Republican lawmakers announced movement toward a budget deal late Tuesday, signaling an end to legislative gridlock that left state agencies and employees without a comprehensive budget for months.
North Carolina has been operating without a comprehensive budget as Republicans in the House and Senate clashed over Medicaid funding, tax cuts, and plans for a new children’s hospital in Apex.
On Tuesday, Senate President Pro Temp Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall held a joint press conference to describe plans for the agreement which includes changes to pay for the state’s roughly 72,000 employees and more than 90,000 educators.
The proposed agreement is not publicly available in writing as GOP leaders continue to hash out details. All information about the proposal provided below is from the verbal summary provided in the press conference.
No plan has been filed for legislative action, and Hall said the process will take days and likely weeks to complete.
Proposed changes for state employees
According to Hall, the proposed budget includes an average raise of 3% for state employees, with larger increases for some roles.
Pay changes under proposed plan
| Average increase for state employees | 3% |
| Increase for State Bureau of Investigation officers | 20.3% |
| Increase for Alcohol Law Enforcement officers | 20.3% |
| Increase for non-officer staff at State Bureau of Investigation | “Substantial” but not specified. |
| Increase for State Highway Patrol Officers | 17.7% with step increases |
| Increase for non-officer staff at State Highway Patrol | Up to 11.5% |
| Increase for correctional officers | Average 15.4% with step increases |
| Increase for probation parole officers | Average 10.1% with step increases |
| Other law enforcement officers | 13% |
In a statement, State Employees Association of North Carolina Executive Director Ardis Watkins said the raise doesn’t match the increase in cost of living.
The CPI (consumer price index), a figure that reflects annual inflation, was 3.8% in April.
One-time bonuses under proposed plan
| State employees making less than $65,000 annually | $1,750 one-time payment |
| State employees making more than $65,000 annually | $1,000 one-time payment |
| Local law enforcement officers across the state | $1,750 one-time payment |
| State employee retirees | 2.5% one-time payment |
Watkins also raised questions about possible cuts to positions in state government.
“If the raises announced today are used to justify those cuts, that is not a savings,” he said in the statement. “That is the legislature making permanent the staffing shortages that have crushed state employees for years, and rewarding itself for failing to pay enough to fill those jobs in the first place.”
Watkins also criticized the state retiree bonus proposal, saying it is “not a cost-of-living adjustment.”
“It is the ninth consecutive year North Carolina has failed to deliver a real COLA to the people who built this state,” he said.
Will the pay be retroactive?
In some prior years, when the legislature did not pass a budget on time, lawmakers voted for any changes in pay to be retroactively applied to the prior fiscal year, resulting in larger-than-usual paychecks for employees.
The current proposal does not apply the increases retroactively, meaning any pay bumps would only be effective once the measure becomes law.
Proposed changes for teacher pay
The plan includes an average teacher pay raise of 8%, Hall said.
One-time bonuses under proposed plan
| Teachers with less than 16 years of experience | $500 one-time payment |
| Teachers with more than 16 years of experience | $1,000 one-time payment |
“As best we can tell, [it's] the largest average teacher pay increase at least since 2006, and one of the largest that we've seen in probably the last 30 years or so,” he said. ”So it's something we're very proud of.”
In a press release, the North Carolina Association of Educators, the state’s teachers union, called the proposal “smoke and mirrors.”
“Eight percent may sound like a raise — until you pay Duke Energy's skyrocketing electric bill, Aetna's ballooning insurance premium, and more at the gas pump,” NCAE President Tamika Walker Kelly said in the statement. “Meanwhile, teachers are still spending more than $1,000 of their own money just to stock their classrooms.”
Teachers with less than 16 years of experience would receive a $500 bonus, and those with more than 16 years would receive a one-time $1,000 bonus, Hall said.
Get involved
What's next?
When Republican leaders agree on the final proposal, it will be filed for a vote by lawmakers.
Of the 120 elected officials in the House, 71 are Republicans, 47 are Democrats, and two are Unaffiliated. In the Senate, there are 30 Republicans and 20 Democrats.
What can I do?
The budget process is still underway. Share your views about the budget with your lawmaker. Enter your address to find out who represents you and how to contact them: https://www.ncleg.gov/findyourlegislators.
This article first appeared on NCLocal and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.