An $18.9 billion spending plan headed to Gov. Mike Easley on Thursday after the legislature gave final approval to a budget that cuts some taxes, spends more on education and sets aside money for the next natural disaster.

In approving the budget for the second time in as many days, the House voted 82-31 and the Senate 31-15 to spend nearly 10 percent more than last year. More than $560 million of the $1.7 billion increase is set aside in reserve.

The rest goes toward large state employee and teacher raises, $206 million in pay-as-you-go construction and $163 million for more than 27,000 new students expected this fall.

The Democratic-led legislature also used more than $160 million to begin reducing a pair of "temporary" tax increases first approved in 2001 and extended twice.

A surplus for the previous fiscal year -- the largest as a percentage of the budget in at least 35 years -- gave budget-writers the confidence to begin phasing out a half-penny increase in the sales tax and a 0.5 percent increase in the individual income tax of the highest earners.

Debate was brief Thursday in both chambers. A day earlier, Republicans complained in floor sessions that the budget moves the state closer to another shortfall by using more than $400 million in one-time revenue for permanent spending programs.

"There's no question ... that there are certainly a number of good things in this budget," Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican, said Thursday, but "those are one-time funds. We are talking about a recurring structural deficit."

Easley hasn't said whether he will sign the bill, but he praised the budget -- especially its education programs -- when it emerged from negotiations last week.

Education programs will get $943 million more overall compared to the year before, including money for an average 8 percent raise for teachers and a program to give extra money to hard-to-recruit math and science teachers.

Community college faculty and professional staff would get a 6 percent raise, with a 2 percent one-time bonus. University workers also would receive a 6 percent raise, with $5 million set aside for professor recruitment.

The budget provides $27.4 million to help counties keep their Medicaid costs at 2005-06 levels, at least $75 million to push ahead mental health reform and more to hire dozens of prosecutors, judges and court officials.

The bill authorizes $672 million in debt through mid-2010, in part to expand the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh, build a new public health laboratory, Central Prison hospital and replacements for mental hospitals in Morganton and Goldsboro.

Most consumers would see the sales tax they pay drop from 7 percent to 6.75 percent starting Dec. 1, while the highest individual income tax bracket would fall from 8.25 percent to 8 percent. Lawmakers have said they want to eliminate the rest of the temporary taxes next year.

Lawmakers also created a new $20 million fund to give Easley immediate access to cash after a hurricane.