Power Breakfast: More state cuts on way, UPS, SunTrust, MARTA, home sales, bank bonuses

More state jobs cuts are on the way.

Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered already slimmed-down Georgia agencies this week to take another 4 percent spending cut starting in August because the state’s new budget relies on federal stimulus money that may never come, AJC staffer James Salzer reports.

Perdue exempted K-12 schools from the latest cut, but not the university system. It will affect  agencies that hand out driver’s licenses, educate college students and run parks, prisons and health care programs that cover more than a 1 million Georgians. Those agencies employ about 90,000 people, Salzer writes.

The move, which will save the state $25.5 million per month, is a preemptive one, the governor’s office told Salzer. Congress could still come through with the stimulus money before the end of the year. But it’s far from certain.

Perdue and lawmakers approved a budget for this fiscal year, which began July 1, that counted on about $375 million in extra federal Medicaid stimulus money. But conservative Democrats and Republicans in Congress stalled the funding, arguing that it added to the burgeoning federal deficit, Salzer reports.

Also in the AJC:

• UPS profit nearly doubles
• SunTrust, Synovus in red, but improving
• Pace of Georgia bank failures expected to rise
• SunTrust unit fined for improper trades
• Existing home prices down, but sales up
• Some MARTA layoffs: Drastic or long overdue?
• Marchers rally for mortgage help

In other media:

• Federal report faults banks on huge bonuses
• Key ships ordered to leave spill site before storm
• Wal-Mart radio tags to track clothing
• World shares up amid confidence in recovery