The budget dedicates more than $50 million to strengthen trauma care hospitals, much of which would likely go to Grady. The hospital, which serves a mostly poor and uninsured urban community, has warned it faces an imminent financial collapse if it doesn't come up with more money.
House lawmakers hope to decide on a dedicated source of funding this year to strengthen the state's fragile trauma care system, but Republican leaders said for now the bailout would have to do.
"It's up to us to come up with money to sustain this, to come up with a network all over the state," said state Rep. Ben Harbin, an Evans Republican who chairs the House budget writing committee. "Everyday we're losing people, because we don't have this."
The budget, which covers spending through June 30, also includes $40 million that would go to building new reservoirs or expanding existing ones. It's part of the state's new goal to add more reservoirs in hopes of protecting the state from a water shortage.
The spending plan also includes an extra $65 million for school technology improvements and more buses. Some $15 million would be funneled to the state's troubled mental hospital system. And another $30 million in grants would go to poor school districts, about half of which helps fund growing systems in metro Atlanta.
The measure, passed 159-6, now goes to the Senate.
It was criticized by some conservative lawmakers who said the surpluses should be sent back to residents in the form of tax breaks, and others who said that rising spending plans under Republican leadership sends mixed messages.
"When do we draw the line on spending? Do we believe in the principles we ran on to take over this house?" asked state Rep. Steve Davis, R-McDonough. "We're either going to stand up for the principles and values we ran on, or we're not."
He was among six Republican lawmakers who bucked the party line by voting against the bill. House Minority Leader DuBose Porter pitched his party's solution to the problem: Funnel the surplus money into the state's education system.
"It will be one of the biggest things we can do to help our schools, our children and our homeowners," said Porter, a Dublin Democrat. "We need to find a way to get back to priorities we know will help education in this state."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/2/206710