Budget deal no closer than a month ago
Published August 18, 2015
by Loretta Bonti, Time Warner Cable, August 17, 2015.
State lawmakers say there is still a stalemate when it comes to finding a compromised state spending plan.
Legislators close to the negotiations say once a bottom line for spending is agreed to, the process could move along quickly. However, agreeing on that bottom line is a tough hurdle to cross.
North Carolina has been operating under a contingency budget since July 1. Legislators seem to agree that once a framework and bottom line is agreed upon, it could be a matter of days until a final budget is in place.
But that first agreement seems to be a difficult one.
“I don't see us any closer than we were a month ago,” said Sen. Tom Apodaca, Buncombe County Republican.
Late last week lawmakers continued their up and down roller coaster of budget negotiations.
“The intent is that we start moving in a much more expeditious manner next week on the budget,” said Rep. Tim Moore, NC Speaker of the House.
This week, lawmakers are continuing to be hopeful that the ever important budget bottom line can finally be agreed upon.
“When you get to that point in the appropriations process, where you begin to have agreements on how much money is available, some of the major issues are either resolved or taken off the table then it can begin to move a little more quickly. But you have to understand, you had two versions of the budget that were vastly apart, in both money perspective as well as policy perspective and they were never going to be easily reconciled,” said Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Wake County Republican.
As the school year is set to start, and local governments are working without a full picture of what the final budget will look like, legislators say they agree with the frustrations about them not being done with their work.
“It is embarrassing that we are at this point and still don't have a budget. Did we not know July 1 was coming? My guess is we could have looked four, five years ago at the calendar for July 2015 and we would have had a July 1,” said Rep. Craig Horn, a Union County Republican.
Neither the House nor Senate had voting sessions on Monday, but work was done over the weekend on the budget, it just didn't produce any of the big decisions that need to be made.
“We are certainly exchanging ideas, exchanging specifics on certain areas. Once we arrive at a framework, hopefully arrive at a framework, we'll be able to move forward,” said Rep. Dollar.
While there is certainly some optimism that a budget can be moved along, we are now into another week with no framework ready to go. It is not until after that framework is agree upon that talks on specifics can begin.
The current continuing resolution runs until the end of this month.
