ATLANTA — After a week off to smooth bumps in the budget, House leaders moved Tuesday to restore budget reductions to priority programs.

Chairs of the House Appropriations subcommittees outlined amendments made to Gov. Brian Kemp’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal — adding back dollars for state programs including mental health services, agricultural experiment stations, rural doctor training and court programs.

“Those are and have been priorities of the General Assembly in the House and the Senate,” Appropriations Chair Terry England said. “And we feel very strongly about making sure those efforts continue.”

The amended 2020 budget, he said, deals with cuts as a result of reductions in revenue. During a presentation, England highlighted ongoing impact of losses after Hurricane Michael.

The FY2021 budget is expected to accommodate Kemp’s favored budget add-ins — a $2,000 teacher pay raise and a boost for some state employees earning less than $40,000 a year. The FY2021 budget will be reviewed later in the session.

The House budget will go to a full floor vote Wednesday and is then expected to be tinkered with in the Senate.

Last week, House budget writers made the first of a number of fund restorations including money to fund five food safety inspectors in the Department of Agriculture. Lawmakers continued their rebuttal against Kemp’s mandated budget cuts this week by restoring thousands of dollars to budget items.

Harsh cuts to agricultural experimental stations and cooperative extension programs reflected a mix-up in cutting federal dollars as well as state dollars, England said during Tuesday’s appropriations meeting. Lawmakers were quick to restore funds to reflect original 4% cuts to the programs that farmers said are vital to the agriculture industry.

Lawmakers decided to reduce cuts to zero for programs that support rural medical graduate students and residents, to continue efforts to train and dispatch doctors in rural areas. Funding for Morehouse and Mercer medical schools’ doctor programs, Mercer’s Rural Health Systems Innovation Center — all efforts to improve health care in rural Georgia — were saved.

England called cuts to doctor support programs ”regressive” to efforts the General Assembly has been making for years.

Widely opposed cuts to mental health and substance abuse programs were reduced in the House budget including funds for the Marcus Austin Center and dollars that go to the Sickle Cell Foundation. 
The Sickle Cell Foundation faced a 53% budget cut in the governor’s proposals, which the House reduced to a 23% cut.

Legislators put their foot down on cuts to accountability courts, fully restoring funding to the program that provides alternative sentencing and reduces prison populations. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation director testified multiple times during budget hearings on backlog in the crime labs which House budget writers chose to utilize more than $550,000 to hire scientists and lab technicians.

After testimony from Attorney General Chris Carr on election litigation adding high costs to the state’s bill, the House budget writers opted to transfer $2.5 million from the governor’s office emergency funds to the Department of Law.

England said the break helped lawmakers piece together the budget puzzle. Tensions on the budget cuts simmered after the director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget apologized to lawmakers last week for not being forthcoming and transparent over how the cuts were determined.

“The break was incredibly helpful to us,” England said. “It helped us establish the lines of communication that weren’t there. And our hats are off to the governor’s office and OPB for opening up and being willing to come testify and letting the agency heads come and testify.”

England said the House found extra dollars by reducing the judiciary budget and sifting back through agencies for job vacancies and delayed hires. Millions from delayed implementation of an electronic health records system in the Department of Corrections was used to fund other budget items.