Weeks after the North Carolina Senate passed its plan for the state budget, the House will begin negotiations of its own.
Republican leaders in the House have scheduled committee hearings for this week, with floor debate on the chamber’s budget tentatively set for next week.
Despite the upper chamber’s bill awaiting action, the House GOP leaders will almost certainly begin their own plan from scratch. The two chambers have only agreed to the top-line spending amount — everything else is negotiable. And before a final version heads to Gov. Josh Stein’s desk, budget writers from both chambers will meet to iron out a compromise.
“(The budget chairs) have been working on it, and it’s gone smoothly so far, at least in talks with the Senate,” House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) told reporters last week. “Of course, we’ve only talked about the high level things.”
Lawmakers are expected to deliver a budget to Stein’s desk by June 30, the end of the fiscal year. But they have frequently gone beyond that date due to extended negotiations.
Senate Republicans’ budget lays out $36.2 billion in spending for the next year. It cuts hundreds of vacant state government positions, and some filled ones. It keeps in place a series of gradual GOP-led income tax cuts. And it includes modest raises for public sector workers, including teachers, law enforcement and state government employees.
Publicly available details of what the House plan will include are scant. But Hall has been clear that he expects the chamber’s budget to include larger pay raises than both the Senate’s bill and the Democratic governor’s request.
“I think you’ll see raises that are more than Stein proposed,” he said.
Under the Senate proposal, educators will receive an average 3.3% raise over the next two years. State employees would get a 1.25% raise and a $3,000 bonus. Law enforcement raises would be more substantial, such as a 5.25% raise for correctional officers and the State Bureau of Investigation.
The State Employees’ Association of North Carolina has expressed displeasure with both Stein’s and the Senate’s proposals, calling for better raises and decrying the Senate’s cuts to the state workforce.
House Republicans could also diverge from the Senate’s doubling down on income tax cuts. Hall has left the door open for adjusting the existing rates, or “dialing the knobs.” But he’s ruled out any tax increases.
The Republican Senate leader, President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), has been steadfast in his support for the cuts.
Democrats, meanwhile, have urged the GOP to hit pause on the cuts — pointing to state economists’ projection that a budget shortfall could be on the horizon.
Leaders of the minority party have expressed broader frustration with the budget process, saying they’ve been granted almost no input. And they remain dubious about Republicans’ confidence to finish negotiations by the end of June.
“I think it is very ambitious, and I think frankly hilarious, that they will get a budget by June 28,” Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch (D-Wake) told reporters last week.
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