Cooper signs employee raise bills, vetoes Medicaid transformation

The governor signed a string of pay raise bills Friday and vetoed legislation that would have put nearly half a billion dollars toward major reforms in the state's Medicaid program.

"Health care is an area where North Carolina needs us to do more, and to do it comprehensively," Cooper said in his statement.

Republican General Assembly leaders reacted to the news with some incredulity.

"On one hand he signs four mini-funding bills related to law enforcement and state employee salaries, but then he vetoes a bill years in the making to streamline the state’s Medicaid system because he says that he doesn’t like these mini funding bills," state Sen. Ralph Hise said in a statement. "Even he must realize how absurd and nonsensical this looks."

Speaker of the House Tim Moore said blocking Medicaid transformation "harms collaborative efforts among state lawmakers and the Governor’s administration officials to effectively reform some of the largest public programs in North Carolina."

Most of the bills Cooper signed Friday advance parts of the GOP budget, but vetoing them might have been politically untenable. The governor has tried to use leverage on the budget to push Medicaid expansion, which would provide taxpayer funded health insurance to hundreds of thousands of people in the state. Republicans have the legislative numbers to block expansion and other Cooper priorities, but not enough to overturn his vetoes without help from Democrats.

“The fact of the matter is Gov. Cooper is perfectly willing to grind state government to a halt over one issue, but he lacks the political courage to go the distance and veto popular salary increases for state employees," Hise, R-Mitchell, said in his statement.

The governor used Friday's vetoes to highlight a hole that remains despite the mini-budget bills: Other than the budget he vetoed, nothing has passed yet funding raises for teachers or other school employees. Cooper has pushed for higher raises there and criticized the GOP majority's plan to roll back business taxes, saying that money would be better spent on schools.

They've also noted that Cooper vetoed the last two teacher raises in a previous budget fight, though he was overriden by what was then a Republican super majority, and has now vetoed plans for a sixth and seventh raise. Cooper has repeatedly proposed larger teacher raises.

The governor also signed House Bill 554 Friday, which tinkers with funeral home licensing rules.

One of the employee pay bills Cooper signed Friday raised his salary, like other state employees, about 2.5 percent. Cooper said he donated the increase ($3,682) to Donors Choose, which gives teachers money to buy classroom supplies. The bill sets the governor's salary this year at $150,969 and for next year at $154,743.

The budget bills Cooper signed Friday are:

The Medicaid transformation bill he vetoed is House Bill 555.