Source: Senate budget includes bigger raises for state employees, less for teachers
The Senate budget proposal set for release early next week will have higher raises for state employees than its House counterpart or Gov. Roy Cooper's budget, but less for teachers, a source familiar with the plan said Friday.
Posted — UpdatedMost state employees would get a 2.5 percent pay bump in each of the next two fiscal years under the plan, the source said, "substantially more than the average raise for teachers."
Exact figures for teachers were still being calculated Friday, the source said.
The feeling among Senate budget writers is that recent budgets have keyed on teacher salaries and that state employees should be a higher priority this time out. State Employees Association of North Carolina Executive Director Robert Broome said Friday that state workers are typically "an afterthought in the budget process."
"I would say that pay raises have failed to keep up with inflation, and when money has been available for pay raises, those funds were not equitably distributed," Broome said. "The Senate's pay proposal recognizes the sad truth of this inequity, and it takes steps to address it."
The Senate plans to roll out details of its budget proposal Tuesday and vote it through by the end of the week. Then, negotiations between House and Senate leaders will produce a compromise budget the General Assembly will send to Gov. Roy Cooper.
Cooper could very well veto that budget, setting up a stalemate that could drag on for weeks or months.
This budget will have more money on the bottom line than expected, due to $700 million in revenue the state has collected this year beyond what was predicted. Some General Assembly leaders have said they favor returning at least some of that money to taxpayers, but the source said Friday that what to do with the surplus in the Senate budget is still being discussed.
The North Carolina Association of Educators has organized protests at the General Assembly for two years running, though, complaining about a variety of state funding issues. Democrats, including Cooper, have pushed for higher teacher raises than their Republican counterparts.
The House, the Senate and the governor have all agreed that the state needs to put more money this year into building schools, though they differ over how much and whether to borrow or pay for projects out of the regular budget, which could sap funding from other priorities.
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