It’s a Budget!
Governor Nathan Deal released his proposed fiscal year 2017 budget Thursday afternoon that would raise and spend $23.7 billion in the fiscal year beginning July 1st. Many lawmakers will spend the weekend reviewing it, and will return to the gold dome on Tuesday for a week of budget hearings.
The pie chart at right shows the state’s revenue sources, dominated by income and sales taxes. (view last year’s chart here. The big change is in the revenue raised by last year’s House Bill 170, the Transportation Funding Act. Motor fuel taxes go from 4.6% of revenue in 2016 to 7.0% in 2017. The state expects an additional $876 million from income taxes, and $65 million from sales taxes compared to the governor’s original 2016 proposal. Bottom line: almost $2 billion more than FY 2016. Below are the numbers and percentages.
| Source | FY 2017 Georgia Revenue Sources | Percent |
| Individual Income Tax | $ 10,715,557,454 | 45.1% |
| Corporate Income Tax | 1,023,351,400 | 4.3% |
| Sales Tax | 5,658,900,000 | 23.8% |
| Motor Fuel | 1,653,200,000 | 7.0% |
| Tobacco Taxes | 209,073,000 | 0.9% |
| Alcohol Taxes | 189,067,700 | 0.8% |
| Motor Vehicle Licensing | 347,238,700 | 1.5% |
| Title Ad Valorem Tax | 795,830,333 | 3.4% |
| Other Taxes | 606,959,000 | 2.6% |
| Interest, Fees and Sales | 1,324,036,599 | 5.6% |
| Lottery Funds | 1,073,563,561 | 4.5% |
| Other Funds / Payments | 142,631,331 | 0.6% |
| Total Revenues | $ 23,739,409,078 |
This pie chart shows how the money is spent divided into the same general categories as used in 2016.) That’s a lot of new money, but where does it go?
Transportation spending almost doubles, from $876 million in 2016 to $1.7 billion in 2017. K-12 education gets a big boost; $474 million was added, with the intent that much of it goes for a 3% raise for teachers.
Spending on healthcare rises by $287 million from 2016, although the percentage of the total budget declines slightly, from 22.3% to 21.7 percent.
The table below has all the details.
| Source | FY 2017 Georgia Expenditures | Percent |
| K-12 Education | $ 8,918,109,042 | 37.6% |
| Board of Regents | 2,102,413,975 | 8.9% |
| Other Education | 1,591,343,914 | 6.7% |
| Dept. Community Health | 2,586,427,685 | 10.9% |
| Behavioral Health | 1,020,018,856 | 4.3% |
| Other Healthy Georgia | 1,541,698,821 | 6.5% |
| Dept. Corrections | 1,126,295,404 | 4.7% |
| Dept. Juvenile Justice | 327,129,317 | 1.4% |
| Other Safe Georgia | 471,446,256 | 2.0% |
| Government Operations | 818,390,473 | 3.4% |
| Growing Georgia | 311,675,514 | 1.3% |
| Transportation | 1,714,541,590 | 7.2% |
| Debt Repayment | 1,209,918,231 | 5.1% |
| Total Expenditures | $ 23,739,409,078 |
The budget tale would not be complete without considering the impact of the federal government. This year, the federal contribution of 23.8 billion is only $35 million more than the state contribution, for total state expenditures of $47.5 billion.
At right is the pie chart with combined federal and state spending (2016 here).
In the end, 43.5 percent of combined federal and state spending goes towards education, 38.0 percent goes towards healthcare, 7.2 percent goes towards transportation, leaving 11.3% for everything else.
| Source | FY 2017 Georgia Expenditures | Federal Contribution | FY 2017 GA/Fed Expenditures | Percent |
| K-12 Education | $ 8,918,109,042 | $ 2,104,152,121 | $ 11,022,261,163 | 23.2% |
| Board of Regents | 2,102,413,975 | 5,087,746,763 | 7,190,160,738 | 15.1% |
| Other Education | 1,591,343,914 | 857,303,729 | 2,448,647,643 | 5.2% |
| Dept. Community Health | 2,586,427,685 | 11,167,592,653 | 13,754,020,338 | 28.9% |
| Behavioral Health | 1,020,018,856 | 175,442,787 | 1,195,461,643 | 2.5% |
| Other Healthy Georgia | 1,541,698,821 | 1,562,376,073 | 3,104,074,894 | 6.5% |
| Dept. Corrections | 1,126,295,404 | 13,735,158 | 1,140,030,562 | 2.4% |
| Dept. Juvenile Justice | 327,129,317 | 7,144,776 | 334,274,093 | 0.7% |
| Other Safe Georgia | 471,446,256 | 184,398,395 | 655,844,651 | 1.4% |
| Government Operations | 818,390,473 | 459,743,855 | 1,278,134,328 | 2.7% |
| Growing Georgia | 311,675,514 | 448,311,732 | 759,987,246 | 1.6% |
| Transportation | 1,714,541,590 | 1,686,684,013 | 3,401,225,603 | 7.2% |
| Debt Repayment | 1,209,918,231 | 20,010,634 | 1,229,928,865 | 2.6% |
| Total Expenditures | $ 23,739,409,078 | $ 23,774,642,689 | $ 47,514,051,767 |
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Jon Richards
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Agreed.