Budget turmoil: Senate leader says House broke agreement on gambling proposal

The top Republican in the state Senate on Tuesday accused his GOP colleagues in the House of breaking an agreement to include a proposal to expand gambling in a budget compromise — putting in jeopardy the entire the $30-billion state budget agreement that includes raises for state workers, tax cuts, millions in spending projects across the state and Medicaid expansion.

Lawmakers had planned to vote on the budget this week, but that's been scrapped as the top Republicans dug in over a proposal to allow four new casinos and legalize video lottery terminals statewide.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said the House had agreed to include any provision, including gambling, that secured support from a majority of GOP House members in the budget.

He fumed that the House had gone back their commitment after Speaker Tim Moore said there were not enough votes in his chamber despite 42 of 72 House Republicans backing it.

"The House made a commitment to the Senate that the budget would go forward under certain circumstances," said Berger, his anger noticeable. "Their leadership needs to honor their commitment."

It takes 61 votes to pass legislation in the 120-member House.

Moore said he is not "breaking any kind of agreement" and that any commitment about majority support came with an implicit acknowledgment that it has to have the votes to pass the House.

"I don’t have 19 Democratic votes for the budget," said Moore, who said he does have commitments from some Democrats to vote for the budget. "It is a number lower than that (19). It is impossible to pass the budget where we are with 30 republican members saying they'd vote no."

Moore send his members home for the week. Next week, he plans to try to pass a budget that includes all of the agreements between the House and Senate — except for casinos and video lottery terminals. Moore said talks would continue on breaking the current impasse.

But Berger accused Moore of moving the goalposts after Senate Republicans emerged from a lengthy closed-door meeting. Though casinos are the sole remaining issue in dispute between the legislature's Republican super majorities, Berger said it's a matter of principle.

"At this point, it's not the casinos," Berger said. "it is whether or not I can go back to my members and tell them that I have an understanding with the leadership in the House on a particular issue. It doesn't matter what the issue is. When I cannot do that, then it makes it very, very difficult for us to get any kind of business done. So it's larger than just casinos."

Berger said the House should put budget with the casinos and video lottery terminals on the floor, a daring move to see if Republicans and some Democrats would allow the measure to go down.

"We need to see whether or not folks are willing to let the budget fail," Berger said.

Moore, however, told WRAL that would not be wise.

"No speaker is going to put a bill on the floor that he does not think he has the votes for," Moore said. "I don't know if we get to a point where we decide that somehow that's a good idea. But I'm not convinced that's a good idea."

Democrats were left angry over the delay, which is holding back raises for teachers and state employees and a Medicaid expansion that would provide taxpayer-funded health insurance to hundreds of thousands of people in North Carolina, but only once a budget passes.

Democrats say GOP can't govern

House Minority Leader Robert Reives said Republicans campaigned on their ability to govern as a supermajority — immune to Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes — but can’t.

“Every time you heard them at a campaign stop, they said ‘We need a supermajority so that we can do things for North Carolina,'” said Reives, D-Chatham. “They have a supermajority. They can pass any bill that they want. They can override any veto that they want. And we are still here in September.”

Reives said he’s sure Republican lawmakers have made overtures to individual Democrats in an effort to gin up votes for the budget. However, they’ve not talked to party leaders.

“I don't think there's any interest in having leadership talk to the Democratic caucus,” Reives said. “I think it's just a matter of trying to peel some Democrats off to a budget we haven't seen.”

Cooper said Tuesday that he still hasn’t seen the Republican budget or gambling language. He has called repeatedly on Republican lawmakers to separate Medicaid expansion from the budget so it can go into effect and to pass whatever gambling legislation they favor separate from the spending plan.

"It is outrageous that casinos alone are holding up the entire state budget," Cooper said.

No details on casinos, budget

Moore is on the same page.

"The budget is too important to get hung up on any one, single issue, on gaming, casinos or anything else," Moore said.

Moore sent an email to Republicans last week saying he did not have 61 votes to pass the budget with the expanded gambling in it. House Republicans held lengthy closed-door meetings last week and Monday night. Moore said the vote total been consistent.

"It means, at this point, the only way the House can pass a budget is if is doesn’t have gaming in it," said Moore, R-Cleveland.

Moore, who supports expanded gambling, suggested having separate legislation on the casinos. Lawmakers passed a bill to legalize online sports betting earlier this year.

But Berger is not budging — as of now. He said if the gambling is not agreed to, "then nothing is agreed to."

"The budget, as you know, is a series of compromises and those compromises result in the final product," Berger said. "If the compromises that have been reached in the past fall apart, then I think everything is subject to further conversations."

That could unwind months of negotiations over the already overdue state budget.

The fiscal year started on July 1, though the state government is funded at last year's levels and remains open. Lawmakers had hoped to have a budget by July 4. Both the House and Senate have passed their own budgets and have worked to narrow differences between the chambers.

Leaders have not released publicly the results of their negotiations. So it is unclear what raises would look like, how much money has been allocated for certain projects across the state or what the state's personal income tax rate would be.

The expanded gambling proposals have not been released publicly. Draft legislation, obtained by WRAL in late July, calls for $500-million investment at three sites in economically distressed counties (Anson, Nash and Rockingham) plus a fourth location to be run by the Lumbee Tribe. No video lottery terminal proposal has been made public, either.