State's unspent funds becoming the focus of legislators and others

The state’s huge pile of unspent funds, now totaling $16 billion, is increasingly becoming the focus of legislators, and various players related to state government. A 15 page report recently released by left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute concludes with a call for the state loosen the purse strings. The report attributes the massive reserve to repeated underestimations of annual state revenue collections and spending that was failing to keep up with inflation and population growth. But Governor Kemp and republicans have generally fought to keep the reserve. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery said that with everyone foaming at the mouth over the $16 billion, they forget it’s only six months of revenue for the state and could be burned up quickly in bad times.