Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposed $19.3 billion amended fiscal year 2013 budget could be passed on to the state Senate by the end of the day Friday.

That’s the word from Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, who was optimistic about the chances of the budget being sent to the House floor this week.

“There will be very few changes to the governor’s budget that he submitted,” Dempsey said. “Really, through most of the whole budget there is very little wiggle room. For the most part, the House is predominantly in agreement with it.”

The supplemental budget, represented by House Bill 105, goes from the Appropriations Committee to the Rules Committee for scheduling for a full House vote. Then it is sent over to the state Senate for consideration.

Dempsey, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on human resources and sits of the Rules Committee, said they should have everything wrapped up on the House side by the end of the week.

Tuesday saw Dempsey’s subcommittee, as well as all other House Appropriations subcommittees, finalize their recommended appropriations in preparation for today’s full House Appropriations Committee meeting.

“There were very few changes under the five agencies that we have oversight of,” Dempsey said. “The governor presented a very conservative amended budget and there is very little opposition to it.”

Dempsey said the fiscal year budget gets a mid-year amendments because a lot of expenses are projected when the budget is first proposed. Those are aligned to a more realistic number when January rolls around.

GA General Assembly