State Sen. Ben Watson

Guest Columnist

The Georgia General Assembly has finalized one of two budgets to fund the operations of the state of Georgia. The midyear budget is to amend the Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget that will take us to June 30, 2026, when this current budget year ends.

We now begin the process and hard work of formulating the 2026-27 Fiscal Year budget.

The FY2025-26 budget was enhanced with an additional $1.4 billion in surplus state funds and helped result in much-needed tax cuts.

The new amended fiscal year budget for 2026 was originally set at $42.3 billion and is now $43.7 billion. These tax cuts will return $2 billion, which includes $850 million for property tax rebates to homeowners and $250 income tax rebates or $500 for couples filing jointly.

The big winner was the passage of the first comprehensive, needs-based college scholarship program. Gov. Brian Kemp proposed the DREAMS scholarship in his State of the State Address last month with a proposed price tag of $325 million.

The General Assembly funded the DREAMS scholarship at the fully estimated cost.

The DREAMS program will fund $25 million to college students in need for the school year starting in the fall of 2026, with the remaining $300 million launching a long-term endowment to sustain the DREAMS program. The student basis of allowance would be based on the student aid index from FAFSA, and eligible students could receive up to $3,000 per academic year for up to eight semesters. To be eligible, students must be Georgia residents with unmet financial needs after all other scholarships, grants and loans are accounted for, and they must either be employed or volunteer at least part time.

Included in the midyear budget was a onetime bonus of $2,000 to state employees. We also included $50 million in community grants to address homelessness, which includes earmarked funds of $5 million for homeless veterans. We also ensured $409 often wind up housed in local jails. The budget includes $150 million to expand prison bed capacity.

Cities and counties will get additional funding to assist replacing or repairing the state’s transportation infrastructure with $250 million in grants for road maintenance and improvement, and the state will invest $100 million to repair and replace rural bridges, prioritizing those most vital to agribusiness and timber projects. We also prioritized expanded road projects for our interstate highways.

Zero-based budgeting was passed in 2012 and sunset in 2020. We passed Senate Bill 392 out of the Senate this week known as the Waste Reduction Act of 2026/Zero base budgeting Act. This requires the executive branch at least every 10 years, but not more often than every eight years, to have each unit of the state government justify departmental and program purposes, effectiveness, size and priority. This must be included in the governor’s budget report and will be reviewed by the Senate and House Fiscal Affairs Subcommittee.

I will keep you updated on legislation affecting our community as we progress through the session. Thank you for your continued interest in the work of our General Assembly. As your public servant, feel free to visit me at the Capitol or to reach out to me by phone or email. I am in 325A, Coverdell Legislative Office Building. My office phone number is (404) 656-7880, and my email is ben.watson@senate. ga.gov.

I look forward to continuing to serve you.

Sen. Ben Watson represents the 1st Senate District in Georgia, which includes Liberty County.