Budget gets a bipartisan vote, but Cooper says it ‘slaps’ teachers in the face

The North Carolina Senate passed its two-year spending plan with raises, tax cuts, new regulations and projects.

The passage of Medicaid expansion also depends on the budget becoming law. With veto-proof Republican supermajorities in both the Senate and House, the final budget will hinge on negotiations between the two chambers.

The Senate passed its budget 37-12 on Thursday with bipartisan support, after a preliminary 36-13 vote a day earlier when seven Democrats voted with Republicans.

Here are eight things to know about what the Senate wants and what happens next.

Raises

Raises proposed by the Senate for most state employees and teachers are much lower than the House’s plan. But 10 statewide elected officials would receive raises well beyond what rank-and-file receive. The Senate budget calls for a 5% raise over two years for most state employees and an average 4.5% raise for teachers over two years, including step increases, across the state. Other public education staff would receive 5% over two years.

Retired state employees would get 1% bonuses each of the next two years. Starting teacher pay would be increased to $39,000. However, the governor would get a 22.5% raise, and the rest of the Council of State would also get significant pay hikes, The News & Observer previously reported.

The Senate’s raises for state employees and teachers are well below what the House’s budget calls for, or what the State Employees Association of North Carolina, North Carolina Association of Educators, rank-and-file state workers and Democrats have proposed.

Taxes

Traditionally, the Senate wants more tax cuts than the House, and this session is no different. The Senate budget would accelerate the tax cuts that Republicans put in previous budgets. The personal income tax rate would be reduced, starting in 2024 with a 4.5% tax rate, then dropping to 3.99% in 2025 and on down until it drops to 2.49% in 2030.

Sen. Brent Jackson, an Autryville Republican and head budget writer, said during the floor debate that speeding up the tax cuts would “ease inflationary pains.”

Urban hospitals targeted

Hospitals in the state’s 12 largest counties could be shut down if they don’t meet a savings target set by lawmakers to cut costs to the State Health Plan, which serves state employees and teachers. It would require “urban hospitals to reduce healthcare costs to the citizens of this State as a requirement for hospital licensure,” the budget proposal states. The counties include Wake, Mecklenburg, Durham, Buncombe and New Hanover. Hospitals affected also include the UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, The N&O previously reported.

Cynthia Charles, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Healthcare Association, which represents hospitals and opposes the proposal, said it would put health care at risk for more than 10 million North Carolinians. Charles also said the proposal looks like “government intrusion into private business, which we believe is bad for North Carolina and a dangerous precedent.”

Family planning funds blocked

A provision in the Senate budget would block funding of some family planning services to prevent pregnancies. If a health provider also performs abortions, no state money would be allowed to be used “to renew or extend existing contracts or enter into new contracts for the provision of family planning services, pregnancy prevention activities, or adolescent parenting programs.”

Funding cut, added at UNC

The UNC School of Law, School of Government and School of Business would take funding hits if the Senate budget becomes law.

The budget would redirect the money. It would also create a new School for Civic Life and Leadership that would house the university’s Program for Public Discourse, which was criticized in its planning stages over alleged conservative leanings, influences and funding sources, The N&O previously reported.

African American monument at state Capitol revived

The long-stalled African American monument on the Capitol grounds would receive $3 million. Put off for years, the project could now come to fruition.

There is no monument at the historic Capitol in the center of downtown Raleigh that recognizes the contributions of African American people in North Carolina. Schoolchildren are the most frequent visitors to the Capitol. The money was also in Cooper’s proposed budget, but not the House’s budget.

Medicaid expansion will kick in

Earlier this legislative session, the governor and leaders of both chambers from both parties celebrated the end to a decades-long impasse over expanding Medicaid. The past year had seen negotiations between the House and Senate.

A final budget bill would trigger the implementation of expanding health insurance to hundreds of thousands more North Carolinians. There will also be a federal bonus for the state.

“After this budget becomes law, Medicaid expansion will go live,” said Sen. Ralph Hise, chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee and a Spruce Pine Republican.

Private school scholarships

The Senate took the budget vote the same day the House passed a bill expanding the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which uses state funds for private school vouchers. The budget would lift the cap on vouchers, making them available to all North Carolina families, with lower-income families receiving larger scholarships. Currently needs-based, the program is part of what supporters call the school choice movement, which lets public money follow the student beyond traditional public schools.

Gov. Cooper calls it a ‘disaster’ and ‘slap in the face’ to teachers

Senate Republicans have a supermajority of 30; Democrats have 20 senators. Unlike in previous years, Republicans do not need a Democrat to vote with them — though seven did. Democrats tried to run several amendments ranging from higher raises to military veterans’ benefits to child-care subsidies — but those failed, were withdrawn or replaced by a Republican amendment.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper called the Senate budget “a historic disaster for public education.” He addressed the private school scholarships and raises in the budget for elected officials and teachers.

”It fails to fund basic needs and will force school leaders to cut everything from bus routes to courses even though North Carolina can afford to do much more,” Cooper said in a statement Wednesday.

“Despite thousands of teacher vacancies, the Senate budget slaps veteran teachers with 15+ years in the classroom in the face with only a $250 raise spread over two years. But it rewards statewide politicians with big raises of more than 15-20%. That’s insulting, and it’s wrong,” Cooper said.

He is among those statewide politicians who would receive a big raise.

“Public schools educate 8 in 10 of our state’s school-age children but the Senate budget starves them, instead offering billions of dollars in private school vouchers that millionaires can use to send their children to private academies.”

What’s next

The Senate plans to take its final vote on the budget on Thursday morning, sending it into into the conference process, in which the Senate and House work out a compromise budget. That will likely take a few weeks, followed by a vote to pass the final budget to send to the governor. That could happen by mid-June, Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters after the session Wednesday. The fiscal year begins July 1.