No teacher raises expected until at least January as lawmakers call it quits for 2019

Despite a flurry of negotiations aimed at getting a partial budget deal during this week’s redistricting session, teachers likely won’t get raises until January at the earliest.

Shortly before Republican legislators passed a now-vetoed bill including the average 3.9% raises for teachers from the vetoed budget, Senate Democrats quietly sent Republicans a compromise offer on raises: 6.5% average raises for teachers, with 5% raises for other state employees.

Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, D-Wake, said Thursday that he took numbers from the vetoed budget and Gov. Roy Cooper’s July compromise proposal and “basically split the baby.” The Democrats’ proposed mini-budget also included Medicaid Transformation funding, a long-planned change in how the state pays Medicaid coverage that’s been delayed because of the budget stalemate.

Senate Republicans didn’t accept Blue’s proposal, which was dated Oct. 23, but they responded with a written offer last week: A 4.9% raise for teachers at all levels of experience plus a one-time $1,000 bonus, and an agreement to cancel the proposed Department of Health and Human Services move to Granville County.

A spokesman for Senate leader Phil Berger declined to provide a copy of the full written offer, and Blue’s office said they were unable to locate a copy. But Blue said the proposal wouldn’t work because Republicans made it contingent on Democratic support for overriding the budget veto.

With those offers scuttled, the two parties are back to the blame game. House Democratic Leader Darren Jackson and most House Democrats voted against the adjournment resolution Thursday. The resolution will likely end the session as soon as new congressional maps are approved, with lawmakers returning to Raleigh on Jan. 14.

“There are a lot of educators in this state that are not happy about us going home,” Jackson said. “The parties aren’t even talking at this point. A vote for (adjournment) would be a vote to say you’re OK with that.”

On Friday, Cooper wrote to legislative leaders, calling on them to work with him before they leave town to craft a teacher pay compromise separate from the rest of the budget. “Our teachers and school personnel are working hard in advance of the holiday season without knowing if or when they will receive a much-needed salary increase,” Cooper wrote. “We can do the right thing and pass and sign a bipartisan bill to do more than the minimal pay package I vetoed last week.”

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, issued a news release Thursday highlighting a Twitter thread from the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC). The group said it was “disappointed” in Cooper’s veto of a pay raise mini-budget and called on the legislature to override that veto and the overall budget veto. SEANC also criticized Cooper for seeking larger raises for teachers than other state employees.

“Too often, the loudest voices in the room get the most attention,” Berger said in a news release. “State workers who regulate our drinking water and staff our prisons deserve fair treatment, and calls for continued inequity are nothing short of political pandering.”

Blue said he’s open to further negotiations, but it “looks like it’ll be January” before anything gets passed.

“I’m always open and we’ve been reaching out, seeing if there was some appetite for it — pretty much right now to no avail.”

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This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 1:01 PM with the headline "No teacher raises expected until at least January as lawmakers call it quits for 2019."