A state budget will be released Tuesday, NC legislative leaders say
Leaders of the North Carolina House and Senate say they have reached a deal on the state budget and planned to release details Tuesday.
The Republican leaders announced a news conference for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
North Carolina has two-year budget cycles. The main budget is approved in odd-numbered years, with only minor changes typically made in even-numbered years like 2022. However, this year could be different since the state has over $6 billion more than anticipated, The News & Observer has reported.
The extra cash could allow lawmakers to cut taxes further, perhaps speeding up Republicans’ plan to eliminate corporate income taxes entirely. Or it could allow lawmakers to substantially increase the budget from its current baseline of $27 billion — perhaps to give state workers bigger raises than the 2.5% raises that had been approved last year.
With so much money at play, they may also decide to engage in both extra spending as well as extra tax cuts. The details will likely be made public sometime Tuesday, House Speaker Tim Moore said.
After that it would move fast: Moore, a Cleveland County Republican, told fellow lawmakers that votes are likely Friday and Saturday.
“A budget deal has been reached between the Senate and the House,” he said Monday afternoon. “We will be taking up a budget vote this week on that bill.”
A spokesperson for Senate leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican, confirmed the agreement.
It’s unclear whether Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is on board with the deal.
“The Governor is having discussions with House and Senate leaders about budget and healthcare issues,” said Ford Porter, a spokesman for Cooper, in a written statement.
Medicaid expansion
The state went without a budget in 2019 and 2020 after Cooper vetoed lawmakers’ 2019 proposal and Republican lawmakers couldn’t secure enough Democratic support to help them override that veto. But Cooper signed the budget last year, and Republicans have since started taking action on one of Cooper’s key sticking points from the 2019 stalemate — Medicaid expansion.
Expanding Medicaid would give health care coverage to around half a million North Carolinians who aren’t poor enough to qualify for the program currently. The Senate passed a Medicaid expansion bill earlier this month, although the House wants to take it slower.
It’s possible, but unlikely, that Medicaid could be included in the budget when it becomes public Tuesday. Moore would not confirm to The N&O if Medicaid expansion plans had been omitted from the legislature’s planned budget.
Secretive process
Moore told lawmakers to expect a voting session Saturday. Legislative rules require legislators take a minimum of five days after reaching a budget agreement before sending it to the governor’s desk to be signed or vetoed.
The budget will not pass through a regular adoption process with committee votes and potential amendments. Instead, Moore said, it will come out in a conference report, which cannot be amended.
That controversial process — in which budget negotiations happen entirely in secret, with no opportunity for changes once it becomes public — was used in 2018 for the first time in recent memory, The N&O reported at the time.
After voting on the budget, Moore expects the ongoing short session, in which lawmakers do their main work during election years, will conclude.
”It is the intention of the chair to wrap up the short session this week and everything is on track to do that,” he said.
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 https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published June 27, 2022 at 3:40 PM.
