The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

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January 19, 2012

Now is no time to raise state spending

Dalton Daily Citizen





Gov. Nathan Deal must be feeling cocky.

From Dalton, the economic scene still looks pretty bleak. The unemployment rate stood at 11.8 percent in November 2011, the latest month for which data are available. Many residents came into 2012 newly unemployed thanks to layoffs in the last few weeks of 2011. And we continue to see stores close.

In the rest of the state, the economy doesn’t look much better. The best we can say is that the state is starting to slowly grow out of its deepest and longest recession since the Great Depression.

That’s why we were surprised to see Deal propose a 2013 budget that calls for some $900 million in new spending, up 5 percent from the current budget.

We were surprised but not shocked. Deal’s budget is just a return to form for the state GOP.

Republicans took control of the governor’s mansion and the state Senate for the first time since Reconstruction in 2003. They took control of the state House of Representatives for the first time since Reconstruction two years later.

From fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2009, the state budget grew by about $6 billion, or 40 percent. The General Assembly started cutting spending three years ago only when forced to by the recession and declining revenues.

By contrast, during the final six years in which Democrats controlled the governor’s mansion and both chambers of the General Assembly, budgeted spending rose by roughly $3.4 billion, or about 30 percent.

We feel confident that most Georgia households and businesses don’t plan to increase their spending this year. We don’t feel it is prudent for the state to increase its spending either. If Deal and state lawmakers truly believe they will have another $900 million to play with, we suggest they return it to the taxpayers. We believe they need it, and deserve it, more than the state government does.

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