Local projects, aid to veterans, millions for ECU. Why Democrats backed the NC budget.
For the first time since Gov. Roy Cooper took office, North Carolina will pass a state budget backed by legislative Republicans and Democrats and the Democratic governor.
After months of negotiations with GOP state legislative leaders, Cooper announced Tuesday that he will sign the legislature’s final proposed spending package. Moments after that announcement, all but eight Senate Democrats voted in favor of the bill, clearing the way for lawmakers to send the budget to the governor’s desk by the end of the week.
The governor’s approval of the legislation and Tuesday’s vote signals that the Republican-controlled legislature opted to include numerous budget measures that serve as political victories for Democrats, hoping to pass a budget more than four months into the fiscal year and avoid another budget standoff.
“We always knew the right budget for North Carolina would be a compromise,” said Sen. Kirk deViere, a Democrat from Fayetteville. “Good government happens when people are willing to come together and talk about things.”
Cooper’s announcement that he’ll sign the package is also indicative that Republicans, with the help of some Democrats, may have been able to override the governor if he had vetoed the spending plan.
“Folks can draw their own conclusions about the significance of him signing it,” said Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican from Eden. “It’s a recognition on his part, in my opinion, of the realities of the situation in the legislature that the budget was going to be passed.”
A handful of Democrats voted against the budget Tuesday, citing the omission of education funding for some of the state’s biggest counties. The final document, released Monday, also did not include Medicaid expansion, a longtime priority for Cooper and Democrats in the state.
Instead, Republicans’ concessions to Democrats after more than two years without a full budget include long-awaited raises for teachers and state employees; hundreds of millions of dollars for projects in some Democratic districts, like repairs to airports and grants to hospitals to address rural health disparities; and an increase in funding for schools.
Democrats involved in budget negotiations
Only four Senate Democrats, including deViere, voted for the Senate’s initial budget proposal over the summer, in large part because of money included for their districts. As a result, Republicans included those four Democrats in the months-long negotiation process, giving them the opportunity to argue for broader Democratic priorities.
Many of the same provisions that led those Democrats to cast a vote for the budget in June remain in the final spending plan.
Some $400 million will go to deViere’s district, including millions for Fayetteville State University and funding to lower the cost of tuition at the school. Also included is a provision that exempts military pensions from state income tax — a high priority for both Sen. Ben Clark, a Democrat from Raeford, and deViere’s district, as Fort Bragg is located in Clark’s district and near deViere’s.
Sen. Don Davis, a Democrat from Greenville, was also one of the four Senate Democrats who were at the negotiating table. Included in the budget is millions in funding for renovations at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine — a win Davis has sought for years.
“We have to look at ways to transform Eastern North Carolina and rural areas in our state in particular,” Davis said after the vote Tuesday. ”When you put all this together, it was the right thing to do for not only Eastern North Carolina, in my part of the state, but for the residents of the state of North Carolina.”
The Senate gave final approval to the budget Wednesday, with the House planning to follow in votes Wednesday and Thursday. It’s unclear how many House Democrats will support the spending plan, but with Cooper’s backing, a majority of the caucus was expected to vote in favor of the bill.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 10:19 AM.
