Schools draw lion’s share of Kemp’s bond package

Schools account for a major portion of the $600 million bond package Gov. Brian Kemp is recommending in the $32.5 billion budget proposal the governor released late last week.

More than a third of the package — $217 million — would go toward K-12 school construction projects across the state financed by the Georgia Department of Education.

The rest of the bonds would be divided between the other state agencies, including $113.4 million earmarked for University System of Georgia campuses.

Highlights include $29.8 million for the second phase of a modernization project at the University of Georgia’s Science and Ag Hill in Athens, $16.6 million going toward construction of a research tower on the downtown Atlanta campus of Georgia State University, and $13.7 million for an interdisciplinary STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) research building at

Kennesaw State University.

The most significant bond project in the Technical College System of Georgia’s budget is $19.9 million earmarked for the planned Industrial Robotics Training Center at Ogeechee Technical College in Statesboro.

Kemp’s bond package also includes $10.3 million to build a 56-bed expansion at the Muscogee juvenile detention center in Columbus, $8 million toward a major expansion of the Savannah Convention Center, and $7.8 million in repairs and renovations at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Rehabilitation facility.

The $600 million in bonds Kemp is requesting is well below the $950 million bond package the General

Assembly approved last spring for this year. But legislators typically add projects to the package as it makes it way through the budget review process.