COVID-19 relief, teacher bonuses: Here’s what’s in NC Gov. Cooper’s budget proposal
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper laid out his budget proposal and called for two bond measures a week before the state legislature returns to Raleigh for a brief session.
He asked for bonuses for teachers, principals, school support staff and community college employees. His proposal also would cut money for opportunity scholarships, which are vouchers for private education.
Cooper is a Democrat and Republicans control both the House and Senate, so the final budget funding will likely look much different. There was mostly bipartisan agreement on how to spend the first round of federal COVID-19 funding this past spring, but that was then; now Election Day is about two months away.
Here are the details of the governor’s proposal:
▪ $175 million for public health, including $25 million for testing and tracing; $50 million to target rural and historically marginalized populations; and $40 million for early childhood services.
▪ $49 million to develop a state stockpile of personal protective equipment
▪ $132 million for K-12 public schools
▪ $50 million for high-speed internet access
▪ $27.5 million for a small business rent, mortgage and utility support program
▪ $18 million to support historically underutilized businesses
▪ $2,000 bonus for teachers and principals
▪ $1,000 bonus for school support staff
▪ $1,500 bonus to community college and university employees
Cooper also proposed a $4.3 billion bond for schools, higher education, water and sewer infrastructure and affordable housing that would require a public vote.
He proposed a $988 million health care infrastructure bond that would support health facilities, public health labs and development of a vaccine. It would not require a public vote.
Renewed push on teacher pay, Medicaid expansion
The Democratic governor also brought up what was at the center of last year’s budget stalemate: Medicaid expansion. He again urged lawmakers to pass it. But in the 2019 budget battle, the Republican-majority Senate and House did not support it. In the end, an overall budget was never signed into law, and a series of smaller, “mini” budget bills were passed instead.
“Unlike last year, we are in the middle of a pandemic,” Cooper told reporters.
Cooper said that North Carolina is now “fighting for every federal dollar we can get” and expressed frustration that the General Assembly would still oppose it.
“Now is the time to expand Medicaid,” he said, noting other states, including those led by Republican governors, that have already passed it.
The other key issue of the 2019 budget stalemate was teacher pay. This summer, the legislature passed, and Cooper signed, a bill to give every teacher a $350 bonus this fall.
Cooper said the proposed bonuses to teachers, principals and support staff would show how much they are appreciated.
“Notice this is not raises,” he said. “We don’t know what the budget forecast is going to be.”
Spending CARES Act money
The General Assembly is expected to determine how to spend what’s left of federal COVID-19 relief funds the state received through the CARES Act.
According to the legislature’s fiscal research division, $351.5 million in federal money cannot be spent unless Congress amends the federal CARES Act to help states with their budget shortfalls. State lawmakers will be able to spend between $552.4 million and $903.9 million, depending on what the federal government decides.
Cooper said officials know they have the more than $900 million that must be spent by Dec. 30, and lamented Congress leaving Washington, D.C., without making a decision on the spending flexibility. His proposal was both for COVID-19 federal funds and state general funds. He said the money is there and that state lawmakers should stay longer than the planned few days to “get it done.”
Already, state House members heard from K-12 and higher education officials that they want $350 million in additional education spending for COVID-19.
Tax filings and payments were postponed this year from April 15 to July 15, and state revenue projections have been delayed, too. Earlier this month, legislative economists Barry Boardman and Emma Turner emailed lawmakers that a planned revision of the May forecast would be delayed until late September.
“The longer the pandemic remains elevated the greater the damage to the economy,” they wrote. Once COVID-19 starts to show signs of subsiding, they will evaluate the economic impact of businesses reopening.
The forecast is designed to help lawmakers determine how much reduced revenue the state may have to deal with as they return Sept. 2. Now, the September session might only focus on how to spend COVID-19 money, and the legislature could return another time this year when the updated forecast comes out, as well as when Congress makes a decision about flexibility on CARES Act spending.
Boardman and Turner also cautioned that “if by the end of September the pandemic has not subsided in some measurable amount to where we can sort out the economic effects on the state, we could be delayed again.”
Republican response
State budget director Charlie Perusse, who is part of Cooper’s administration, said they do not expect big cuts across state government. He said the educator bonuses are a fairness issue and use money already available.
Perusse said he feels confident the next revenue forecast in late September will be a “little better.”
He said the state is in strong financial shape, noting the state’s rainy day fund of $1.2 billion.
This week, Sen. Harry Brown, a Jacksonville Republican and main budget writer, cautioned against spending $457 million in unexpected state revenue that came in, in part, because of people not taking advantage of the delay in paying their taxes.
Ahead of Cooper’s budget proposal, Brown said it is not “extra” money to spend.
“That same ‘spend now, pray later’ strategy resulted in teacher firings and salary cuts during the last recession,” Brown said in a statement Tuesday.
Donald Bryson, president and CEO of the conservative Civitas Institute, said Wednesday that Cooper’s proposal appeases special interests and ignores taxpayers’ interests. The proposal also eliminates $85 million in funding for private school vouchers, known as opportunity scholarships.
Perusse said that all existing students who have opportunity scholarships will be covered in perpetuity, calling the $85 million elimination sweeping the cash balance.
Bryson questioned the bonuses.
“How does Gov. Cooper intend to justify giving bonuses to any state employees — who never missed a paycheck — while hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens missed several this year? It is the height of pandering, while not adjusting to the realities facing North Carolina families,” Bryson said in an emailed statement.
Sen. Deanna Ballard, a Watauga County Republican who co-chairs the Senate Education Committee, said the governor’s budget proposal is late and “anything but equitable.”
“It strips low-income children, many of whom are Black, from the chance to choose the education that best suits their needs. Under the governor’s ‘equity’ plan, only the wealthy can attend private school,” Ballard said in an emailed statement.
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 3:54 PM with the headline "COVID-19 relief, teacher bonuses: Here’s what’s in NC Gov. Cooper’s budget proposal."
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