[March 14, 2022] | This was a long week at your State Capitol for committee meetings and voting on the floor, as we get ready for Crossover Day on Tuesday the 15th. Crossover Day is the day in which a bill has to pass the House to be reviewed by the Senate. We try our best to get the bills our members want to get through that are important to Georgians. Many bills that are entered by legislators never make it to a floor vote; and their authors are sad, as you can imagine, but they can try again next year to push their ideas. In my 500 or so words, I can only go over a few things we did this week, and I will have a more complete description on my Facebook page; or you can email me, and I will send it to you.
The House came one step closer to fulfilling our only constitutional obligation by passing House Bill 911, the FY 2023 Budget. This budget dedicates all of our state funds for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2022, and ends the following year on June 30, 2023. The FY 2023 budget is set at a revenue estimate of $30.2 billion, which is a $2.9 billion or 10.8 percent increase over the FY 2022 original budget, and this budget permanently restores nearly $640 million eliminated from the budget in FY 2021 during the economic uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last nine months, the House Appropriations Committee worked strategically to identify how to provide more funding to our public safety and mental health services, and this budget includes more than $65 million to assist these vital agencies.
We also passed one of the most important, bipartisan bills of the entire session this week with House Bill 1013, or the Georgia Mental Health Parity Act, to provide comprehensive reforms for our state?s mental health care system and give Georgians struggling with mental illness the resources they need. This legislation, which has been in the making for the last three years, would provide sweeping legislative changes to help improve insurance coverage and the delivery of mental health care. This bill would require health insurance plans, including our state health care plans, to provide parity for mental health and substance use disorders so that they are treated and covered to the same degree as physical care.
On Friday evening, we passed critical legislation to provide relief to Georgians at the gas pump. The price of gas was exponentially increasing due to policies in Washington in the past year and have skyrocketed since the Russian invasion into Ukraine, and we expect gas prices to continue to rise. We passed House Bill 304 to allow the Governor to suspend the state motor fuel excise tax through the end of May 2022. We anticipate that our colleagues in the Senate will also pass this legislation this week so our governor can sign it into law as quickly as possible.
It has always been one of my top priorities to help my constituents and to hear your feedback about the work we are doing in Atlanta. I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or concerns regarding legislation that has been discussed or passed so far. You can reach my Capitol office at 404-656-7153, or you can email me directly at rick.jasperse@house.ga.gov.
As always, thank you for allowing me to serve as your State Representative and legislative voice here at the Capitol.