Deal signs amended budget in Polk
The 2018 spending measure includes upgrades for the county’s airport — Cornelius Moore Field.
Polk County got to play center stage at week’s end as a special guest landed at Cornelius Moore Field for a short stop to provide a signature important to the entire state.
Gov. Nathan Deal was the special guest, and the 2018 amended state budget got his final approval with the swipe of several pens that assured millions in additional funding for the state, a lot of that going to local projects.
That brings the total to $25.4 billion in spending for the State of Georgia during the current fiscal year.
“That reflects the fact that we have a growing and strong economy,” Deal said. “One in which we’ve been able to keep our AAA bond rating, and one in which we’ve been able to build our rainy day fund up to now about $2.4 billion, which is a good safeguard against another recession that may be coming, but hopefully not soon.”
State Rep. Trey Kelley introduced Deal to a gathering of state and local officials and students from the Polk County College and Career Academy on Friday morning in a hangar at the local airport.
Kelley had a lot of praise for Deal’s leadership over his past seven years in office, from his leadership on the state level in pushing through increased funding for education and infrastructure, to criminal justice reform and the expansion of accountability courts across Georgia.
He added that Deal’s leadership has also kept Georgia at a top ranking as the best state in the country for business.
Kelley focused much more on lauding Deal’s leadership on local issues, like the funds announced in past months for an extension of Cornelius Moore Field, to inclusion in the budget for funds to re-open the former Department of Labor office in Cedartown’s Northside Industrial Park as the Cedartown Career Center, an adult education and workforce development site to be run by the Technical College System of Georgia in a partnership with Georgia Northwestern Technical College.
“The funds appropriated for this effort will mean a new, reinvigorated sense of economic development in Polk County, and will allow Polk County to spread our message further as we engage both national and international economic development efforts,” Kelley said. “The creation of the new Cedartown Career Center under the TCGS will offer residents
of our community to learn the skills that they need to find gainful employment and serve as an economic development tool for our county.”
He added that “your administration truly turned lemons into lemonade, and at a time when a lack of trust in government is growing, your leadership has provided a shining example of what can happen when elected officials can work collaboratively.”
Deal himself spoke a lot about those projects and the money being spent in the amended state budget for the year, including funds for the runway extension at Cornelius Moore Field totaling up to $4.5 million, the additional money to reopen the unemployment office, and much more. He highlighted on the state level that increases in funding adds $415 million for statewide use.
“A large portion of it is going directly to local governments and school systems to provide them with financial support,” Deal said.
Included in the amended budget was $101.4 million for K-12 enrollment growth and $15.7 million for
local systems to purchase school buses, marketing funds for the college and universities around the state to the tune of $9.6 million for dual enrollment, and more than $10 million to upgrade equipment at technical colleges around the state.
Deal also talked about transportation projects, citing an increase in the amount being spent on roadway improvements statewide.
“If you see a lot of orange barrels and orange cones as you travel, that is a reflection of that,” Deal said.
Joining Deal and Kelley in a helicopter flight to the Polk County Airport for the event was State Sen. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, and TCSG Commissioner Matt Arthur.
Local officials like Polk Commission Chair Jennifer Hulsey said they were glad to have Deal and state officials in the area to sign the budget.
“We’re glad that Gov. Deal and other state officials have provided us with help for economic development. We’re excited about the possibilities with our airport in the future,” Hulsey said.