Appdoggy wrote:Agree that fiscal responsibility is important but, as other posters have correctly mentioned, the best economic driver for our state is education. Diverting funds from paying our public school teachers and/or from our public universities is an incredibly short sighted move.Rick83 wrote:I'd be careful looking at a single budget item in a vacuum and forming an opinion, budgeting for a state is a complex issue with many, many variables. There are many deserving factions fighting for a piece of the pie, for a highly simplified example; perhaps this year teachers get a decent pay raise while state troopers don't, but then it's reversed the following year to balance things out. Tough choices have to be made and I am thankful that we're in a position to build up some reserves so that when the next disaster rolls through (like Hurricane Matthew), the state will be in a position to "weather the storm" and help our residents. Contrast that to the federal budget where spending usually far exceeds revenues and the debt is increased every year. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office issued a report last year stating that (basing this off memory) if current laws on the books stay as they are that our debt will not be sustainable in like 25 years. It'll be less than 25 years if there's a war or other significant economic downturn, already a large percentage of our federal budget goes towards debt payments. I hope that our elected officials (Dems, Repubs, Indies) have the courage and resolve to solve this problem...I'm not pushing one party or the other...I just want fiscally sound policies.
Your point is ignoring the fact that the GA has created a much smaller pie to start with. They have fixated on lowering the income tax rate and repeatedly prioritized tax cuts for the 1% and big business over funding our most important public institutions.
Exactly, Appdoggy. They took the cap off of charter schools and just appropriated an additional $20,000,000 for private school vouchers. Most public school classes do not have textbooks anymore, at least not to bring home..