It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, Wednesday did not disappoint as a busy day in the North Carolina General Assembly as the state's long-awaited budget cleared its first major floor test on Wednesday in both chambers, passing initial votes in both the North Carolina House and Senate and moving lawmakers within one vote, which we are expecting later on today of sending the spending plan to Democrat Governor Josh Stein's desk. The budget received bipartisan votes of 37 to 12 in the Senate and 92 to 22 in the North Carolina House. The budget bill, also known as Senate Bill 2. 257 is expected to receive its final votes coming up this morning. The North Carolina House and Senate both have early times: the House at 10 o'clock, the Senate at 11 o'clock this morning.
It will not be long after both of those times that we expect the budget to pass both of those chambers in a second reading. And that means it could be on the governor's desk sometime around noon on this Thursday. When the budget receives its final approval, the governor would have until July the 12th to sign it, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature under the North Carolina Constitution. The governor has 10 days after a bill is presented to act on it. House Speaker Destin Hall, who spends most of his time, as you would expect, presiding over the North Carolina House during the budget debate yesterday, left the presiding station and went to his seat all the way in the back of the room as he does not spend a lot of time there and led the budget discussion from his seat on the House floor.
Here's the House Speaker. We wanted to make sure that we invest in the people of the state, that we're investing in state employees, teachers, law enforcement, the folks who work so hard every day for this state. And the product that you see today includes those substantial raises for those employees. The teacher pay raise in this bill, an average of 8%. That's the largest that we've had since 2006.
It's one of the largest that we've had in the last 30 or 40 years in this state. If you look at state troopers, other state law enforcement, some of those raises are 15, even close to 20%. making sure those folks who are risking their life every day for us are paid a reasonable wage. And we didn't get here easily. We got here through a long series of negotiations and debates, but it's ultimately worth it because budgets are matters that really reflect what this body is after.
And there's really no more important asset in this state than our people. And of course, for this body, that starts with those folks who we deal with their salary, those state employees. And so I'm proud of the work that we've done on those things. And just like everything else, it's never as much as you want it to be. There's always competing interests within a budget.
We have we don't have unlimited money. We're not like the federal government. We can't print money around here. That's probably a good idea for this body that it can't print money. But we have to make those decisions about where those funds should go and where they should be invested.
And this one overwhelmingly invests it in the people of this state to a degree more so certainly than any budget since I've been here. And I think that the budget you see before you today does more to help more North Carolinians than any budget that we've had in a long time. We're doing all those things, and we're investing in the UNC system, the community college system, the K-12 education system, all across this state. Which also are critically important assets to us because a lot of states have low taxes, a lot of states have a great business environment. Those things are important.
And we've got those in North Carolina. Thanks to the work of a lot of folks over a period of time, not just this General Assembly, but those before it, we're ranked number one for business year after year after year. We want to keep doing that, but we also want to make sure we're the number one state for everybody, for the workers of this state to the average everyday folks in this state. And that was my goal in this budget, to get as far as we could in that to helping those everyday people, the people who were living paycheck to paycheck. who are getting up every day, they're working 40 hours a week, doing all we can to help them to try to ease the burden that they may face right now.
And one of the ways we've done that is through the tax policy. Low taxes are important. We want to continue to have low taxes in North Carolina. And we do that in this budget. We continue to cut income taxes, but we do it at a responsible rate, making sure that the state doesn't wind up in a financial disaster.
And we're well prepared for anything that may happen in the economy in this budget. We leave tons of money, billions of dollars in our savings in a rainy day, and in other savings funds that we have in this state. That way, if something happens, if a storm happens, we're able to weather it in this state while continuing to cut those taxes. That's not an easy task to do. A lot of states across this country would love to have that dynamic.
They would love to be able to continue to cut taxes, but also not bankrupt their state. If you look at some of the states around us, some of the competitor states, they're trying to do tax reform.
Some of them have accomplished tax reform. But even the reform that they're doing right now doesn't even meet what our law has currently before this bill passed. And that speaks to the responsible budgeting that this body has done now for many years. That's House Speaker Destin Hall, as I mentioned, making his way out of the dais as the presiding officer over the North Carolina House to his regular seat on the House floor as a budget negotiations. More than two and a half hours of budget negotiations kicked off on the House floor yesterday in Raleigh.
A lot of the discussion about this budget deals with the tax policy that is located in it. Here's Representative Dean Arp, the Republican from Union County, describing some of those details. We cut taxes for the hardworking people of North Carolina. Real reductions that will make real differences in real paychecks. And at the same time, We set this state on a better trajectory to pay for what North Carolina actually needs.
