House General Fund Budget Heads to Senate | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Rick Henderson, who is editor-in-chief for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

    Thirty-eight amendments consuming nearly eight hours of debate (including a few extended breaks) wound up changing few minds. The House late Thursday night passed its $22.9-billion General Fund budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year by an 82-34 vote. Twelve Democrats backed the budget's initial passage. A single Republican, Rep. Jeff Collins, R-Nash, voted no.

    Earlier that day at a news conference, House Speaker Tim Moore called the spending plan "a budget that cuts taxes, that invests in critical needs, that gives teachers and state employees a well deserved pay raise, it puts aside money to save for those rainy days that we know all too often do come, and really prioritizes the investments that we believe the citizens of this state want us to make."

    At the same news conference, the Cleveland County Republican's comments were amplified by Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, the top budget writer in the House.


Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, presides over the House during the early hours of the June 1 budget debate. (CJ photo by Don Carrington)

    "We believe that planning for the future is one of the key aspects that we have been doing for the last several years, and we will continue to do. Republicans have learned a lesson of the Great Recession. We believe as the times are good we have to continue to remember those lessons and prepare for when we know somewhere down the road ... when revenues are not coming in, we ... have put forward the appropriate foundation, so decision makers at that time will be able to continue to provide the quality of services without having to burden the folks with additional taxes," Dollar said.

    The House began full debate on the budget just after 2:30 p.m. As amendments were introduced, most Democrats opposed the Republican plan, attempting to cut funding for opportunity scholarships, divert tax funds to support private businesses in rural counties, and use tax dollars to subsidize broadband service outside metro areas.

    When the debate finally returned to the main budget around 10:15 p.m., Rep. Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland, who voted for the previous two GOP-sponsored budgets, called the current budget plan "frightening. ... What we have decided to do in this budget is not [to] invest in the future. We are not taking care of our children."

    The initial vote on the full budget took place just before 10:30. The House planned to reconvene at 12:05 Friday morning to approve the budget, satisfying the "two-day" rule for spending bills.

    Moore said the House would return Monday to appoint members of a House-Senate conference committee to resolve differences between the two budgets if the Senate, as expected, votes not to adopt the House budget.