Conference committee members for HB 68, the 2026 Georgia general budget, reported they have reached a compromise and said they were prepared to sign the conference spending report.

Jim Hatch, a conferee, said the governor “did bring $50,000,000 this morning to make this work.” Hatch and other conferees described the package as the result of negotiation between the House and Senate and said it funds priorities across the state while relying on cash rather than bond financing.

The report, as described by conferees, returns funding for the Promise Scholarship to the governor’s requested level and moves mental-health and school-security funding “much more in the direction of the House,” according to one conferee. Speakers said literacy initiatives previously championed by Senator Billy Hickman and Speaker Burns — and supported by First Lady Dale Burns — are included at the levels the House submitted. Conferees also cited targeted investments the governor sought, including funding for the MBT STEM building at the University of North Georgia and additional resources for foster care and out-of-home care administered by the Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS).

Conferees said the package will not rely on bond financing and that routine judicial pay increases will start in a January timeframe. On corrections, they reported deliberations to secure funding for the Department of Corrections and for measures related to contraband interdiction, including curbing unauthorized cell-phone use inside facilities. Hatch said they had contacted the corrections commissioner, Tyrone, multiple times to obtain necessary numbers to finalize corrections funding. Conferees also said they had spent time addressing pharmacy-payment disparities so that payments would be “level” regardless of pharmacy size when dealing with the state.

Speakers emphasized the long negotiation process and credited staff support, including the House Budget and Research Office led by director Christine Murdoch and the governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (OPB). One conferee said the chambers had been “about $383,000,000 apart” at one point during negotiations before narrowing the gap.

The conference meeting transcript records conferees preparing to sign the report but does not record a roll-call vote on the conference report within the provided excerpt. Details such as specific dollar amounts for some projects (for example, the MBT STEM building, Promise Scholarship line-item totals, and foster-care increases) were not specified in the excerpted remarks.

Conferees said they would release the full conference report for members to review; the transcript ends with conferees indicating readiness to sign the document.