51 Days: GOP Mini-Budgets are Hurting Educators | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    RALEIGH: It's been 51 days since Governor Cooper presented a balanced compromise budget offer. But instead of negotiating, Republicans have started to copy and paste their conference budget into piecemeal bills to get the exact budget they want little by little while collecting their daily legislative per diem.

    Unfortunately for teachers, Republican stalling has left them without a pay raise this year. Teachers need a substantial raise for North Carolina to compete with neighboring states for talented educators, but the Republican budget included just 3.8% over two years for teachers. Governor Cooper proposed 8.5% for our educators, and Republicans need to respond to that offer and begin negotiating.

    Where is the Republican Counteroffer?

    It shouldn't be hard. Governor Cooper's compromise proposal recommended just a handful of changes to the Republican budget. As EducationNC points out:

• In between the appropriations committee and the full House session, Cooper held a press conference in which he called the Republicans attempt to pass piecemeal budget bills "another trick."
• "They are going to continue at taxpayer expense to explore every option to get this budget exactly the way they want it," Cooper said of Republican lawmakers.
• During the press conference, Cooper held up the thick stack of papers that makes up the General Assembly's budget in one hand, and the much thinner package of changes that he wanted Republicans to make.
• "These are the only changes we asked for in the budget," he said.

    Governor Cooper's compromise offer can be found HERE. It would close the health care coverage gap, raise teacher pay, cut taxes for people and guarantee school construction while balancing the budget and saving money in the Rainy Day Fund.

• Contact: Ford Porter
•     govpress@nc.gov