Georgia Tech and the University System of Georgia fared well in the 2006 General Assembly session.

Andrew J. Harris Jr., Georgia Tech's director of Government Relations, said, "The governor and the General Assembly made some significant investments in higher education this year that will pay big dividends in the future of our state."

In the final hours of the session March 30, lawmakers adopted most of the governor's budget recommendations for higher education and added a few of their own.
The budgets for fiscal years 2006 amended and 2007 include $4.9 million for the renovation of Georgia Tech's old civil engineering building and $38 million for its new nanotechnology research center.

Other Georgia Tech line items include $5 million to expand the Advanced Technology Development Center's seed capital fund to incubate companies in the bioscience industry, $5 million for nanotechnology infrastructure and $141,000 to establish a worker safety technology program to benefit the state's poultry industry.

Funds for the University System as a whole include a 4 percent average salary increase for faculty and staff, which will take effect in January 2007, and most of the formula funds needed to operate the system's 35 institutions.

Both the fiscal year 2006 amended budget and 2007 general budget now await the governor's signature before they become law.