COMP NEWS – The George Senate is gearing up to pass a budget bill that would raise pay for public school teachers and state employees, but the final details must be passed by Thursday – the day the state’s 2024 legislative session ends.
ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Senate on Tuesday approved a budget that would include pay raises for public school teachers and state employees, as well as boost spending on education, health care and mental health.
Senators and representatives now must work out their differences on House Bill 916 before 2024’s legislative session ends Thursday. The budget, which passed 53-1, spends $36.1 billion in state money and $61 billion overall in the year beginning July 1.
Spending would fall from this year’s budget after Gov. Brian Kemp and lawmakers supplemented that budget will billions in one-time cash, boosting state spending to $38 billion in the year ending June 30.
Public school teachers would get a $2,500 raise starting July 1, boosting average teacher pay in Georgia above $65,000 annually, as the Republican governor proposed in January. That is in addition to a $1,000 bonus Kemp sent out in December. Prekindergarten teachers would also get a $2,500 raise.
State and university employees also would get a 4% pay increase, up to $70,000 in salary. The typical state employee makes $50,400.
Some of the details the House and Senate are working through include special bonuses for certain state workers, such as law enforcement and child welfare workers.
Some employees would get more. State law enforcement officers would get an additional $3,000 bump, atop the $6,000 special boost they got last year. Child welfare workers would also receive extra $3,000 raises.One thing that is unclear under the plan is judicial pay raises. There is money in the Senate budget for nearly $20 million, which would implement almost all of a plan to raise and standardize judicial pay. But Tillery wants the plan to be contained in a state constitutional amendment that hasn’t advanced. The House is still trying to implement the plan in a regular bill.
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