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This story is part of an of states' revenue and budgets during the pandemic.
In Georgia, the new fiscal year has started out with more than $2 billion in cuts — about 10% of the state budget — as revenues are projected to continue to decline because of the coronavirus pandemic. , Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said state leaders had to make hard choices when it came to deciding what to eliminate. "While we were able to avoid draconian cuts, getting a balanced budget was hard," he said.
Revenue collections for the fiscal year were down 4.5% in June. While the state's income tax collection deadline was extended, lawmakers still estimate about $1 billion of the state's $2.7 billion rainy day fund will be needed to close out the budget year that ended June 30. The hardest-hit area is education, where $950 million was cut from the state's K-12 funding formula, but much of that will be supplemented by federal coronavirus relief funding sent directly to school systems.
State leaders already pulled another $250 million from the reserves to spare most state employees from furloughs. Amid the cuts, lawmakers did allocate $19 million in new spending to expand access to Medicaid for new mothers until six months after giving birth.
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