RALEIGH (AP) — The North Carolina House approved Wednesday night its proposed state government budget adjustments for the coming year as Republicans in charge persuaded a key handful of Democrats to support a spending plan for the second year in a row.
After nearly eight hours of amendments and debate, the chamber voted 73-46 in favor of the $20.3 billion budget proposal, as five Democrats joined all Republicans in the majority. The move threatens to override again any potential veto of Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue.
The GOP-led House managed to override Perdue’s veto of the two-year budget in 2011, also with the help of the same five Democrats. Four are needed to give the House the ability to block any veto with a three-fifths majority. Perdue has already expressed her opposition to the updated plan rolled out last week by Republicans.
House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, said he was proud of the support for the bill, which now goes to the Senate. The Senate will make its own changes and forge a compromise with the House. The final product will be sent to Perdue’s desk.
“Hopefully the governor will see this as an opportunity for her to work with us and try to pass out a bipartisan budget,” Tillis said.
The measure would reduce by two-thirds the amount that school districts were expecting to return to the state in the coming school year without raising taxes. Perdue and many Democrats have supported a three-quarter cent sales tax increase to remove the entire $503 million and restore other spending cuts from 2011. Republicans who control the Legislature say they won’t pass such a tax.
The bill “doesn’t attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the working people of this state who cannot afford it,” said Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, one of the House’s chief budget-writers.
Democrats say the proposal leaves public schools no better off compared to a year ago. Republicans also have done very little to alleviate cuts approved in the 2011 budget to the University of North Carolina and community college systems, according to Democratic speakers during debate.
“I believe we could have done better,” I don’t think we have put our priorities together in the right place,” said Rep. Alma Adams, D-Guilford, who voted against the plan.
The plan would spend 1.7 percent more than the Legislature had provided for the coming fiscal year, but it’s 3 percent less than what Perdue, who is leaving office in January after one term, proposed earlier this month.
The five Democrats who voted with Republicans were Reps. Bill Brisson of Bladen County; Jim Crawford of Granville County; Dewey Hill of Columbus County; Bill Owens of Pasquotank County; and Tim Spear of Washington County