North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper wants to raise teacher pay higher on average than what the state budget currently plans for next fall, and corporations and high wage-earners would help pay for it.

Cooper unveiled Thursday proposed adjustments to the second year of the state government spending plan.

He says teachers would get average raises of 8 percent, compared to the roughly 6 percent the GOP-controlled legislature enacted for next year over Cooper’s veto.

Cooper says he’d locate $100 million for the raises by keeping the corporate tax rate at 3 percent, rather than let it fall to 2.5 percent in 2019, and by creating a new individual tax bracket for six-figure earners.

Cooper calls it “tax fairness for teacher pay” but Republican legislators who will approve adjustments say it sounds more like “an unserious attempt to score political points in an election year.”

File Photo Roy Cooper. Photo via Blake Hodge.