And we did it deliberately. and responsibly. Why? Because a tax cut you cannot afford is not a tax cut. It's a promise you break later.
With We secured the relief. We secured the fiscal strength to deliver it. That is conservative governing. That's why we fought so long and worked so hard. to get this thing right.
Representative Dean Art from Union County describing some of the tax policy, the lengthy road that it has taken, and it has been one to get to this point. Even with some of the major tax relief in this budget, one of the largest items worth of expenditures from lawmakers as it is proposed right now are raises across the state. Representative Aaron Perre, the Republican from Wake County, gave a broad overview of what some of those raises look like for a variety of different state employees. In fact, for our teachers, these raises are the largest raises that the state has seen in the last 20 years, as mentioned before. And of course, these across-the-board raises are very impressive, but it does situate North Carolina for starting teacher pay, number one in the southeast, which we all should be very proud of.
So for well, I guess I'll start with teachers. It's an 8% average raise for teachers. This is the highest average raise in decades since 2006 and the highest teacher pay raise since Republicans took over. Starting teacher pay increased to $53,838. Teacher, that's base pay, $48,000 base pay plus local supplements.
Teacher bonuses, $500 for teachers for 0 to 15 years, and $1,000 for teachers 16 years plus. On average, teachers with 25 or more years of experience would earn an estimated $72,847, including state and local supplements. This proposal continues a trend of historically large Republican led investments in teacher pay. And under GOP leadership, teacher pay has risen faster and more consistently than under previous Democrat controlled governments. State employees, 3% across the board raise.
Non-teacher bonuses, $1,750 for those making less than $65,000 a year and $1,000 for those making more than $65,000 a year. Retirees, 2.5 across the board COLA bonuses. Law enforcement. A minimum of 13% across the board raise for state law enforcement and correctional officers at the DAC. 15% increase for sworn members of the State Highway Patrol, 16.2% increase for sworn law enforcement of the SBI and the ALE.
Local law enforcement officers will receive a one-time $1,750 bonus. I wanted to also point out, and I know this will be covered in education, that with the expansion of advanced teaching roles that our veteran teachers will be able to receive up to $10,000 in a pay raise per year. That's Representative Aaron Perre, the Republican from Wake County, kind of giving a broad overview there of some of the salary increases, one-time bonuses, and long-term raises for state employees, teachers, law enforcement, and other individuals that work and serve at the pleasure of the state of North Carolina. Coming up here in just a couple of minutes, we will hear some details about public safety. We'll hear from Representatives Mike Scheetzelt and Representative Carla Cunningham, who made an impassioned speech from the House floor.
We'll have those details as we continue our coverage of the state budget being unveiled in Raleigh this week. This episode sponsored by She's Birdie. You lock the hotel room door, then check it again. and maybe one more time, because even the nicest room can feel unfamiliar at night. That's why She's Birdie created Birdie Box.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT continuing our coverage of what was a very busy Wednesday in the North Carolina General Assembly as both the North Carolina House and Senate took their first official votes on the budget plan outlined in the state of North Carolina, Senate Bill 257, a start to finish with both chambers. A little over six hours of debate and discussion between the House and Senate as lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle debated the issue.
However, the budget received strong bipartisan votes in both chambers. When all the dust settled and all was done, 37 to 12 in the North Carolina Senate, 92 to 22 in the North Carolina House, setting up a final vote coming up a little bit later on this morning. We are hearing from lawmakers describing some of the details and some of the Important items in this budget. Here's Representative Mike Scheetzel, the Republican from Wake County, describing some of the public safety investments that this budget makes. These investments strengthen our system, I believe, at every level.
from prevention. to investigation to prosecution. The budget includes a $30 million increase in school safety grants that provide funds to support students in crisis. School safety training. and the purchase of safety equipment in our schools.
Mm-hmm. The budget provides funding for 24 SBI positions to support investigation. And enforcement activities related to drug crimes, vapor product laws. and other areas of the SBI's jurisdiction. We've also added 18 new assistant district attorney positions across the state.
And funding to support four additional ADAs to serve as special assistant United States attorneys. Again, I believe this budget makes significant investments. To making North Carolina an even safer state to live, I commend the budget to you and ask for your support. That's Representative Mike Sheetzelt from Wake County describing some of those public safety investments there. Representative Carla Cunningham, she, of course, has been in the news a lot over the last couple of months, going back to portions of early March losing a Democrat primary in which Democrat Governor Josh Stein in the North Carolina Democrat Party went in on her very hard.
