ATLANTA — The halls of the State Capitol are mostly empty, a good chance to dust hard to reach areas.
Not far away, some lawmakers and lobbyists walked into first budget related hearing since the snowstorm hit Georgia.
“Well, the whole thing is unexpected. This is the weather; you cannot control it, so you have got to adjust to it,” Democratic Senator Ed Harbison told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot.
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Harbison’s hometown of Columbus is covered in snow, but he was able to get to Atlanta to attend this first hearing.
He is sure they will get the budgets done in time.
“We will plow through it and do what we need to do in order to serve the constituents of Atlanta, Columbus, I got to put Columbus in there, too, and the State of Georgia,” Harbinson said.
Alpharetta Republican Sen. Brandon Beach did not see any snow where he lives, but he is confident snow delays won’t slow them down.
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“But we’ll get it done. These guys are pros. I mean I can tell you these guys are pros. They know what to do,” Beach said.
We had to talk to Vidalia State Senator Blake Tillery virtually since he is stuck in four inches of snow.
He is the co-chair of the appropriations committee and is in charge of coming up with the plan to spend right around $36 billion.
“So, our senators from the northern half of the state have really done yeoman’s work to pull their weigh for those of us who could not physically make it there,” Tillery said.
While he didn’t get to present the budgets before the committee, Gov. Brian Kemp shared a copy of his remarks for his seventh budget proposal.
“This year is no different, as we work as a team to overcome challenges facing our farmers and small businesses in the wake of Hurricane Helene, provide further relief to hardworking Georgians dealing with sky-high prices, invest in community-level infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing economy and population, strengthen our education and workforce development programs, fortify our public safety and corrections system, grow the number of healthcare workers in our state and support these heroes, and many other strategic investments that ensure we meet our obligations without growing government,” Kemp wrote.
You can view the AFY25 and FY26 budget proposals here.
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