RALEIGH – Perhaps it’s appropriate the 2019 General Assembly adjourned on Halloween, because the inability of the legislature and the governor to come to terms on a budget for the next two years leaves North Carolina with a sense of foreboding.

Here’s where we stand: The legislature passed a budget that included average raises of 3.9% for K-12 teachers over two years, 2% over two years for NC community college employees and 1% over two years for University of North Carolina System employees.

Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the budget in June,¹ saying it fell short of the Medicaid expansion and teacher raises he sought. Educator raises also fell well short of the raises approved for other state employees. 

Though the state House voted Sept. 11 to override the governor’s veto, the Senate couldn’t muster the votes to do so.

On Thursday, both the House and Senate passed a bill that would provide the same raises that were in the vetoed budget – if the governor signs the new bill. If he doesn’t, educators could wind up with no raises in a year when the state had a budget surplus of nearly $900 million. 

In the same bill, legislative leaders also offered to grant a 4.4% raise over two years to K-12 teachers, 4% over two years to community college employees and 4% over two years to UNC employees – but only if the governor’s budget veto is overridden.²  (UNC employees, meanwhile, have received legislative pay raises of 1.5% or less since 2008-09.³)

Cooper criticized the bill on Twitter and is expected to veto it.⁴

Some Democrats in the state House insisted legislators shouldn’t adjourn without addressing Medicaid expansion – 37 states have already expanded their Medicaid programs.

“We are leaving half a million of our citizens without health care that we are not even considering,” declared Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Haywood.

Legislators will return November 13 for a limited session to address redistricting, appointments and conference reports.

Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, D-Wake, held out hope that the intervening two weeks offer an opportunity to resolve the remaining budget issues – “a little break to address the issues that people sent us to do … soon to be eleven months ago.”

If not, given North Carolina’s health and education needs, it will be a crying shame that the governor and legislature couldn’t come to agreement on how to meet those needs.

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¹ https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article232048767.html.
² https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article236823563.html; https://webservices.ncleg.net/ViewBillDocument/2019/6787/0/S354-PCCS35356-MM-3, pp. 14-23.
³ https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2019/07/budget-education/.
⁴https://www.wral.com/ncga-approves-republican-school-raise-bill-as-budget-fight-continues/18735808/.