Perdue's deal

Perdue details budget deal she offered the legislature.

Posted 6:17 p.m. Jun 27, 2012 — Updated 6:20 p.m. Jun 27, 2012

By

Mark Binker

When House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger called on Gov. Bev Perdue to sign the budget, they alluded to a set of suggested changes she had offered. In exchange for those changes, Tillis and Berger said, Perdue would not have stood in the way of the budget taking effect.

“Gov. Perdue invited Speaker Tillis and Sen. Berger to a meeting last Thursday in an effort to reach a bipartisan compromise that would increase our investment in North Carolina’s schools," said Perdue spokeswoman Chris Mackey. "Under their budget, schools would receive $190 million less next year than they received this year. The Governor didn’t even ask the General Assembly to meet her halfway, she just asked legislators to do a little bit better for our children’s future.”

Republicans say they've put $250 million more into education.

Here's how Perdue's deal would have broken down:

Reduce the “Flex Cut” to K-12 schools – $76 million
N.C. Pre-K – $10 million
Pre-K and K assessments – $5 million
Eugenics victims – $5 million
Probation officers – $3.4 million
HAVA – $600,000

TOTAL: $100 million

Perdue asked lawmakers to take that money from reserve funds. Berger and Tillis said they declined to do that because that money was needed in case the state's Medicaid program spent more than budgeted.

Suggest A Correction