Republican General Assembly leaders got their pay raise bills rolling Tuesday morning for a raft of state employees, most of whom would get about 2.5 percent a year.
These raises, broken into multiple bills, are essentially what the legislature approved in the full state budget that passed earlier this year. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed that budget, hoping to force Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, and the two sides have been in a standoff ever since.
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A separate bill, giving teachers the same raise they would have gotten under the vetoed budget, will likely move next week, Speaker of the House Tim Moore said. That would put their raises just under 4 percent if you add up both years of the 2-year budget.
Cooper has called for higher salaries, and he continued to do so Tuesday in a press conference where he said Republicans are "shortchanging teachers, stiff-arming health care." The governor made no promises to veto any of these budget bills.
Initial votes from Democrats signal that the likely outcome for some of the budget bills, but pay raises for state employees, correctional officers and others cleared both chambers with unanimous support.
Cooper also said Tuesday that he sent letters to school superintendents and other education officials around the state, asking them to pressure their local legislators to negotiate on a budget with more education funding. The governor and Republican leaders have both been touring the state, looking for an edge in what may be a lengthy budget fight.
Cooper will be in New Bern Wednesday, delivering school supplies. Republicans plan a press conference with U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis to discuss the Cooper Administration's slow spending pace on federal disaster recovery.
The state Senate OK'd three budget bills Tuesday, and they'll likely get positive votes in the House Wednesday, moving them to the governor's desk. Together they would:
- Fund an across-the-board 2.5 percent salary increase, both this fiscal year and next, for state employees who don't work for local school systems, universities or community colleges, which are handled separately.
- Set up a new pay scale for State Bureau of Investigation and Alcohol Law Enforcement agents, pegging entry level salaries at $45,100 with 6.5 percent annual steps. State Sen. Brent Jackson said this would give agents average raises of 14 percent.
- Give employees an extra 5 annual leave days.
All these bills passed the Senate unanimously.
Wednesday update: These bills all passed the House unanimously as well.
A fourth salary bill, House Bill 426, will be on the House floor Wednesday, and Democrats have put up opposition. It would give custodians, teaching assistants, bus drivers and other non-certified local school employees 1 percent raises that would be guaranteed in the first budget year and expected, but not certain, in the second.
This bill also gives state retirees a pair of .5 percent cost of living supplements over the next two years, both non-recurring.
Democrats plan attempts to amend this bill Wednesday, and House Minority Leader Darren Jackson called it "just awful for the lowest-paid school employees." State Rep. MaryAnn Black, D-Durham, said the retiree proposal is "an insult."
Some Democrats also opposed a GOP plan to refund much of the state's $900 million budget surplus to taxpayers. This bill, which Cooper has complained about but not threatened to veto, cleared the Senate Tuesday 30-16, getting four yes votes from Democrats. It heads now to the House.
Legislation giving raises to correctional officers has already cleared the Senate and will likely get final passage Wednesday in the House.
Another mini-budget bill, setting aside nearly half a billion dollars to fund major reforms in the state's Medicaid program, cleared the Senate Tuesday as well, but on a party-line 25-20 vote. Democrats made this bill part of the broader health care debate, indicating they'll stand against it while trying to force Republicans to accept some sort of Medicaid expansion, or to at least debate the issue.
Republicans have repeatedly said Cooper derailed the state budget by refusing to sign it without Medicaid expansion. Cooper has said that's not true, and that there's a Republican ultimatum not to negotiate on the rest of the budget until expansion is off the table.
"I'm not going to do that," Cooper said Tuesday. "It has to be part of our discussion."