Dozens of programs were slashed or cut entirely Tuesday when Governor Kemp signed the FY 2027 budget and vetoed a number of line items.
Governor Kemp’s May 12 letter accompanying House Bill 974, the FY 2027 budget, outlines a sweeping set of spending reductions, withheld appropriations, and targeted line-item vetoes designed to keep the state’s budget “structurally balanced” after lawmakers passed legislation that carried a greater financial impact than originally projected in the January revenue estimate.
Kemp signed HB 974 Tuesday along with other tax bills, but he said that additional obligations created during the 2026 legislative session required the executive branch to scale back spending approved by the General Assembly in order to preserve Georgia’s fiscal stability and continue tax relief efforts.
Kemp said tax reform and new legislation required him to instruct agencies to withhold funds and disregard certain intent language included in the appropriations bill rather than risk overcommitting state revenues.
The FY 2027 appropriations bill totals more than $76.5 billion. In several cases, the governor did not eliminate programs outright but instead reduced expansions approved by lawmakers, converting major appropriations into smaller or delayed versions.
Among the items reduced or cut:
Department of Agriculture
- Cut $80,000 for emerging pepper weevil threat.
- Cut $1.6 million for agricultural projects
- Cut $200,000 for a feral hog eradication incentive program
Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities –
- lawmakers sought funding for 900 additional New Options Waiver and Comprehensive Supports Waiver Program slots for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, totaling $11.59 million. Kemp directed the department to use only $2.3 million for 100 additional slots and withhold the remaining $9.27 million.
- Cut $150,000 for family support services
- Cut $14,471 in increases to hourly rates for special assistant attorneys general (SAAGs) and paralegal
Department of Community Affairs
- Cut $2 million for Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District for matching funds for a study related to the levels and causes of Geosmin, Methylisoborneol (MIB), and algae/bacteria in Lake Lanier
Department of Community Health
- $200,000 appropriated to the Department of Community Health in retained revenue in the Georgia Composite Medical Board program for ThoughtSpan implementation. Kemp directed the cuts because it skirted the regular procurement process as required by the DOAS.
- Cut $1,037,970 for 17 support positions
- Cut $18,295 or a 3% pay increase Board of Dentistry
- Cut $79,212 for an executive administrative assistant for State Board of Pharmacy
- Cut $61,785 for a new customer service representative for State Board of Pharmacy
- Cut $18,504 for a 3% pay increase for State Board of Pharmacy
- Cut $250,000 for funding for telecare and maternal health programs
- Cut $2,400,000 for behavioral and mental health services stabilization by supporting inpatient psychiatric services for any Level 1 trauma center that is the only general acute care hospital providing inpatient psychiatric services in its county, and where no other general acute care hospital in an adjacent county provides inpatient psychiatric care
- Cut $916,000 for colorectal cancer screenings
- Cut $200,000 to create a grant opportunity for contracted PACE providers to apply for funding to support the establishment of their transportation infrastructure
- Cut $1 million Increase funds for one-time grants for emergency preparedness in rural Georgia
- Cut $4,000,000 o develop and implement a solvency evaluation process for rural hospital
- Cut $515,010 from the Indigent Care Trust Fund to increase dental code reimbursement rates
- Cut $229,228 slated to increase the psychiatric residential treatment facilities rate to $800 per day
- Cut $3,296,021 to increase two primary care codes.
- Cut $8,736,136 to create parity between in-home and in-office reimbursement rates for autism services in the Indigent Care Trust Fund and $7,125,390 from Medicaid for the same.
- Cut $603,061 from Indigent Care Trust Fund to increase the prospective payment rate for federally qualified health centers and $1,743,618 from Medicaid for the same
- Cut $299,092 from ICTF to increase reimbursement rates for air ambulance and $246,311 from Medicaid for the same.
- Cut $837,530 to allow for reimbursement of adult heart and lung transplants from the ICTF line item and $837,530 from Medicaid for the same.
- Cut $136,472 to reimburse dieticians providing services for Medicaid members receiving diagnostic, screening, and preventive services and another $837,530 from the Medicaid line item for the same.
- Cut $6,800,000 to adjust fair rental value (FRV) formula to incentivize improvements to nursing centers by increasing the equipment allowance to $8,000 per bed
- Cut $352,859 for a Medicaid rate enhancement for privately-owned intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities
- Cut $512,622 for an increase in the nursing home ventilator reimbursement rate.
