State agencies in Georgia are being asked to cut up to $3.8 billion from their budgets to absorb the economic downturn caused by coronavirus. The request is being made to all areas of the state budget with no exceptions.

According to sources, the deep cuts to Georgia’s roughly $27.5 billion original 2020 fiscal year budget lawmakers passed last year come as tax revenues are expected to plummet after weeks of statewide business closures and stay-at-home orders prompted by the virus.

In a memo penned Friday, budget leaders in the General Assembly and Gov. Brian Kemp’s office directed state agencies to propose how they will cut their budgets by 14%. Those proposals are due May 20, around the time lawmakers are set to resume in-person committee meetings. The memo was signed by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery.

State agencies were already facing budget cuts of 6% ordered by Kemp for the upcoming 2021 fiscal year, which starts July 1. Lawmakers also have largely approved 4% cuts to the state’s revised 2020 fiscal year budget that Kemp requested.

Negotiations between lawmakers over those cuts dominated the 2020 legislative session before it was suspended in mid-March. Facing the 6% cuts, agencies managed to trim costs largely by leaving vacant staff positions unfilled, upgrading technology and scaling back work-related travel.

Some agencies, particularly those dealing with mental health services and criminal justice initiatives, raised concerns that even the 6% cuts would be tough to implement without some service changes and staff furloughs.

The upcoming cuts would also include public schools and Medicaid spending, which were excluded from the most recent round of 6% cuts ordered by the governor.

Critics of the spending cuts have called for state lawmakers to instead raise revenues via taxes and by ending certain tax exemptions.

The General Assembly is poised to resume the 2020 legislative session in mid-June with the budget as the main focus.