Governor signs $18.3 billion budget, vetoes college construction projects - James Salzer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Nathan Deal has signed an $18.3 billion state budget for the upcoming fiscal year, but not before vetoing about $42 million worth of proposed college construction projects. The budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 contains no cost-of-living raises for 200,000 teachers and state employees and cuts university system funding. K-12 education funding will be about the same as it was this year, when many school districts furloughed employees and cut the number of school days to save money. Deal vetoed plans to borrow money for several college construction projects. The governor argued either that he didn't want to take out 20-year loans to pay for designing projects or that the money being borrowed wasn't enough to complete construction. All of the projects he vetoed were slipped into the budget by lawmakers during the legislative session.