NC Senate approves a budget while the standoff with the House continues

Sen. Ralph Hise and Senate leader Phil Berger talk after the Senate passes its budget (Photo: Lynn Bonner)

The state Senate pushed forward with its $31.4 billion proposed state budget Monday night with 27-19 vote, entrenching its stalemate with the House over state employee and teacher pay.

House and Senate Republicans disagree on how much the state should spend in the next fiscal year that begins on July 1. The House and Senate must agree on a budget before it goes to Gov. Roy Cooper.

The House approved a $31.7 billion budget proposal last week that adds an additional 1% to state employee raises, bringing them to 4%. The House budget also adds money for teacher raises to bring average salary bumps to 4.4%. It gives retired government employees a one-time 2% bonus.

The Senate budget proposal sticks to the 3% raises for state employees and teachers already baked into the budget approved last year, and it does not have the retiree bonus.

The House and Senate budgets agree on two high-profile items – money for childcare subsidies and for the extensive expansion of the private school voucher program. Last year, the legislature changed the voucher program rules to allow even the wealthiest families to use taxpayer money for private school tuition. Erasing the income threshold triggered an application boom.

After the budget vote, Senate leader Phil Berger suggested Republicans in his chamber were ready to end most of its legislative work this week, even without a spending agreement with their House counterparts.

The legislature passes budgets that cover two years, so there’s already a baseline spending agreement in place that lasts until July 2025.

“The provisions we have in that budget adjustment bill are things that would be nice to have, but I don’t think they’re necessary for the state to continue on a good trajectory,” Berger said.

The next legislative session begins early next year, and “If it’s necessary to make changes to the budget, we can act on them at that time,” he said.

Along those lines, Senate budget writers urged the House to approve the Senate budget and work on issues that need more attention next year.

“There is no reason this week we can’t take up this bill and pass it into law,” and talk about other issues later, said Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican and Senate budget committee co-chairman.

Hise made it clear that the $136.5 million in the Senate budget for childcare stabilization grants is a stop-gap measure meant to give legislators time to come up with a long-term solution. Federal stabilization grant money approved during the pandemic allowed childcare centers to increase staff salaries. With that federal money running out at the end of the month, childcare centers are facing a financial crisis that may force some to raise fees on families or close.

The Senate majority used parliamentary maneuvers to prevent debate on Democratic senators’ proposals to increase spending for childcare, education, Medicaid, state employee and teacher raises, and maternal health, to fund more jobs at the state Board of Elections, and to require a local referendum before tolls are charged to cross the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

“Our amendments aimed to correct significant oversights in the Republican budget, including the impending childcare cliff, education funding, and healthcare,” Senate Democratic leader Dan Blue said in a statement.

“The Republican supermajority’s refusal to consider any of our amendments is a clear indication of their unwillingness to invest in the future of our state,’ he said.

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