The youngest and oldest people in Georgia to whom the state owes a financial responsibility got something extra in the 2027 fiscal year budget that lawmakers sent to Gov. Brian Kemp Thursday night.

State retirees could get a bump in their pensions after the state House and Senate agreed to add at least $65 million in state money to their pension fund.

And children in grades kindergarten through third grade could learn how to read with the help of literacy experts hired with $70 million in state funds.

That is more money than the House had initially budgeted as a downpayment on hiring more than 1,300 literacy coaches. 

The compromise budget also puts the money into a recurring fund whereas the Senate had proposed a one-time grant.

Grants must be renewed annually, so the House wanted the money engraved in the school funding formula.

The compromise puts the money into the Quality Basic Education funding formula, so it will be there year after year.

“I think QBE is usually a more consistent formula for our schools,” said Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. That should give schools more confidence in hiring employees, an ongoing expense, he said.

“I think there’s a lot more acceptance by the local school systems that it will be consistent whereas our non-QBE grants sometimes are one of the first to go in recessionary times,” he said.

Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, called it “a conservative and fiscally sound budget.” And he said it would help state pensioners who “put in years of hard work only to see inflation decimate” their income, with the first cost of living increase in recent history of over 2%.

The approvals by the House and Senate to House Bill 974 sends the $38.5 billion budget to Kemp who has line-item veto authority.

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