She did, in fact, lose that primary election. Shortly after that, changing her party affiliation from Democrat to unaffiliated. She was one of the speakers that got up and announced that, in fact, she was going to be supporting the budget due to two major issues that have unfolded in the Charlotte area over the last year: the death, the brutal murder of Irina Zarutska, and the awful tragedy surrounding six-year-old Dominique Moody. Here's Representative Cunningham. Today I've made a decision.
To support this conference report, as it is written. I will lift up two items. The first one is a reinters law. In order to make a renaissance law effective, this budget did add the 18 new assistant district attorneys. several of them in Micklinburg County.
It added the 10 capital criminal appeal attorneys to meet the new timeline. and increased caseload created by Reynolds Law. As you can imagine, the second issue that I will lift up will be on the Dominique Moody Safety Act. We are watched. As their lives were displayed across the media in the state.
in some cases across the country. The Dominique Moody Safety Act. is fully funded in this budget. What will it do? It will.
Create a child welfare safety escalation team. We'll support county Departments of Social Services, provide an additional level of review to ensure Child safety statewide. As well as introduce advanced data-driven oversight. that can assist with accountability within this state's child protection laws. Two tragedies.
We saw Lives lost. The most vulnerable people I'm protected. We all watched. But what did we do? Today, I say to you, We have done something.
We have done something. Do not let fear Keep you from standing. firm on what is right. Today I am asking you. Will you stand for a reiner's law?
And will you stand for the Dominique Moody Safety Act? Are you standing on sinking sand? Or are you standing on a foundation for North Carolina's children and youth for the next generation? I ask for your support for the bill. One of the more impassioned comments on the House floor yesterday as debate took place in Raleigh, Representative Cunningham, the first non-Republican to speak in favor of the House bill or the Senate bill, excuse me, 257.
That is the Appropriations Act, the bill that made its way through its first votes in both chambers yesterday, talking about two very high-profile issues here in North Carolina over the last year. Again, the murder of Irina Zarutska and the horrific death and the complete and total failure of government as it related to six-year-old Dominique Moody. She would, in fact, then go on to vote in favor of the budget.
Some other major priorities for lawmakers in Raleigh, one of the big headaches, Department of Motor Vehicles and DOT. Representative Alan Chesser from Nash County describes some of the investments that the state is making there. Approximately $5.9 billion that we're committing to North Carolina's transportation system. We are focused on DMV modernization. Roads, bridges, safety programs, ferries, airports, and a particular focus this year on infrastructure resilience.
And I'll touch on that towards the end.
So we recommitted to our our call to modernize DMV To the tune of about $237 million. That includes raising the starting salary from $44,000 to $52,000 a year for driver's license examiners, created an additional 30 positions for oversight staff. 3 million of that went to driver's license ID card productions to try to help us get out of the backlog. We're opening at least four new driver's license offices in the areas that need them most across the state. We recognize that this is a need, the wait line.
or the wait list that has occurred, and we're doing what we can to get ahead of it. General maintenance reserves, which is how we pave our roads and do our work. We're increasing that by almost an additional $30 million. The balance will come up to nearly $1 billion in reserves to give our maintenance yards and our guys that are doing the line work the flexibility that they need to do the work that they do. We're going to the STIP is going to increase by $122 million this year.
That allows DOT the flexibility to do capital infrastructure planning. and plan on those big major projects that we need all over the state. That's Representative Alan Chesser describing some of the DOT and Department of Motor Vehicle investments that lawmakers plan to make through this very large $34.4 billion budget that was unveiled by state lawmakers earlier this week. Coming up on the other side, we'll dive into some more details, including investments in farming. We'll hear from Representative Brendan Jones in a final budget overview and some objections from more than 30 Democrat lawmakers that voted against this budget as it was proposed in Raleigh yesterday.
We'll get into those details coming up here in just a couple of minutes. I'm gonna go. It's 5:37. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig.
Good Thursday morning to you. We are continuing our coverage of what was a very busy Wednesday in the North Carolina General Assembly as first votes were taken in both the North Carolina House and Senate on Senate Bill 257. That is the more than 630-page, $34.4 billion budget deal unveiled by state lawmakers this week. The Senate took it first yesterday in a 37 to 12 vote. It did advance past its first reading in the North Carolina House just a couple of hours later.
The final vote there, 92 to 22, advancing past its first reading as both chambers, the House set to gavel in at 10 o'clock this morning and take its final vote, the Senate at 11 o'clock this morning as well. After that, presumably, When this legislation passes both of those chambers, it will be sent to Democrat Governor Josh Stein's desk, who will have until July the 12th to either sign it, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature. We do expect the governor to have a signing ceremony today for some other pieces of legislation, not expecting the budget on that list, but we're not immediately clear exactly how that is going to play out. We are going through some details in the 634-page budget, hearing from different state lawmakers about some of the investments that this state budget makes. Representative Kyle Hall, the Republican from Stokes County, talked about the investment in agriculture.
