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