- Cut $5,286,203 for dental reimbursement rate increases under Medicaid
- Cut $1,379,160 to establish a rate floor to reimburse at no less than 100% of the state Medicaid program for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies under Medicaid
- Cut $3,719,263 from Medicaid slated to increase the psychiatric residential treatment facilities rate to $800 per day.
- Cut $5,435,724 in Medicaid funding
- Cut $148,018 from PeachCare for dental reimbursement rates
- Cut $28,737 from PeachCare for air ambulance reimbursements.
- Cut $1,920,000 from Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce for 13 new fellowship slots and $500,000 for resident education spaces. Also slashes $500,000 in start-up funds for a family medicine residency program.
- Cut $3 million from Board of Health Care Workforce: Mercer School of Medicine Grant for pilot pediatric residency with rural training track
- Cut $3 million from Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce: Morehouse School of Medicine Grant for creation of a regional campus and medical education program
- Cut $138,000 to support nursing program at Andrew College
- Cut $416,655 for a medical director and a compliance inspector for the Georgia Composite Medical Board
Department of Corrections
- rejected legislative language directing how nearly $55.8 million in contract increases for inmate physical, dental, mental health, and pharmacy services should be structured, instead instructing the GDC to prioritize existing contractual obligations and population growth needs before any service expansion or rate increases.
- Rejected $3,214,920 in state general funds for 200 additional non-dormitory beds in private prisons.
- Lee Arrendale State Prison was appropriated $3.87 million for expanded operations and 200 additional offenders to support Georgia Correctional Industries activities, but Kemp withheld more than $2.3 million, arguing the population increase exceeded the intended use of the facility following transfers to McRae State Prison.
- $1,118,244 was appropriated for offender call monitoring but Kemp withheld $354,024 and instructed GDC to maintain the contract at the FY 2026 level.
- Cut $69,837 to add one mechanic to the fleet services department
- Cut $500,000 for food services to Georgia Correctional Industries
- Cut $500,000 for farm equipment upgrades
Department of Economic Development
- Cut $200,000 for community art grants
- Cut $62,000 for Georgia Humanities under Tourism
Department of Education
- Cut $30.6 million from pupil transportation grants by limiting increases to updated bus counts only and rejected additional operational funding.
- Required Department of Education to reevaluate the need for $2.37 million for teaching and experience adjustments for state school personnel.
- Cut $867,401 from the School Nurse Program because another bill approved is slated to have a ‘greater financial impact’ than this allocation.
- vetoed $11.96 million in debt service tied to $50 million in five-year general obligation bonds for school safety equipment grants
- Withheld $500,000 for the Charter Schools ‘State Completion Special Schools’ program because no schools are confirmed to open in FY 2027.
- $500,000 was allocated for college prep exams, but Kemp said the program should maintain what it needs for demand and not expand.
- Cut $325,051 from agricultural education for major repairs and rehab at youth camps and $498,206 for support staff to prioritize private funds for direct student services
- Cut $240,000 for one chief financial turnaround officer and one statewide attendance officer
- Cut $2,700,000 for one-time grants to school systems to purchase vision and auditory screening equipment
- Cut $1,000,000 from nutrition for summer nutrition program services
- Cut $2,500,000 from student support services for out-of-school care
- Cut $800,000 from Tech/Career Education for high-demand heavy equipment simulator grants and $1 million for AI and coding literacy programs.
Employees’ Retirement System of Georgia
- Increase funds to additionally fund Employees’ Retirement System to trigger regular and annual cost of living adjustments
Office of the Governor
- $900,000 from GEMA for emergency services
Department of Human Services
- Removed $600,000 for foster youth clothing and supplies
- Removed $500,000 for nonprofit organizations working to place foster youth closer to biological families
- Cut $1,213,402 from the Child Abuse and Neglec Prevention for court appointed special advocates
- Cut $418,560 for hourly rates for special assistant attorneys general in Child Support Services
- Cut $2,302,969 for special assistant attorneys general for Child Welfare Services
- Cut $1,500,000 to support reunification, youth exiting foster care, and families at risk of child welfare involvement.
