England co-sponsors own stimulus bill to benefit state
Barrow County State Rep. Terry England is a co-sponsor of a plan which would give Georgia its own stimulus plan.
England said it is a “common sense” approach that would benefit small businesses in the state and help give them needed support to grow.
“It doesn’t involve sending out a bunch of money, but there are several common sense type things in the two bills,” England told the Barrow Journal. “We expect to see them on the floor Thursday.”
Governor Sonny Perdue recently announced he would be accepting the $1.5 billion set aside for Georgia in President Obama’s national stimulus package.
“The 2010 budget is getting down to the tough issues now,” England said. “The governor did decided to take most of the stimulus money and we are still working to plug holes in the budget with it. We intend on using a good portion of the $1.5 billion over the next three years in K-12 education and higher education also. The amount we will be using in K-12 is about $900 million over the next three years.”
England said that amount helps cover “some big holes” the state is facing in the education budget.
“It doesn’t involve sending out a bunch of money, but there are several common sense type things in the two bills,” England told the Barrow Journal. “We expect to see them on the floor Thursday.”
Governor Sonny Perdue recently announced he would be accepting the $1.5 billion set aside for Georgia in President Obama’s national stimulus package.
“The 2010 budget is getting down to the tough issues now,” England said. “The governor did decided to take most of the stimulus money and we are still working to plug holes in the budget with it. We intend on using a good portion of the $1.5 billion over the next three years in K-12 education and higher education also. The amount we will be using in K-12 is about $900 million over the next three years.”
England said that amount helps cover “some big holes” the state is facing in the education budget.
Normally I would agree with you, however, the stimulus monies being sent down for Georgia have some very specific rules attached to how the money is to be spent. The money I have spoken of here has to come to schools. There is other money that will be coming for some transportation related projects. I am pretty sure that the by-pass will not be one of those since its projected cost was at $88 million before the inflation of recent months. We will have to continue to see what we can find to help fund it. I haven't given up on it.
The shortfalls in education are immediate and we don't have time for the other projects to kick in and fund the shortfalls.
I appreciate your comments.