When the General Assembly opened on Monday, legislators began with something almost inconceivable to their predecessors: A $16 billion surplus — a $5 billion rainy day fund plus $11 billion in unspent money from previous years.

The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute said in October that “Georgia’s surplus is a direct consequence of successive years of persistently low revenue estimates.”

The Associated Press said the same thing differently in an Oct. 16 article: “The State Accounting Office, in a Monday report, said Georgia ran a $5.3 billion surplus in the 2022 budget year ended June 30, even after spending $32.6 billion. Total state general fund receipts rose about $1 billion, or 3%. But because Gov. Brian Kemp has kept budgeting spending well below prior year revenues, the amount of surplus cash at the end of each year keeps rising.”

Now that we have all this money, what do we do with it?

Kemp has urged lawmakers to cut taxes. If the state has this kind of surplus, it doesn’t need revenue coming in at the rate it was before.

We like a tax cut as much as anybody, and Kemp’s logic makes sense when viewed by itself.

But here’s another thought: Kemp has touted Georgia’s ranking among the top states for businesses — often the very top, depending on whose rankings you look at — but the state is ranked No. 41 out of 50 in health care with nine hospitals closing since 2010. The state’s schools have made great strides in recent years, but they remain mediocre compared to the rest of the country. Affordable housing is scarce, and homelessness is becoming more visible throughout Georgia.

Could the state use its surplus to address some of its longstanding challenges?

Wherever there’s a pile of money, people gather with their hands out. The state could spend all that surplus in a year if it tried, and it wouldn’t necessarily have much to show. No one wants that.

But if the state could reverse the trend of closing hospitals, wouldn’t that be a good use for the money?

If it could grow the number of physicians serving the state, wouldn’t that be a good use for the money?

Or continuing improvements at schools?

Or fixing infrastructure that cities and counties have allowed to deteriorate for lack of funds?

Taxes collected from the citizens are meant to be used to make the citizens’ lives better, not hoarded.

We look forward to seeing what the Legislature proposes to do with it.