- Cut $800,000 to expand autism pilot for foster children pursuant to HB 943 and SB 402 (2026 Session)
- Cut $8,288 for special assistant attorneys general for Elder Abuse Investigations and Prevention
- Cut $3,320,000 for Georgia Memory Net for service and treatment expansion
- Cut $1,365,000 for non-Medicaid home and community-based services
- Cut $2,000,000 for caregiver support services under Elder Community Living Services
- Cut $50,000 increase funds for community youth wellness and $1 million to administer a summer nutrition program for eligible students in coordination with the Department of Education
- Cut $47,925 to supply new and used durable medical equipment and assistive technology
- Cut $675,000 for independent living services under the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency: Vocational Rehabilitation Program
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
- Cut $1,045,598 for the recruitment and retention of medical examiners and expanding forensic fellow compensation because the directives created what Kemp described as unfunded mandates and future liabilities.
- Cut $750,930 for a $2,000 salary adjustment for recruitment and retention for crime lab scientists, supervisors, and managers
- Cut $491,178 to address recruitment and retention for evidence receiving technicians and forensic technicians.
- reduced a proposed $2.1 million statewide gang case management system purchase, with $1.85 million withheld and $1.25 million instead redirected toward grants for local governments working with the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency to procure the systems themselves.
- Cut salary increases to the fellow program and also cuts one additional fellow hire.
- Cut $1,736,385 from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council: Council of Accountability Court Judges for new and existing accountability courts to support population growth and $9,400,000 for domestic violence shelters or $3,300,166.
- Cut $7 million for child advocacy centers under the CJCC
- Cut $912,641 for eight child advocacy centers and 20 satellite child advocacy centers not receiving state funding.
Department of Natural Resources
- Cut $150,000 for the Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites program for the SAM Shortline Railroad.
- Cut $500,000 to support air emissions program operations to allow preservation of existing revenue to delay a fiscal shortfall
- Cut $5,909,393 for outdoor recreation.
- Cut $975,000 for historic preservation
- Cut $150,000 for the Vince Dooley Battlefield Fund under HB 454 (2025 session)
- Cut $1,000,000 for a public-private feral hog management pilot program
Department of Public Health
- Cuts the additional appropriation for the Coverdell Stroke Registry which was appropriated to offset a loss in federal funding
- Cut $700,000 from the Adolescent and Adult Health Promotion line item for essential infusion and emergency care.
- Cut $247,587 for the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia.
- Cut $500,000 to the Office of Cardiac Care for grants to hospitals
- Cut $750,000 to sustain core clinical staff who operate the Trauma Recovery Center.
- Cut $140,000 to the Georgia Poison Center
Department of Public Safety
- Cuts $59,490 to implement retirement benefit provisions for Capitol Police (from HB 438) because Capitol Police are funded through agreements with Georgia Building Authority and additional costs must be recouped through the existing agreements.
- Cuts $51,128 of the $601,510 appropriated to implement retirement benefit provisions for Commercial Vehicle Enforcement officers, stating the state should leverage federal funds.
- Cut $300,000 for hardening and protection of patrol vehicles
- Cut $167,520 from the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council for a safety and compliance specialist in the metro area.
- Cut $300,000 for statutory training for the Chiefs of Police and Georgia Sheriff’s Association (cut)
- Cut $171,117 from the Georgia Public Safety Training Center for officer training for at-risk adults following the passage of HB 238 in the 2025 session.
Georgia Public Service Commission
- Cut $91,886 for one administrative assistant
Georgia Student Finance Commission
- Cuts $300,000 for an increased appropriation for the Behavioral Health Professions Service Cancelable Loan Program
Department of Transportation
- $10,000,000 in Airport Aid
- $1,000,000 for targeted freight congestion relief along key intermodal corridors impacting inland ports.
Department of Veterans Service
- $2,500,000 in funds to annualize legislative priority of eliminating veteran homelessness
Secretary of State
- Cut $84,083 of $209,083 for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors Board for one safety and compliance specialist and human resources and financial services fees.
- Cut $300,000 from State Elections Board
University System & Technical College System
- vetoed multiple public library and higher education projects, including bond funding for the O’Kelly Memorial Library, Dallas Public Library, Willis L. Miller Library, Georgia Public Library Service renovations and technology upgrades, Georgia Military College repairs, and several Technical College System projects.
- In several cases, Kemp said the projects were not requested by the Board of Regents or the Technical College System and were not identified as priorities in official capital plans. In other instances, he said sufficient funding had already been obligated or that projects represented scope expansions beyond approved plans.
- Cut $125,000 for the Teaching program for the Georgia Capitol History publication.
- Cut $150,000 for TCSG slated for Southeastern Technical College’s childcare center, noting that this is outside the purpose of the Technical Education program
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