NC Budget
House Republicans revive ‘academic transparency’ legislation in budget proposal
The North Carolina House budget proposal calls for a 10% pay increase for teachers over the next two years, but would have to work harder for the extra money under a substantive provision that would require “Academic Transparency.” The House budget bill would require teachers to prominently post, course materials, lessons plans and supplemental materials […]
NC has a $3.25 billion surplus. What will legislators do with it?
As legislators begin building a state budget, they’re getting a boost from a $3.25 billion surplus thanks to more money than anticipated flowing into state coffers from tax collections and interest earnings. Legislators heard the details of the state’s revenue forecast Tuesday morning, a financial report compiled by economists working for the legislature’s fiscal research […]
New report: How North Carolina’s state budget fails to address the impacts of inflation
The state budget passed for the 2022-23 fiscal year fails to adequately address the impacts of inflation. Even with federal aid and a robust recovery driving higher than expected revenues, the state budget fell short of meeting the challenges created by inflation running at a 40-year-high in several ways...
Republican-written NC budget easily clears first hurdles. Passage expected Friday
The state legislature approved the $27.9 billion Republican-written budget Thursday with bipartisan votes and by comfortable margins. The budget passed 84-28 in the House and 38-9 in the Senate in preliminary votes. Republican budget writers said their plan deals head-on with inflation and prepares the state for a recession. “No one can predict what can […]
NC House Democrats hope they can shape the final state budget
Gov. Cooper remains excluded from negotiations, but some members of his party are trying to change that Rep. Garland Pierce said his support for the $25.7 billion budget written by House Republicans is rooted in a meeting between local elected officials from the Democrat’s rural district and House Speaker Tim Moore and his staff where the local leaders laid out their budget hopes.
Nearly six weeks into the new fiscal year, House version of the state budget starts to emerge
Differences in HHS proposals indicate House and Senate negotiators have much work ahead House budget subcommittee leaders released big pieces of their spending proposal Thursday, as the chamber began speeding toward passage of its full budget. Still to come are salary increases or bonuses the House will propose for teachers and state employees.
North Carolina ain’t broke (financially), so now let’s fix it – New revenue data show NCGA has a choice: help people or corporations?
North Carolina has the funds to invest in a just recovery. An updated assessment of state revenues shows collections have come in stronger than previously expected over the past year and continued growth should provide some of the resources needed to dig out of the COVID-19 hole. First the numbers. North Carolina is on track […]
Education leaders say House budget falls short
Based on the state House budget plan, North Carolina teachers may be virtually assured of at least some raises in the upcoming school year, but the state’s top teacher advocacy organization says state lawmakers have still “fallen short” of their promises to educators.
Budget a month overdue, Rep. Stam says no worries
Rep. Skip Stam (R-Wake) told WPTF on Thursday that despite stalled budget talks that have kept the state waiting a month past the deadline for a deal that spells out how the government should run its schools and other agencies, North Carolinians should take heart — everything is running smoothly. “Every other time I’ve been […]
Conservatives sure are running state government “like a business”
If you had dollar for every time conservative politicians promised to start “running North Carolina like a business” back when they were engineering their rise to power at the start of the decade, you’d have a lot of money — maybe enough to hire back some of the educators they’ve fired since then. This morning, […]
NC budget debate: It’s bigger than dollars and cents
This past week I visited Charleston, South Carolina to lay flowers and show support to the people of Charleston and the victims of the Emanuel AME Church shootings. The place buzzed with activists, reporters, and policy makers, including the mayor and governor. Across the nation, political pundits, academics, candidates, law makers, and others have posed […]
So-called budget “surplus” shown to be nothing but Jones Street hocus-pocus
In case you missed it, Tazra Mitchell of the N.C. Budget and Tax Center had a great letter to the editor in Raleigh’s News & Observer over the weekend that exposed the silly story state lawmakers have concocted in order to create the illusion that everything is now fine with state budget. As Tazra explains: […]