No raises for NC teachers. Vote upholds Cooper veto; legislature goes home until spring
It’s a new year, but the state budget stalemate is the same as in 2019.
In Raleigh for a one-day session of the legislature Tuesday, the state Senate failed to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a teacher pay raise bill, with Cooper’s fellow Democrats saying it wasn’t enough money.
Republicans were offering higher raises if Democrats also voted to override the governor’s budget veto. Still, an override of the teacher raise bill would have given teachers an average raise of 3.9% over two years.
“This is on the table now, that you can give the teachers, or not. It’s just that simple,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown told Democrats.
Budget is set aside
Three measures that Cooper vetoed were on the Senate schedule Tuesday:
▪ The vote on the teacher raises bill was 28 to 21, which failed to reach the supermajority required for an override.
▪ There was no vote on the state budget covering the fiscal year that is now more than half over, including teacher raises and other spending and tax policies. The Senate adjourned without ever calling up the budget, instead sending it back to committee.
▪ The Senate also upheld Cooper’s veto on a bill dealing with regulations.
Cooper called the proposed teacher raises “paltry,” saying that educators deserved higher raises. Both chambers of the General Assembly have Republican majorities, but a supermajority is needed to override a veto.
Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters Tuesday morning that he didn’t expect the budget to pass after Senate Democrats told him they would sustain Cooper’s veto. The House overrode the veto on Sept. 11 in a contentious vote with most Democrats absent.
The state has been operating on the last budget, which rolled over, along with several mini budget bills that became law over the past several months, including raises for most state employees.
Berger said Medicaid expansion is holding up the budget. Cooper has demanded Medicaid expansion to cover more of the uninsured.
How much for teacher raise?
Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue and the North Carolina Association of Educators told reporters Tuesday morning that higher raises were “worth holding out for” instead of overriding the governor’s veto for the 3.9% raises.
During debate on the Senate floor Tuesday, Brown and Blue talked about a negotiation between parties that would have given teachers a 4.9% raise plus a $1,000 bonus. But that negotiation failed, and Republicans offered the 3.9% raises.
“You don’t have to override the budget. Just take this money,” Republican Sen. Rick Horner of Bailey said.
Teachers and other school employees including bus drivers and cafeteria workers deserve respect and “a decent pay increase,” said Sen. Gladys Robinson, a Greensboro Democrat. She said that Senate Democrats fully support them.
Sen. Don Davis, a Greenville Democrat who voted for an earlier version of the budget, said Tuesday was “a sad day for the state of North Carolina if this is the best that we can do.”
Erica Johnson, a Burlington teacher assistant who’s also part of the NCAE, urged lawmakers on Tuesday to raise the pay of school support staff.
She called Tuesday’s session the “last possible opportunity to make good on your promises to North Carolina educators.”
Cooper spokesperson Ford Porter said in a statement that this past fall, the governor “offered repeated budget compromise proposals that would do more to raise teacher pay and fund new school construction. And while the Republicans passed mini budgets, the Governor offered to negotiate teacher pay separately from other issues. Each time Republican leaders refused.”
Bob Luebke, policy director for the conservative think tank Civitas Institute, said Democrats misjudged Republicans on the teacher pay issue.
“Most Republicans thought 3.9% over two years was more than fair. Republicans weren’t going to go higher. Teachers had already had numerous raises in recent years. In addition, teacher pay is a big-ticket item. That reality is self-limiting,” Luebke said in an email to The News & Observer.
“Finally, the other problem is many Republicans think if they agree to more than a 3.9 percent pay increase, they would be handing Cooper a victory, since he could say the veto worked,” Luebke said.
Lawmakers adjourned Tuesday and will return April 28.
Cooper said Tuesday he’s still “ready to compromise” with Republican leaders.
“It’s discouraging that the legislative leadership doesn’t want to compromise on this and other issues in the budget,” Cooper told reporters after an event at Charlotte’s Piedmont Community College. “It’s disappointing but we’re going to keep trying.”
Cooper said the two sides have managed to compromise over other issues including the repeal of House Bill 2.
The Senate votes on Tuesday included the newly sworn in Sen. H.M. “Mickey” Michaux, a Durham Democrat and former House member who was appointed to the seat vacated by former Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr., who left to serve on the N.C. Utilities Commission. Michaux will serve until North Carolina’s primary on March 3, then resign so the primary winner can be appointed to the rest of the term.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
Charlotte Observer reporter Jim Morrill contributed to this story.
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 1:16 PM.
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