The North Carolina General Assembly has sent four state employee and law enforcement pay bills to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk.
The measures finalized on Wednesday with House votes are part of a Republican strategy to move portions of the two-year state budget Cooper vetoed in June that are likely to receive broad stand-alone support. Those bills cleared the Senate and the House unanimously.
Cooper hasn’t said whether he’ll sign the legislation, which gives 2.5% annual raises to rank-and-file state employees, troopers, correctional officers and State Bureau of Investigation and Alcohol Law Enforcement agents. Correctional officers also would get pay incentives for working in certain hard-to-staff or higher-security prisons. The workers also would get five additional vacation days.
House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters the legislature will take next week off, then return to advance other chunks of the vetoed budget. Berger said the separate legislation will include budget provisions addressing school and prison safety, directing the use of more disaster relief funds and funding to test old sexual assault evidence kits held by law enforcement.
“The approach is to pass into law those items for which there’s already broad bipartisan agreement,” Berger said at a news conference. “I don’t see any sense in blocking rape kit testing just because there’s not agreement on separate policy issues.”
On Tuesday — before Moore and Berger unveiled the additional legislation they’ll consider in September — the governor criticized their piecemeal approach to the budget, calling it “another trick” by Republicans who won’t negotiate with him on passing a broader compromise budget law. House Republicans have been unable to lure enough Democrats to override the veto by Cooper.
“People of North Carolina spoke with my (2016) election and with the (2018) election of a more balanced legislature,” Cooper said. “They don’t want one side to have it 100 percent their way.”
None of the four measures finalized Wednesday contain proposed pay raises for public school teachers because Berger said Republican leaders and Cooper disagree. The GOP budget offered average 3.8% pay raises for teachers over two years, while Cooper’s latest offer would provide 8.5% average raises.
Berger stuck to the narrative that Cooper has caused the two-month budget impasse because he won’t negotiate on other items without agreement on expanding Medicaid through the 2010 federal health care law. Cooper said Tuesday there’s no such ultimatum, but that looking at ways to reduce the number of working people without insurance by accessing federal dollars needs to be on the negotiating table now.
Related Stories
‹
![]()
NC Legislature Goes Home, Still Without Budget ResolutionThe North Carolina General Assembly went home on Thursday for a brief respite from Raleigh, still without the Republicans’ original two-year budget bill enacted and an uncertain path forward on Medicaid after nine months of legislating this year. The House and Senate adjourned its session after several hours of floor and committee debate and votes […]
![]()
Dems Cry 'Cowardice' as GOP Overrides N Carolina Budget VetoRepublicans in control of a nearly half-empty North Carolina House chamber on Wednesday held an unexpected vote to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget bill, prompting accusations of trickery and deception from Cooper and fellow Democrats. Republican leaders had spent months trying to persuade enough Democrats to meet the threshold for an […]
![]()
GOP's Final Budget Gets Initial Approval from LegislatureNorth Carolina legislators gave preliminary approval on Wednesday to a final budget agreement hashed out between Republican leaders that failed to include the top-tier negotiating appeals from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The House and Senate voted separately Wednesday to approve a two-year spending plan. The tallies were largely along party lines, with four Senate Democrats and […]
![]()
Senate Budget gets Final OK, Negotiations with House NextNegotiations between Republican legislative budget-writers will now begin in earnest after the Senate completed voting Friday for its version of a two-year spending plan for North Carolina government. The chamber voted 30-16 for the legislation, which would spend $23.9 billion in the next fiscal year starting July 1 — just like a version written by […]
![]()
NC Senate gives Tentative Approval to Republican BudgetThe North Carolina Senate tentatively agreed Thursday to a state spending plan for the next two years written by Republicans, who kept to their decade-old formula of budgets with tax cuts, tempered spending growth and money being parked in reserves. After four hours of debate, the chamber voted 29-18 for the measure, which GOP leaders […]

Cooper to Veto Republican Budget ChangesNorth Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed the state budget adjustments approved by the Republican-dominated legislature. Cooper vetoed the measure Wednesday before announcing the move at a news conference. The nearly $24 billion plan came to his desk late last week, and he had until this Monday to act. Republicans have veto-proof majorities, and votes […]
![]()
As Deadline Nears, N Carolina Governor Wants to Talk BudgetBy law Gov. Roy Cooper has until early next week to decide what to do about the North Carolina budget adjustments on his desk, but he’s apparently ready to talk about them in public. Cooper scheduled a Raleigh news conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss the budget. The Republican-controlled General Assembly gave its final approval late […]
![]()
Legislators Finalize Budget, Now Heads to CooperThe General Assembly has given final legislative approval to North Carolina budget adjustments for the coming year. Now, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper must decide whether to again formally challenge Republicans with his veto stamp. The House voted 66-44 on Friday for the $23.9 billion spending plan after close to two more hours of debate. Members […]
![]()
Budget Proposal Targets Durham-Orange Light Rail FundingNorth Carolina Republican legislators unveiled their budget proposal late on Memorial Day. Durham Democratic state senator Floyd McKissick said that in three lines the budget “placed in jeopardy the future funding of the light rail system between Durham and Chapel Hill.” McKissick and other local elected officials have derided the budget and the process Republican […]
![]()
Final North Carolina Budget Changes Speeding Toward VotesThe North Carolina General Assembly is making quick work of approving adjustments to the second year of the two-year state government budget. House and Senate Republicans reached an agreement on a nearly $24 billion plan more than a month before the new fiscal year begins July 1. They scheduled a joint budget committee to discuss […]
›
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines