Georgia Needs a Moral Budget

FPL Press Conference: Ahead of Georgia House Vote, Faith Leaders Demand a Moral Budget

In partnership with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute

Remarks by the Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda, Rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church (Savannah) and Missioner for Racial Justice in the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia

Delivered on March 2, 2021

Georgia has cut state funding for education, health care, and social safety net programs steadily over the last several years. As a priest and pastor in Savannah for more than half a decade, serving alongside colleagues throughout south Georgia, I have seen the cost of these budget cuts. Churches and non-profit organizations are trying desperately to fill in the gaps of our broken economic system, by providing charitable aid and programs for homeless and poor residents. But we are under-equipped to serve Georgians on such a large scale. Only our government has the capacity to reallocate funds to help those in greatest need. Our General Assembly needs to undo these cuts and reinvest in the people of Georgia, especially the most vulnerable. I specifically call on the General Assembly to increase spending on education, health care, and social safety net programs.

With respect, we should all be ashamed by the rate of poverty in our state, especially the rate of child poverty. Based on statistics from 2019, over 65% of all public school students in Georgia qualified for free or reduced lunch. More students than ever do not have access to those lunches now because of the pandemic. Many children do not have access to high-speed internet, which is essential for online schooling, but also necessary for ordinary education in the 21st century. Our teachers are struggling to maintain quality educational environments with students in-person, online, and mixed classrooms. Our educators are being asked to do more than they were ever prepared for during one of the most trying times in our nation’s history. We cannot morally justify looking at those facts and statistics, those real human lives, and cutting the education budget any further. We need to increase spending on our children, our teachers, and our future. We need to provide more money for our schools, for online infrastructure, and for the children who will one day lead this state.

We also need to address the cuts to health care, not just in the last year, but in the last decade. Our state must fully expand Medicaid and receive all the federal funding that is available to provide as much health care coverage as possible to our residents during this global pandemic. This is the absolute worst time for us to consider cutting public spending on health. People are dying from coronavirus and every other ailment that was already out there, and many of these deaths are preventable if people could afford to see a doctor. Not only is this a moral problem; it’s also a public health problem. Viruses and diseases don’t care whether someone is poor or rich. Our society can only be as healthy as the least healthy among us, particularly when dealing with airborne viruses. So it benefits every Georgian (and really every human being) to ensure that everyone has adequate, affordable health care coverage as we combat the novel coronavirus.

Finally, we need to address cuts to social safety net programs. I regularly meet with people in Savannah who are struggling to find their next meal for themselves or their children and to keep a roof over their heads. Our church helps people cover expenses like these where we can, but, again, we have far fewer resources at our disposal than the state government does. St. Matthew’s Church also supports several local non-profit organizations that serve homeless populations. But even our cumulative work is just a bandage on the gaping wound that is poverty and homelessness. The City of Savannah had a 21% poverty rate in 2019, and I imagine that figure has only risen since the COVID-19 pandemic. The same can be said for our homeless population, that was already growing rapidly before the pandemic. Our state must expand, not shrink funding to unemployment insurance, SNAP, WIC, and all the other programs that help people survive and live. We need to rid our minds of the racist and classist myths of the “welfare queen.” There is no statistically significant reason to fear people cheating these systems; the benefits greatly outweigh the costs and “risks.” These programs are often the only long-term, sustainable thing standing in the way of destitution for our neighbors.

Georgians are well-known for our kindness, hospitality, family values, and faith. Most of us grew up being taught to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31) and to live by Jesus’ Golden Rule: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). I can think of no better way to live into those values than to establish and bolster systems that support Georgia residents in their pursuit of quality public education, affordable healthcare, and economic stability. I implore our General Assembly and Governor to do all in their power to increase funding toward these life-saving and life-changing state programs. I’m no expert, but you might consider increasing taxes on rich corporations, increasing taxes on tobacco, and increasing spending from the Revenue Shortfall Reserve (the so-called “Rainy Day Fund”). I’m sure the Assembly can come up with more creative solutions when they put their minds to it. Just do whatever it takes. If we can do anything to help Georgia residents, our neighbors in need, it is our moral obligation to do so. People’s lives and futures hang in the balance.