Sine Die: Hours left for Georgia lawmakers to pass key bills, including state budget

ATLANTA — Lawmakers are running out of time to get legislation passed, including a state budget.

The last day of the legislative session ends at midnight on Thursday.

As lawmakers scramble to get their legislation passed, Georgia’s House Speaker told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot that the state budget may come down to the wire.

For Gov. Brian Kemp, it will be his eighth and final Sine Die.

He said he’s trying to keep lawmakers focused on passing the $38 billion budget.

“I just want to leave the budget, especially, in a really good place for our citizens. And that’s what I’m focused on the next 24 to 36 hours,” Kemp said.

But that hasn’t been easy.

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The House and Senate have been fighting over it for weeks.

Kemp said his office is involved too, trying to keep some fiscal sanity in a year when many lawmakers are running for higher office or reelection.

“There’s a lot of people who want to spend a lot of money, and we’re kind of working through making sure that we do the things that we need to do to support our citizens and fund our priorities, but then also, I just want to make sure that we leave us in a good fiscal place when I walk out of here in 10 months or so,” Kemp said.

House Speaker Jon Burns is still happy about the passage of his Georgia Literacy Act.

“We’re still celebrating the House and the Senate’s decisive action to get Georgia’s children reading,” Burns said.

Now he’s focused on getting the budget done before Sine Die. And that budget has to fund his literacy act, some $70 million.

He thinks they’ll get it all done, but it’ll be close.

“We’ll continue as we always do. We’ll continue down the road. We’ll work on funding to make sure that everyone is comfortable with the funding. These changes we’re putting in place will be sustainable.

If, for some reason, the House and Senate can’t reach a budget agreement, the governor will have to call them back in for a special session.