NC budget has bipartisan backing, some worry raises are not enough

A state budget proposal that would boost average teacher pay about 10% over the next two years moved forward Wednesday in the North Carolina House of Representatives with bipartisan support, as well as Democratic complaints that the plan doesn’t go far enough.

The House’s Republican leadership described the budget in glowing terms. It includes the largest teacher and state employee raises in years, a small tax cut and enough left at the budget’s bottom line to help the state weather an economic downturn, if one is on the horizon.

“Historic funding levels,” House budget writer Donny Lambeth said, exhorting Democrats to back a plan written by the GOP majority. “There are historic funding levels in here for so many programs.”

Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, wanted more aggressive investments this year, while state coffers are flush from federal grants and years of revenue collections that exceeded predictions. Democrats also complained about school policy changes Republicans tucked into the plan, including a new procedure for parents who want to ban books from classrooms.

Lambeth, R-Forsyth, said bipartisan support is important as House Republicans prepare to negotiate with Senate Republicans, who called Tuesday for larger tax cuts than the House.

“If you don’t like [the House budget], you may not like the Senate version that comes back to us either,” Lambeth cautioned Democrats. “This budget is oozing with help, help, help. … The largest teacher raise since 2014!”

Rep. Wesley Harris, D-Mecklenburg, said the proposal “does not come close to what the people of North Carolina deserve.” The raises sound good, Harris said, until you factor in the last two years of high inflation.

That change in purchasing power means this budget is like someone losing $10, then “we’re giving you back $5 and we’re asserting that you should be grateful for our generosity,” Harris said.

For example: the state’s community college system would get $25 million to recruit and retain instructors in key workforce development courses, like nursing and welding. And bus drivers would get an extra 2% raise from the state in the coming year, on top of the across-the-board raises planned for all state employees.

Retired state employees would get 1% cost of living adjustments in each of the budget’s two years, which would be the first time in many years lawmakers approved permanent increases as opposed to bonuses that only last a year.

State High Patrol troopers would get 17.5% pay boosts. The patrol’s new starting salary would be $55,000, a year, and by year 6 troopers would make $80,252 under this budget.

Correctional officers, State Bureau of Investigation officers, Alcohol Law Enforcement officers and state probation and parole officers would get raises as well but make significantly less than troopers, a point of contention for some in those positions.

House Budget writers dropped plans from this budget to move the State Crime Lab, which is overseen now by the state’s attorney general, to the State Bureau of Investigation. That language was replaced by a study that will delve the idea deeper first.

Senate Republicans said Wednesday afternoon that their budget, which will come together over the next few weeks, would accelerate that further, dropping the rate to 4.5% for this tax year and taking rate cuts further over the next three years than once planned.

Instead of hitting a 3.99% floor in 2027, Senate Republicans proposed a glide path to a 2.49% personal income tax rate by 2027.

That includes tinkering the House budget proposes on education policy. GOP lawmakers inserted several pages of changes, including new transparency requirements that require teachers to post teaching materials online well in advance and a new, statewide, process for parents to challenge books and other classroom materials.

“It’s almost like micromanaging our schools,” said Rep. Gloristine Brown, D-Pitt.

Rep. John Torbett, who chaired an off-session study committee on K-12 education, said parents asked for these sorts of changes over and over.

“They want to be able to see exactly what their children are being taught,” said Torbett, R-Gaston.

Rep. Julie Von Haefen, D-Wake and a former PTA president in the county, said schools already work closely with parents.

“I’ve been in schools all over the state and I’ve seen how families and parents have always been welcomed into the school every step of the way,” she said.

There’s also language in this budget creating a new commission, largely appointed by General Assembly leaders, to develop the standard course of study for North Carolina's public schools. This commission would submit that plan to the State Board of Education, which would have limited power to change the proposal but would keep the final authority to adopt its own course of study.

"Transparency is one thing,” Rep. Amber Baker, D-Forsyth, said in a doomed attempt to remove this from the budget. “Overreach is another.”

This budget also forbids Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration from implementing a cap and trade regiment that would limit carbon dioxide emissions from the state’s power sector beyond what’s in law now.contributing to climate change. Republicans criticized it Wednesday as a new tax on Duke Energy and other power companies and pushed aside Democratic efforts to remove the language.