Farming does remain the number one business here in North Carolina. He says the state continues its investments on that front. Farming isn't just an industry where I'm from, it's a way of life, it's who we are, and I'm glad to say that this budget reflects that. We're putting real dollars behind protecting our farmland, nearly $54.4 million for the Farmland Preservation Trust Fund. Every acre of good farmland we lose to pavement is an acre we don't get back to our children and our grandchildren.
This budget says we take that seriously. We're also standing behind our forestry division with $4.5 million to support emergency response and our aviation capabilities. the folks who are in the air and on the ground when wildfire threatens our communities. This budget also looks out for our tobacco farmers and rural communities through continued support for the Tobacco Trust Fund, and it strengthens the partnership between our state and our agricultural economy in ways that matter well beyond the farm gate. Outside of farming, Representative Hall also talked about some of the other major investments that the state of North Carolina is making.
This budget invests in the Select Sites Readiness Program and in tourism and business marketing. The tools our state uses to compete for good jobs, not just in the Triangle or in Charlotte, but in rural counties that too often get overlooked. It supports the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, and it puts real money, nearly $134 million, behind site work for major projects like Jet Zero, the kind of investment that brings a generation of jobs to North Carolina. And it expands the JMAC grant program to help a pharmaceutical manufacturer invest in water and wastewater infrastructure, the kind of practical job creating partnership that pays dividends for years. Yeah.
I also want to highlight something that doesn't make the headlines, but that every small town leader in this state cares deeply about, and that's water. This budget puts $615 million in state and federal funds toward water and wastewater infrastructure, including new grant programs to address emerging contaminants and to help emergency situations at privately operated water systems. That's Representative Kyle Hall, the Republican from Stokes County, talking about some of the investments in farming, some of the other business and infrastructure investments that the state of North Carolina is planning to make in this budget. After about an hour of Republican lawmakers and Representative Carla Cunningham, the unaffiliated member from Mecklenburg County, spent time all taking turns describing different portions of the budget, Representative Brendan Jones, the Republican from Columbus County, gave his final take on the state budget. This budget is about the people who make North Carolina work.
It's about the teacher standing in front of a classroom. It's about the trooper serving on the side of the road. It's about the correctional officer doing hard work behind the prison walls. It's about state employees. helping a citizen get what they need.
It's about the family sitting around the kitchen table trying to make every dollar go a little further. That is who this budget is for. We are delivering an 8% average raise for teachers, the highest average teacher raise in decades. The highest raise since Republicans took the majority. Starting teacher pays moves to $53,838.
And when you include the local base pay and supplements, Teachers with 25 years or more experience will get roughly $72,850. $47. That's real money. That is respect, and that's an investment to the people who teach our children. We're also delivering a 3 percent across the board raise for state employees.
Providing a $1,750 bonus for employees making less than $65,000 and $1,000 bonus for employees making more than that. And for retirees, This budget provides a 2.5% COLA bonus. These are the people who have served our state and keep showing up and did their jobs. This is saying you've not been forgotten. We also make historic investments in our law enforcement, a minimum of 13% for state law enforcement and correction officers.
15% for our sworn members of the Highway Patrol, and a 16.2% increase for our sworn SBI and ALE. And a $1,750 bonus for local law enforcement officers. This matters. Because backing our law enforcement means more than saying thank you. It means making sure the people who protect our communities, patrol our roads, investigate crimes, and keep order in our prisons know that North Carolina stands with them.
Now, affordability is at the heart of this budget. Families across North Carolina are feeling the pressure. Groceries cost more, gas costs more, housing costs more. Insurance costs more, and childcare costs more. And when families are feeling the kind of pressure, government has a responsibility to be disciplined.
This budget keeps taxes low. It protects the taxpayer. It invests $25 million in workforce housing and $10 million in the Housing Trust Fund to address one of the biggest cost pressures facing working families. Because affordability is just not a line of speech. It's whether a young couple can buy a home.
Whether a teacher can stay in the classroom. whether trooper can keep serving. Whether a state employee can keep up. with rising cost. This budget recognizes that.
And it responds. And we do it responsibly. We leave 1 billion. Unappropriated. We put $450 million into the savings reserve and set aside $1.325 billion.
and the stabilization and inflation reserve. We reserved $350 million for disaster response. That is conservative budgeting. That is responsible budgeting. That is how you invest in people today.
while protecting the North Carolina of tomorrow. This budget keeps our communities safe. It invests in school safety. It funds new SBI positions. It adds prosecutors.
