ATLANTA (Jan. 27, 2010) – President Pro Tempore Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) spoke to the entire Senate body today thanking each senator who volunteered to take six additional furlough days through the end of the fiscal year. Those who took the voluntary days in the fall will have taken a total of eleven furlough days for this year’s budget. The money will be returned to the State Treasury to help fill additional budget gaps.
“At a time when Americans throughout our nation are concerned with the national debt, I’m proud of the Georgia state senators that have worked so hard to keep Georgia out of debt. I want to personally thank every member of the senate for volunteering to take additional furlough days to help mitigate our budget gaps. Senators are participating in making difficult decisions and are leading by example using fiscal constraint by forfeiting their own salaries,” said Williams.
Williams touted Georgia’s success in fiscal responsibility by noting that Georgia is 50th in the nation in debt per capita and 43rd in the nation in spending per capita. This fiscal constraint has been noticed by the Bond rating agencies in New York, making Georgia one of only seven states to earn and maintain a Triple-A Bond rating.
Williams has worked with senate leaders to find efficiencies and make cuts to balance the budget. All State agencies have taken cuts to their budgets while also taking anywhere between 3 and 12 furlough days. The General Assembly, just like every other state agency has had to make cuts and find efficiencies, including furloughs. The Senate and House have cut a total of 8% out of their own administrative budgets in the 2010 general budget. In addition Senate leadership has worked diligently to find efficiencies and savings in their own administrative budget that have enabled the General Assembly to return $2.7 million in FY2009 surplus funds to the Treasury.
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Sen. Tommie Williams serves as President Pro Tempore. He represents the 19th Senate District, which includes Appling, Jeff Davis, Long, Montgomery, Toombs, Wayne, and Wheeler counties and a portion of Liberty and Tattnall counties. He can be reached at 404.656.0089 or by email at tommie.williams@Senate.ga.gov.
For Immediate Release:
January 27, 2010
For Information Contact:
Raegan Weber, Director
Raegan.weber@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028