(GA Recorder) — Republican Gov. Brian Kemp called for higher salaries for teachers, police officers, and other state employees, as well as increased investments in public education and mental health during his State of the State Address on Thursday.

Kemp’s recommendations for the upcoming year were highlighted by a 4% cost of living increase for more than 300,000 state employees, a $2,500 pay raise for public school teachers, and a $3,000 pay hike for state law enforcement officers and case workers with the Division of Family and Children Services.

Kemp began his address by boasting that Georgia’s leaders have worked hard to overcome the economic and regulatory challenges handed down by Congress, which he said have contributed to a higher cost of living for the average American over the last few years. Financial services company LendingClub reported in October that 62% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, including more than half of those making over $100,000.

The governor said that Georgia’s continued success is due to a conservative budget that invests heavily in education, public safety, and health care while also keeping government spending in check.

“Congress has become synonymous with runaway spending, bloated budgets, job-killing regulations, gridlock, and partisanship, and election representatives in both parties who are more interested in getting famous on cable news than delivering results for the American people,” he said.

Kemp is proposing $3,000 for state patrol officers, correctional officers, and other state law enforcement agencies. An extra $205 million is requested for crisis center beds, better pay for mental health workers, and other spending boosts for mental health services.

Kemp’s recommendation for the current year’s amended budget and upcoming spending plan is to increase state funding for public school education by a total of $1.8 billion, which includes a bump in pay for pre-K and K-12 teachers. His proposal for a $12.8 billion school budget next year follows an increase of $1.2 billion in public education last year when an extra $840 million went toward health insurance costs for school employees.

In December, Kemp also announced his plans to use $330 million of a multi-billion surplus to provide the one-time $1,000 bonus for state employees.

On Thursday, Kemp also appeared to reaffirm his support for passing a school voucher bill in 2024, though he did not mention any specifics. Last year, a number of Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in blocking a bill that would have offered $6,500 for families in Georgia’s lowest 25% of performing districts to educate their children at home or in private schools.

School voucher opponents claim that they result in a loss of resources for local public education that exceeds the amount diverted by the state from local school districts.

Kemp also put in a plug for the controversial Atlanta Public Safety Training Center critics call “Cop City” being built by the city of Atlanta and for the state providing first-time permanent funding for public safety in K-12 schools.

Kemp also touted earlier initiatives to provide $5 billion in tax relief to taxpayers through refunds, lowering income tax rates, and gas tax suspensions.

“Instead of expanding the size and scope of government, we’re putting state dollars to work in targeted, effective ways to recruit, retain, and thank employees in vital roles from corrections officers to caseworkers,” he said.

2024 State of the State leads off-election year

Kemp’s 2024 address comes in a pivotal year for state and federal politics. While the term-limited governor is in the second year of his final four-year term, the entire 236-member Legislature, the U.S. presidency, and Georgia’s 14 congressional districts are all up for election this year.

Kemp and his fellow Republican lawmakers have been criticized by Democratic legislators for not fully expanding Medicaid as a way to address Georgia’s having one of the highest uninsured rates in health care.

Kemp defended on Thursday the improvements in health care since the passage of the Patients First Act in 2019 that have contributed to lowering insurance premiums and increasing the number of insurance providers in the majority of the state.

He also said Thursday that he’s confident that Georgians will continue to support conservative leadership when they head to the ballot box in 2024.

“Georgia is succeeding because we have charted our own path, rejected the failed policies of Washington D.C., and worked together to put our citizens first,” Kemp said. “But I believe the worst thing we could do is call it a day and coast through what is certain to be a contentious election year.”

Democrats take aim at Kemp’s budget

Georgia Democrats criticized the governor for stockpiling taxpayer money instead of boosting services, building up more than $16 billion between the rainy-day fund and undesignated surplus.

The governor has proposed spending $1.9 billion of the $11 billion undesignated surplus on one-time expenditures, such as the proposed new medical and dental schools. For the first time in recent years, the state’s capital budget will not be funded through bonds and debt, which will save interest costs in the long run.

The budget process is also kicking off as state tax collections are showing signs of slowing. State revenues for the first half of this budget year were down 2.5% as of last month without fuel tax collections included. The gas tax was suspended earlier.

Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler said the pile of cash represents a “disinvestment” in state services.

“The truth is we have all this money leftover in the budget because we took it away from state agencies, leaving them underfunded, undermanned, and unable to respond to George’s most serious problems,” the Stone Mountain Democrat said at a press conference following the governor’s speech.

Rep. Sam Park, a Lawrenceville Democrat, said the money should be used to fully expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and that more funding should be devoted to housing and public education, particularly early childhood education.

And Rep. Billy Mitchell, who is the House minority caucus chairman, rebutted one of the governor’s big applause lines from his speech where Kemp said the state of Georgia is “strong, growing and prosperous because we trust our citizens more than we trust the government.”

“If this were true, we would trust our citizen women to make their own health care choices; we would trust our citizen doctors to do the job that they have been trained for. We would trust our citizen teachers to teach,” Mitchell said.

Georgia Recorder Deputy Editor Jill Nolin contributed to this report