Gov. Sonny Perdue said he will propose a constitutional amendment next year that would give Georgia new power to contract with faith-based organizations to provide services to the needy.
Georgia already has contracts with hundreds of such groups but the contracts may be on shaky legal ground and subject to challenge because of language in the current constitution.
The language is "a relic of bygone religious bigotry," Perdue said in a speech Tuesday.
The state chairman of the Christian Coalition of Georgia, Sadie Fields, called it "a wonderful idea," and leaders of both parties voiced support.
But Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, called the proposal "misguided," adding, "It shows a lack of understanding of why our founders set up a nation to keep the government out of religion."
Perdue said the current state constitution includes language that hearkens back to a national anti-Catholic movement of the 1850s, barring the use of state money in aid of churches or sectarian institutions.
The state already has seen some of its contracts with faith-based groups challenged and invalidated, he said, and others could face similar challenges.
He said the state's provision probably is unconstitutional in view of a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
A constitutional amendment would need the approval of two-thirds of the members of the House and Senate, then would be submitted to the voters for approval or rejection.
Perdue faces a continuing state budget crunch but did not say how much of the state's social service delivery program he would like to farm out to faith-based groups if the legal barrier is removed.