Gov. Nathan Deal is projecting a deficit of $320 million for fiscal 2014. The state Constitution requires lawmakers to balance the budget each year. Fiscal experts told Democratic lawmakers at a hearing Monday that means the state will have to trim vital services again next year without additional revenue.

Deal’s 2013 spending plan is up about $900 million from the current fiscal year. But the added revenue only pays for the normal increases in government services.

Alan Essig of the non-partisan Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says the budget’s current size will keep the state treading water.

“It is just too small to do what the state needs to do," he said. "And this isn’t about putting more money in social programs or growing what government does. It’s about, are we making the investments we need so that Georgia can once again lead the nation in job growth?”

Essig says the state should consider closing loopholes to broaden the tax base.

Deal’s budget proposal for the fiscal year starting in June calls for two percent cuts at most state agencies. In past years, the cuts were much bigger. But Essig says, if nothing changes, the Governor will have to call for similar cuts next year.

Essig applauded aspects of Deal's 2013 budget, including funding for normal student enrollment growth. But he says the $900 million in increased revenue will only allow the state meet its basic obligations.

“If you look at the projections on student enrollment growth, projections on Medicare expenditures, projection on the department of corrections, normal enrollment growth of all the things the state does – all of those things is greater than the projected revenues, when you’re talking about revenue growing 4 or 5 or 6 percent," he said. "That’s the problem.”

Essig recommends the state revamp a cigarette tax proposal that a statewide tax reform council proposed two years ago.