House, Senate Start ‘Heavy Lifting’ To Reconcile Budgets | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Barry Smith, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Many differences between chambers before June 27 adjournment target

    Raleigh — Even though the Senate has yet to reject the House's version of the 2014-15 general fund budget (final House passage came Friday, a day after senators left town), negotiators from both chambers will get to work this week hammering out a compromise of the $21.1 billion spending plan.

    While one representative says it will take some "heavy lifting" to iron out the differences in the two plans, a senator says budget negotiators have every intention of wrapping up in time so that the General Assembly can go home by the end of the month.

    "In my opinion, we are not close in the Senate budget and the House budget," said Rep. Julia Howard, R-Davie, who is part of the House leadership team. "It's going to take some big, heavy lifting next week," she said Friday.

    But Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, said that "there's room for compromise" by members of both chambers. Noting that teacher pay raises were a centerpiece of both chambers' budgets, Rucho said, "Both the House and the Senate made a move in that direction."

    The Senate budget proposes an 11 percent pay increase for teachers, which Rucho noted is "a bit more aggressive than the House" proposal of 5 percent pay raises. Under the Senate plan, teachers would have to forgo tenure to qualify for the raise; those choosing to keep tenure would get no raise. The House version does not require veteran teachers to give up tenure. Newly hired teachers, however, would not be eligible for tenure in the House budget.

    Senators would cover the cost of teacher pay increases by cutting teacher assistant positions across the state and decreasing the budget of the Department of Instruction by 30 percent.

    The House primarily would pay for higher teacher salaries by allowing the N.C. Education Lottery to double its advertising budget, bringing in an estimated $106 million more a year. But there's a catch. The House budget also places new restrictions on lottery advertisements.

    The funding and organization of the state's Medicaid program sticks out as another major difference between the Senate and the House. The Senate budget would remove Medicaid from the jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Human Services and place it in a separate agency beginning July 1. It also would move some disabled people from the Medicaid rolls, presumably requiring them to get health insurance from the federal Obamacare exchange. The House budget does neither.

    Rucho noted that, in recent years, Medicaid overruns have cost taxpayers about $2 billion more than lawmakers have budgeted. Both budgets add money to the program, though in different ways.

    Gov. Pat McCrory's Career Pathways program for teachers is in the House budget — which includes a number of ways teachers can receive performance incentives — but the Senate did not include it in that chamber's spending plan. The Senate, however, continues to push for more funding to fulfill provisions from the 2013 Excellent Schools Act.

    The House budget renews expiring tax credits for historic preservation projects. The Senate budget does not. Cultural Resources Secretary Susan Kluttz put on a heavy lobbying effort to restore those credits, urging advocates historic preservation to call House members, urging them to include the credits in the budget bill.

    The House also approved hiring three new investigators at the State Board of Elections. The Senate did not.

    While neither budget would extend film tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year, the House included a provision establishing a grant program under which film production companies could recover some of their costs, although the amount appropriated is a nominal $5.00. That provision, however, keeps chances for such a grant alive while budget negotiations are going on.

    The Senate budget did not contain the grant provision, although a $20 million film incentives grant program has been approved by that body in a separate bill.

    Both budgets would transfer of the State Bureau of Investigation from the Department of Justice, overseen by Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, to the Department of Public Safety.

    Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee, has filed a resolution calling for the short session to adjourn June 27. Rucho said lawmakers are "on the right track" to get out by that date.

    Barry Smith (@Barry_Smith) is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.