committees, Cox said Perdue’s proposals would mean $710 million less in basic school funding for Georgia schools over the next year and a half. She said her agency’s office budget has been slashed dramatically in recent years, and she noted that Perdue’s budget plan would wipe out regional education offices that work to improve teaching.

“The 2011 budget takes away our ability as a state to do anything to help our schools, ” she told lawmakers.

Rep. Alan Powell (D-Hartwell) said about 35 school systems are at risk of running out of money.