It strengthens public safety from the classroom to the courthouse. continues helping Western North Carolina recover with additional $700 million in Helene relief to match local dollars, state dollar recovery projects, housing recovery and private road and bridge recovery. That matters because when North Carolina is hurting, We show up. We help rebuild and we keep our word. Here's the bottom line.
This teacher gives historic raises. It gives law enforcement correction officers a historic raise. It gives state employees a raise and a bonus. It helps retirees, it keeps taxes low, it invests in housing, public safety, disaster recovery, and the people who serve the state. Every single day.
This is a good budget. It is a responsible budget. and it's a budget that says clearly where the majority stands. We stand with working families, we stand with teachers, we stand with law enforcement, we stand with the taxpayers, and we stand with North Carolina. That's Representative Brendan Jones, the Republican majority leader from Columbus County, giving a broad overview of all of the investments that the state budget, as it is understood right now, Senate Bill 257, makes here across the state.
All right, we've heard from those that are in favor of this budget, those that are in favor of this legislation. Coming up after this, we'll hear from some of the Democrats in Raleigh, the 33 that voted against that budget. Those details coming up here in just a couple of minutes. Good morning again. It's 5:52.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. We are talking about the state budget this morning as it cleared both the North Carolina House and Senate in pretty strong majorities yesterday. First floor votes taking place in the House and Senate on Wednesday. Additional votes expected. The final votes expected coming up a little bit later on this morning.
We have heard from Republican lawmakers about some of the major investments that this state budget makes.
However, not everybody in Raleigh is in full agreement with that. 33 or 22 Democrats voting against the budget in the North Carolina House. We'll start off with Representative Deb Butler, the Republican from New Hanover County, as she says this budget does not make strong investments across the state.
So instead of fully investing in our future, this budget continues down the path of eliminating our corporate income tax. This budget is very careful when it comes to teachers. It's very cautious when it comes to our state employees. This budget limits what we spend on childcare, housing, and basic services that families rely on. But, buddy, it is bold.
when it comes to stuffing the coffers of big corporations. That is so wrong-headed. Um You know, we did not become strong by accident here in North Carolina. We became strong because generations before us invested in schools and roads and public safety and community colleges, but mostly. We invested in the people who make this state work.
All of those reasons are why investments come here in the first place. If we continue to forego future revenue, We are narrowing what we can afford to do for the next child. the next classroom, the next community. That's Representative Deb Butler, the Republican from New Hanover County, one of the 22 Democrats voting against the first reading of the budget in Raleigh yesterday. We'll now switch over to Representative Julie Von Haifen, the Democrat from District 36, that is in Wake County, as she took a shot at the very popular school choice program known as the Opportunity Scholarship Program here in North Carolina.
At a time when our schools are crying out for help, This budget does not meet the moment for our students. This budget does not live up to its potential for our kids. We heard a lot today about teacher salaries, but we did not hear a lot about investment in our schools. We cannot forget that we continue to divert billions of taxpayer money to private school vouchers. as well as about a million dollars in this budget alone to market that program to North Carolinians.
Public schools will receive over $100 million less in the next year because of the diversion of students to our voucher schools. We heard today what you do matters more than what you say. Will anyone who examines this budget clearly and doesn't just listen to talking points? I think it's clear that what is being done is not nearly enough. That's Representative Julie Von Haifen describing some of her objections to the Opportunity Scholarship Program.
Here's Representative Robert Reeves, the House Minority Leader, with his final take on the budget.
So, that we continue to invest in our people. My goal, and this caucus's goal, is to invest in those people because of the folks that sat in this chamber. 50 years ago, when I was starting school, Had not decided to invest in me, I'm not here. and as a ripple effect throughout my family. My kids don't have what they have.
My parents aren't living the life that they're living. Nobody's living the life that they're living because folks aren't asking to live your life. Or the lives of wealthy friends of ours. They're just asking to be able to live a good life. And we have got to invest in them to make that happen.
That's Representative Robert Reeves, the House Minority Leader, speaking against the budget. Spoke for right around 12 minutes.
However, he was one of the 23 Democrats that did vote in favor of this legislation. As I have been mentioning throughout the show this morning, 37 to 12 is the final vote in the Senate, 92 to 22 in the North Carolina House. As the budget is expected to have a second vote in the House coming up at 10 o'clock this morning, 11 o'clock over at the North Carolina Senate. Presumably, it will move through both of those chambers and make its way to Democrat Governor Josh Stein's desk later on today for a signature he will have until July the 12th to sign, veto, or allow it to become law without his signature. Continued coverage this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
All right, that's going to do it for a Thursday edition. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT.
