ATLANTA – The Georgia House overwhelmingly passed a $40.5 billion mid-year state budget Thursday containing hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending aimed largely at helping victims of Hurricane Helene recover from the devastating storm.

The mid-year budget, which now moves to the state Senate, sailed through the House 166-3.

House lawmakers added $197 million to the $615 million Gov. Brian Kemp requested in relief for residents, business owners, farmers, and timber producers who suffered losses when Helene struck South Georgia and the eastern half of the state last September.

“This will just address initial needs,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Hatchet, R-Dublin, said of the $250 million included in the mid-year budget to help timber producers affected by Helene, up from the $100 million the governor recommended. “I’m sure we’ll have additional legislation.”

Another priority of the mid-year budget is public safety. The spending plan calls for hiring more than 400 correctional officers to staff a state prison system criticized last fall in a federal audit for failing to protect inmates from widespread violence.

The mid-year budget also would boost funding for body cameras and tasers to help those correctional officers maintain order.

House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, questioned whether two modular prison units the state Department of Corrections plans to construct will provide enough security. The state plans to move inmates into those units temporarily to make room for projects fixing crumbling infrastructure in existing prisons.

“They are very sturdy,” Hatchett responded. “The concrete reinforcement and insulation of doors and locks are the same ones we use (in the existing prisons).”

The mid-year budget also includes $501.7 million to increase surface water supplies in Coastal Georgia to supply the huge Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant now under construction west of Savannah. A new water intake on the Savannah River is expected to produce 20 million gallons a day by 2030.

Another $250 million would go toward low-interest loans to help finance water and wastewater projects across the state.

The Georgia Department of Transportation would receive more than $500 million for improvements along the state’s interstate corridors.

The House supported Kemp’s request for an additional $50 million for school-security grants, with each school in Georgia getting more than $68,000 to spend as local school district officials see fit.

Another $22 million would go to accommodate the increasing numbers of foster children needing shelter. Hatchett said the state’s ultimate goal is eliminating the “hoteling” of foster kids in Georgia.

Financially struggling hospitals, many of which pitched in to help victims of Hurricane Helene, would get $35 million in one-time funds to help shore up their bottom lines.

Overall, the mid-year budget would increase state spending by $4.4 billion above the fiscal 2025 budget the General Assembly passed last spring. Of that amount, $2.7 billion would come from the state’s massive $16 billion surplus.

House Speaker Jon Burns said the House was determined to pass a mid-year budget as early as possible in this year’s session in order to make the funding available for disaster relief and other vital needs. The mid-year budget, which covers state spending through June 30, was the first bill to reach the House floor this year.

“We’re upholding our commitment here in the House,” said Burns, R-Newington. “We hope our friends across the hall (the Senate) will get the budget out and get it out timely.”