Hi, Atlanta!

What’s more fun than tracking one public health budget? Tracking two or three!

More than half of Georgia’s public health budget of $922 million+ comes from federal sources. That means to truly understand what’s happening, you have to keep your eye on two — or even three — budgets at once. 

Here’s a quick rundown of how things are going.  

The federal budget: To the relief of many, Congress preserved most public health funding and rejected the large cuts proposed by President Donald Trump.

• “The bill is really solid for public health,” Adriane Casalotti of the National Association of County & City Health Officials told me recently. “Most public health programs were flat funded, which in this environment is the best you can ask for.” 

• What’s more, lawmakers took extra steps to protect funding for the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is usually funded in 13 large categories, Casalotti told me, but this year the budget puts 130 specific lines into the text. 

• “The funds would be tied to those specific programs, versus having the administration having more discretion about whether or not they actually want to address certain programs,” Casalotti said. 

The state budget: Georgia lawmakers pass two separate budget bills, one for the current year and one for next year. And our state fiscal year is on a different schedule than the federal budget. 

• The small budget is a revision of the current fiscal year’s budget, where lawmakers make adjustments based on how things are going. The bill has the approval of the House and is making its way through the Senate. Here’s what’s in it:

  • Public health, and all state employees, would get a one-time salary “supplement” of $2,000. 

  • The state government would add $150,000 to support two dental clinic events where patients could get free preventative and restorative care. 

  • The Department of Public Health would be required to develop a strategy to increase awareness and prevention for prostate and colorectal cancer and present a report on that to the state legislature by Sept. 1. 

  • Other health agencies would get boosts in funds to try to improve rural health care and increase the number of rural doctors. 

• The big budget for fiscal 2027 entails a far more complex process and usually takes right up until the end of the legislative session. I’ll keep you posted as this process unfolds. For now, the biggest public health proposal is: 

  • A plan to increase funding for the state’s maternal and child home visiting program. Gov. Brian Kemp’s budget proposed a $2 million increase, while House Republican leaders are calling for nearly $9 million to expand the program from the current 75 to almost all Georgia counties. 

This item has been corrected to reflect that the state public health budget is $922 million.

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