Amidst the snow and ice that blanketed much of Georgia last week, the wheels of government slowly began to turn as many across the state remained confined to their homes.  As constitutionally required, the General Assembly convened on the second Monday in January and hosted the inauguration of the Honorable Nathan Deal, Georgia’s 82nd Governor.

Deal wasted no time getting down to business, presenting his key policy goals in his inaugural address and returning to the House chamber two days later to present his FY11 Amended and FY12 budget recommendations.  Both include significant reductions to state agencies, including the University System of Georgia (USG).

The new governor’s recommendations for the FY11 Amended budget, which will govern spending for the remainder of the current  fiscal year, includes a $133.6M reduction in USG funding.  Deal’s proposal for FY12, which begins July 1, includes an additional $185.1 decrease.  The current FY11 budget for the USG is $5.8B and includes $1.9B of state funding.  Tech receives a portion of these funds.

Most of these reductions are in the funding that supports student instruction, however, USG institutions have already been planning for the tough budget year.  When the USG budget request was adopted in August, budget reduction plans up to 10% were also submitted to the Office of Planning and Budget.  

Bond funding for USG capital projects is also decreased, recommended at $81.1M for FY12.  FY11 USG bond funds totaled $183.6M.  Overall bond funding proposed for FY12 is half of recent years’ totals.

However, even in this decreased bond package, Georgia Tech’s primary capital priority, the Eco-Commons/Storm Water Relocation Project, is recommended at the full $4.2M request for construction.

As he noted in his inaugural address, the significant cutbacks presented in his budget proposal are intended to “refocus state government on its core responsibilities.”   The USG cuts are particularly notable due to the loss of stimulus funds available in previous budgets.

“Though we had hoped for growth in the Formula Funds to match our increasing enrollment, we do understand the current economic situation and have prepared,” noted Dene Sheheane, Executive Director of Government and Community Relations.  “We are appreciative of the support of our state funding partners in recent years, and we look forward to working with them as the economy recovers in the coming days.”