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Meter keeps running on legislative session as budget stalemate drags on

Fiscal year 2020 in North Carolina is one-eighth over, and the state still doesn't have a budget. That doesn't stop lawmakers from collecting paychecks as the General Assembly's budget impasse with Gov. Roy Cooper drags on, however.

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By
Laura Leslie
, WRAL Capitol Bureau chief
RALEIGH, N.C. — Fiscal year 2020 in North Carolina is one-eighth over, and the state still doesn't have a budget. That doesn't stop lawmakers from collecting paychecks as the General Assembly's budget impasse with Gov. Roy Cooper drags on, however.
Republican House leaders have scheduled votes on a possible override of Cooper's veto of the $24 billion budget almost daily for more than five weeks, but an override vote still hasn't taken place.

House Speaker Tim Moore says he's working on getting the Democratic votes he needs for an override. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Darren Jackson insists Moore's mission will never succeed, and he and all but a few House Democrats sent Moore a letter to that effect this week.

Republicans are basically playing a numbers game, putting the override vote on the floor calendar every day in hopes that enough Democrats will be absent to allow them to get the override the votes they have.

"They're just paying for us to sit around and not talk to each other. Honestly, that's what's going on," said Jackson, D-Wake.

All the while, the costs of the legislative session are mounting.

The estimated cost of a day of session is between $40,000 and $50,000. Even at the lower end of that range, the cost of the standoff is now at about $1 million.

Some legislation is still moving, as lawmakers have sent the governor about a dozen bills this month. But most committees have stopped meeting, and the chambers rarely vote on more than a handful of bills a week.

Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, said a fix for pending layoffs at the state Department of Transportation will likely be next. DOT announced this week that it will have to lay off hundreds of temporary workers and contractors because major storms and litigation over highway corridors have left the agency short of cash.

"We have some transportation issues that are going to have to be addressed, coming up probably next week," Torbett said. "So, there is still a lot of work going on back scenes."

Meanwhile, no budget talks are being held between legislative leaders and Cooper, who swap news releases regularly bemoaning the lack of a budget and blaming the other side for not compromising.

"Taxpayers of the state want a budget – citizens want a budget – and we're working hard to deliver that budget," House Majority Leader John Bell said, adding that he expects Republicans will be able to override the budget veto.

Medicaid expansion is at the center of the stalemate: Cooper wants it part of any budget negotiation, and legislative leaders don't want it at all.

Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, said she doesn't think lawmakers have been busy enough to justify the cost. She said she thinks the state will expand Medicaid sooner or later anyway.

"There just seems to be this line in the sand that folks aren't willing to cross, but we're going to be there, so I just wish folks would like negotiate and make it happen," Harrison said.

Although the session is stretching out, it's still a long way from the record. The regular session in 2015 ran through the end of September.

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