RALEIGH ó North Carolinaís new legislative leaders on Tuesday unveiled how they would close an expected $2 billion-plus budget shortfall with cuts of thousands of schoolhouse support and administrative posts while largely sparing classroom teachers.
House budget-writers proposed cutting public schools by 9 percent from levels needed to continue services at current levels. Community colleges would see a 10 percent cut. The University of North Carolina campuses would have wide leeway to figure out how to handle an overall 16 percent cut, but students would be spared new tuition increases.
The proposals are part of a series of ideas introduced to cut spending throughout state government as lawmakers work to close a budget gap of more than $2 billion for the year beginning in July. Education makes up nearly 60 percent of the state budget.
House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, said budget-writing committees will sort through the proposals and potential changes this week and possibly the next. After a budget passes the House, the Senate would write and pass its own version.
Tillis said the House and Senate still want to get a budget to Gov. Beverly Perdue by the end of May, but budget-writers said they wonít move hastily.
ěWe want to take the time thatís necessary to get all the questions answered,î said Rep. David Guice, R-Transylvania.
The cuts at the elementary and secondary school levels include shedding positions for as many as 8,700 teacher assistants who work with second- and third-graders. Funding for school central office staff would fall by 10 percent, non-instructional roles such as custodians would be cut by 15 percent, and dropout prevention grants would be eliminated.
The stateís local school boards this year had to share a $305 million cut in funding, with each district deciding where to find savings. Local school districts would have to find another $148 million in cuts over the next two years — with cuts of classroom teachers off limits.
The state funding cuts to the public university system would cost about 3,200 positions, including 1,500 faculty jobs, across the 16 UNC college campuses. The cuts would mean more than 9,000 fewer course offerings.
ěAs a result, students would find themselves in far larger classes and would find that courses they need for graduation are no longer offered or are only offered sporadically,î UNC President Tom Ross said.
The proposed cuts also include shrinking state funding for need-based financial aid, eliminate all state support for UNC Hospitals, and phase out state support for the public television network UNC-TV, Ross said.
Budget-writers in several categories rolled out suggested spending cuts that were larger than those required in public education. For a category that includes the environment and commerce departments, the $359 million in spending was 25 percent less than what would have been required to keep the agencies running at current levels next year.
In the larger Health and Human Services budget, subcommittee leaders are seeking a nearly 11 percent cut, or $527 million. The proposal accepts dozens of Perdueís recommendations but goes further by reducing the Smart Start preschool education and health initiative by 20 percent. Perdue had suggested a 5 percent cut.
Republicans also want to require the stateís managed care program for Medicaid patients to squeeze out another $80 million in spending efficiencies. Last year, lawmakers sought $45 million in savings from the Community Care program.
New cutting options not included in Perdueís budget within the criminal justice system included eliminating funding for 117 employees who work with district attorneys and eliminating funding for chaplains for juvenile and adult offenders. House Republicans also would raise court fees a combined $58 million, such as raising Superior Court costs for criminal cases by $52 to $154.50.
Republicans blamed Democrats for the austerity, accusing the party that dominated the Legislature for more than a century of loose spending.
ěWeíre financially broke and the process to prioritize the basic functions of state government is broken,î Rep. Dale Folwell, R-Forsyth, a member of the House leadership. ěWeíve been hired to fix it.î
Democrats decried the potential cuts, particularly in education, as unreasonable and harming middle-class families with layoffs. They suggested the GOPís plan should look more like fellow Democrat Perdueís proposal, which softens the size of cuts by allowing most of a penny sales tax set to expire in July to remain on the books.
ěThe education cuts are beyond devastating,î said House Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange. ěItís not what the people of North Carolina want. They want a balanced approach.î