RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on the release at the General Assembly of North Carolina state budget adjustments for next fiscal year (all times local):
4:20 p.m.
All North Carolina municipalities could use their property tax revenues to help fund public schools if the budget bill considered by legislators becomes law.
The budget provision is linked to an effort by several Mecklenburg County communities interested in operating their own charter schools, but the language within the spending plan to use tax collections for education would apply to any town or city statewide.
Currently only county commissions or a handful of municipalities that have their own school districts can spend tax revenue on schools. Several Democrats urged Republicans to slow down on granting the new authority, calling it a major change. But the budget bill can’t be amended.
GOP Rep. Bill Brawley represents one of the Mecklenburg towns interested in the charter school idea. He says without passing statewide spending authority the towns at issue would have been subject to local referenda to provide such revenues.
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3:55 p.m.
North Carolina Democratic legislators say their Republican counterparts are ignoring the views of millions of people they represent by preventing their amendments for a budget bill from getting heard.
The House Democrats held a news conference Tuesday as the nearly $24 billion measure worked its way through several committees.
Democrats want to offer amendments for initiatives and policies that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper supports that would block upcoming tax breaks, create new gun restrictions and give more money to state regulators to address emerging contaminants like GenX. But Republicans won’t allow it.
They are also unhappy with provisions that would distribute little bits of money to dozens of nonprofit groups or other entities that critics would call “pork.” Other provisions could scuttle a proposed light rail project for Orange and Durham counties and would delay further revised water quality rules for the Jordan Lake and Falls Lake watersheds, which serve Piedmont residents.
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2:15 p.m.
Republicans at the General Assembly have advanced their proposed North Carolina state budget adjustments for the coming year despite complaints from Democrats about the details and the parliamentary process.
The nearly $24 billion spending plan moved through appropriations committees Tuesday on the way to floor votes starting Wednesday. The approved measure will wind up on Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk. Cooper will likely repeat what he did last year, when he vetoed the two-year budget but GOP lawmakers overrode it.
This year’s measure contains average 6.5 percent pay raises for teachers and raises the minimum salary for any full-time state worker to just over $31,000.
There’s money inside the plan for school safety improvements and school construction and new forgivable loan programs to recruit and retain state troopers and criminal justice employees.
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2 a.m.
The North Carolina General Assembly is making quick work of approving adjustments to the second year of the two-year state government budget.
House and Senate Republicans reached an agreement on a nearly $24 billion plan more than a month before the new fiscal year begins July 1. They scheduled a joint budget committee to discuss the details Tuesday, less than two weeks after the annual session began.
Both chambers expected floor votes on the final package later this week before the budget bill heads to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk.
The full plan was released Monday night. It includes 6.5 percent teacher pay raises on average, $15 million for prison security upgrades and previously announced initiatives to lure large companies to the state and study little-known contaminants in state rivers.
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