Sine Die: Overview of Georgia’s 2022 Fiscal Year Budget
Bolstered by billions of dollars in unprecedented support from the federal government, Georgia lawmakers enacted a state budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 (HB 81) that maintains nearly $850 million in cuts from FY 2020 levels (HB 31), a reduction equivalent to cutting approximately 4 percent of General Funds from the budget. [1] Due in large part to $90 million in savings from the federal government’s decision to pay a higher-than-usual share of the cost of Georgia’s Medicaid program due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers were able to restore about half of the cuts made to public education since the pandemic began, with approximately $561 million in cuts from FY 2020 funding levels remaining. Members of the General Assembly also moved $22 million in funding from other state agencies and $15 million from capital projects to restore a total of about $127 million in cuts initially proposed in Gov. Kemp’s executive budget.