ATLANTA — Georgia is experiencing an impressive financial surplus, with state revenue collections for the 2023 budget year significantly exceeding expenditure efforts aimed at depleting some of its surplus cash.
Currently, the state’s bank accounts hold over $11 billion in unallocated surplus funds, a result of four consecutive years of fiscal surpluses.
The State Accounting Office released a report on Tuesday indicating that Georgia garnered more revenue than it spent, despite officials increasing outlays for various one-time projects.
During the budget year that concluded on June 30, the state allocated $37.8 billion while collecting $38.2 billion in revenues.

In addition to this surplus, Georgia has built up other reserves, such as a rainy day fund that has reached the legal cap of $5.5 billion and a lottery reserve fund that currently exceeds $2.4 billion.
Overall, as of June 30, the total cash reserves for Georgia amounted to $19.1 billion, which represents more than half of the anticipated spending for the current fiscal year.
While total general fund receipts experienced an increase of around 1.4%, this growth marks a deceleration from the approximately 3% surge witnessed in the previous year.
Governor Brian Kemp has consistently allocated spending well below the revenue collected from prior years, which has contributed to a growing surplus at the conclusion of each fiscal year.
By law, the governor sets limits on legislative spending, and over the past four years, he has underestimated tax collection forecasts.

The surplus of $11 billion could potentially allow for a payment of $1,000 to each of Georgia’s 11 million residents.
Kemp has expressed a desire to retain some of this surplus to ensure that the state can cover upcoming income tax cuts without decreasing services.
Recently, the administration has also prioritized direct cash spending on construction projects rather than relying on borrowing, a strategy aimed at lowering state debt in the long run.
Although Kemp and lawmakers previously indicated plans to reduce the surplus by $2 billion through increased spending on one-time projects, including $1,000 bonuses for public employees and teachers and infrastructure initiatives, revenues ultimately exceeded initial projections by an amount greater than the planned surplus reduction.

Despite not experiencing the same robust growth in tax collections as observed immediately following the pandemic, Georgia has remained in a favorable position.
Governor Kemp making the decision to suspend fuel taxes temporarily after Hurricane Helene has also affected revenue, although collections resumed recently.
Unless there is a substantial decline in revenue, Georgia is on track to record another multi-billion-dollar surplus in the budget year that commenced on July 1.

In light of these circumstances, the state’s budget director instructed state agencies in July not to propose any general increases for the current 2025 budget amendments or for the following year’s 2026 budget.
Nonetheless, the Office of Planning and Budget stated that it would review submissions for “new workload needs or specific initiatives that promise service enhancements and future savings.”
For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, Georgia has planned expenditures totaling $36.1 billion in state revenue, translating to $66.8 billion when considering federal and other revenues.
This budget will support the education of 1.75 million K-12 students and 450,000 college students, provide for the housing of 51,000 state prisoners, maintain 18,000 miles of highways, and assist over 200,000 individuals facing mental health challenges, developmental disabilities, or substance abuse issues.