The Georgia Senate overwhelmingly approved a budget Thursday that includes $10 million to jump-start a state-backed venture capital fund the General Assembly created last year but failed to fund.

The $20.8 billion fiscal 2015 spending plan, which senators passed 51-4, also contains $35 million recommended by Gov. Nathan Deal to complete the state’s share of the $652 million Savannah Harbor deepening project and puts $45.5 million toward the governor’s $300 million multi-year reservoir-building program.

Teachers and state employees, many of whom didn’t see pay raises during the Great Recession, would get 1 percent increases.

The budget would increase state spending by $770 million over the fiscal 2014 budget the General Assembly adopted last spring. Of that new spending, $534 million would go toward K-12 and higher education, said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill, R-Reidsville.

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