North Carolina lawmakers may approve a "mini-budget" with a raise for public school teachers and adjourn until January without passing a complete fiscal 2015 state budget, state Sen. Tom Apodaca said on Tuesday afternoon.
Lawmakers should have about $450 million to $500 million available from which they could give teachers a raise, said Apodaca, a Hendersonville Republican and a leader in the Senate. He couldn't estimate the size of the raise, but said it would be smaller than an 11 percent increase that the Senate previously approved.
The state House has proposed a 5percent raise, and the governor has proposed 2 percent. Teachers and the public have been clamoring for teacher raises because they, along with most state employees, have mostly gone without pay raises since 2008. There are reports of teachers leaving for other states that pay more, or leaving the profession altogether.
The governor, the state House and state Senate have all proposed budgets of about $21 billion for fiscal 2015, which starts on July 1. They have significant differences on how to fund teacher pay raises and on other policy matters.
Money shortfalls
Unexpected shortfalls have also emerged. Apodaca said the legislature's staff on Tuesday reported a new $100million to $160 million gap in Medicaid, the government health care program for lower-income residents.
Leaders are waiting for definitive estimates on Medicaid costs and state lottery revenues before they can move forward with a budget, a Senate spokeswoman said. The House has proposed using lottery revenue to pay for teacher raises, while the Senate prefers to get the money by reducing allocations for teacher assistants and with other cuts.
House and Senate budget conference committee members have been meeting to try to work out a compromise. Lawmakers earlier this year hoped to have it done no later than June 30 and adjourn. That is unlikely now.
"It could be mid-July. It could be end of July. Or we could get mad and go home week after next" without a new budget, Apodaca said.
"It's one of the alternatives, but it is getting serious consideration. And I'm not just saying that. It has been talked about," he said.
Budget can carry over
The prime reason that General Assembly is meeting this spring and summer is to make adjustments to the second year of the two-year budget that it approved a year ago. The so-called "short session" in even-numbered years is a relatively modern practice.
The spending plan approved last summer is sufficient to carry forward if necessary, Apodaca said.
State Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham Democrat and one of the longest-serving legislators, said that there was no short session to adjust the budget when he first was in office in the early 1970s. He left office for several years and when he returned in the late 1970s, the short session was in place, he said.
"The so-called 'budget' this year is really just amendments to last year's bill," said state House Rep. David Lewis, a Harnett County Republican and one of the budget conferees. "Yes, we could go home and state government would continue to operate. But I really believe that members of the House and the Senate are going to be able to reach an accord."
The conference work started slowly, Lewis said, "but that doesn't mean that it's not going to happen" and, "We're not as divided as we may appear."
With lawmakers and staff taking time off for the Fourth of July holiday, it's probable that the budget won't get done until afterward, Lewis said.
If the budget impasse causes lawmakers to meet into July, that provides more time for legislators who are striving to get new laws in place before the legislature adjourns.
Pending legislation includes a repeal of the Common Core education standards, a plan to remove coal ash storage ponds because of their pollution risk, regulatory reform, and local bills such as a new law for Fayetteville's planned red-light cameras.
