What Cooper, Berger and Moore are saying on the eve of NC budget negotiations

On the eve of October, three months into the new fiscal year, North Carolina’s budget negotiations are finally getting somewhere.

This week, negotiations are expected to begin between the three most powerful politicians in the state: Gov. Roy Cooper, Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore. Cooper is a Democrat, and Berger and Moore are Republicans, as are the majorities in the House and Senate.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly and Cooper never agreed on a full state budget in 2019 or 2020, so the pressure is on all of them this time to get a budget signed into law. A new comprehensive budget likely means raises for tens of thousands of teachers and other state employees, tax cuts, broadband expansion, infrastructure upgrades and major construction projects across the state.

Here’s what each is saying about how it could go.

Republican Senate leader Phil Berger:

Berger said that the House and Senate negotiators on the budget have already come to an agreement on the tax cuts package they want in the plan. But there are some disagreements that come to just Berger and Moore themselves to decide — which could include raises — and that’s what they’ll resolve before sending the budget to Cooper this week.

Berger told The News & Observer that he and Moore planned to work those out this past weekend. Neither he nor Moore want to announce the chambers’ tax plan before negotiations with Cooper. Republicans want to lower the individual and corporate income tax rates, but originally had competing plans on how much and how fast to do so.

Cooper has been at odds with Moore and Berger in past years over teacher raises, Medicaid expansion and more. But earlier this year, Berger said the three men wanted to try something different this time, given that voters chose to keep their divided government in 2020, reelecting a Democratic governor and majority Republican legislature.

“At least for me, it appears to be just a realization that there are things that would have been better if we’d been able to get through to a budget,” he said.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper:

Cooper recently told The N&O that he’d like to sign a budget as quickly as possible, but doesn’t know exactly when that will be.

“We have had conversations and have had staff level conversations during this time, so yes they are negotiating with each other but also we are ready to move once they do present a budget to us,” Cooper said this past week.

Cooper, Berger and Moore have maintained this year that they will change the process for the budget. Instead of passing a budget and sending it to the governor to sign — or veto, as he did last time — they’ll negotiate with him during the conference budget process.

Cooper called it a “unique situation” and because they haven’t done it this way before, “it’s hard to predict what will happen.”

“I just hope that all of us can approach this in good faith and that we can find a way forward and realize that there have to be compromises on each side to be able to get what we want to get. I’ve said time and time again my priorities are getting North Carolinians covered in health care, make sure we invest in a sound basic education for our children and making sure we pay our educators more. I have concerns about tax cuts,” he said.

None of them know how long the process will take — it could take days before they meet in person, much less reach an agreement.

“We’ll do it as expeditiously as we can,” Cooper said.

The governor stopped short of saying if there were any potential dealbreakers.

“I think all three of us have maintained that all issues are on the table, and I think that’s important as we go into these conversations,” he said.

Cooper had a more favorable response to the House budget, which included higher teacher raises and restored master’s degree pay for teachers, than the Senate budget.

Republican House Speaker Tim Moore:

Moore is optimistic about the plan.

“While we all have some pretty very public disagreements on issues, I will tell you whenever we meet they are always very polite, very cordial, frankly very pleasant meetings. Both of them are good men. I like both of them. We all have disagreements, particularly [Berger and I] have a lot of disagreements with the governor. But we all have a job to do and will work together as best we can,” he said.

Moore said that after he and Berger send Cooper their proposed budget, the governor’s staff will go through the budget and likely have several questions they’ll have to sort out before meeting.

“Once we get that stuff out of the way then we’ll find out where the differences are, and then that’s what we’ll sit down and do it,” Moore said.

If there’s no budget deal

The private negotiations between Cooper, Moore and Berger before revealing the final budget bill doesn’t necessarily mean they will accomplish their goal.

“If we do reach an impasse, at that point we’ll look at our other options,” Moore said.

“We passed the budget in the House by a veto-proof majority. The Senate did as well. The question always is, will those Democrats stick with you in an actual override? In the House, I feel comfortable we’ll have those votes. I feel very comfortable. ... Candidly, I have communicated that point that I just made to you, directly to the governor.”

In 2019, the House successfully overrode Cooper’s budget veto, but the Senate did not. Instead, a series of small budget bills passed, and were signed by Cooper.

“We feel confident we can get a budget done alone, but we want to work with the governor. We want to do that,” Moore said.

Berger has told reporters this year that the piecemeal budget bills are a possibility if it comes down to that.

For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.

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