NC governor lays out budget proposal as legislature reconvenes. Here are the highlights.

Childcare and education are the name of the game in North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s $34.5 billion budget proposal for 2024-25.

Cooper released his budget proposal on Wednesday just before the General Assembly reconvened for the short session, where their main goal is to make budget adjustments.

The state has a $1.4 billion surplus to work with for the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the Office of State Budget and Management.

Notably, the governor’s proposal includes an average 8.5% raise for teachers and a $1,500 bonus. It also includes a $2.5 billion school construction bond referendum that would appear on the ballot in November and a $34 million investment in Propel NC, a community college program that prepares students for skilled work positions.

These changes would make North Carolina’s starting teacher salaries the highest in the Southeast.

Along with these additions, Cooper is continuing to call for a moratorium on private school vouchers. He said the General Assembly will be faced with a stark choice this short session – to invest in education and small business tax cuts or to continue tax giveaways for the rich and extra funding for private schools.

"That's the billionaire dollar choice,” Cooper said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Further, he noted that it would be difficult to make his desired investments in public education and childcare while also fully funding the Opportunity Scholarship.

“It would be hard for them to do all of that and fit it into the budget, particularly with all the other priorities that we have, and that’s why this budget is about making a choice,” Cooper said. “When we're not raising taxes, which is important that we don't raise taxes, there’s only so much taxpayer money to go around.”

His plan for childcare investment included $745 million. This money would increase childcare employee pay, help with cost-sharing programs between employees and employers and support grants for childcare workers to pay for their own childcare.

This is needed now more than ever with COVID funding fading, he said.

“Federal pandemic funding is coming to an end, and only 26% of parents can afford childcare,” Cooper said.

The focus on education and childcare comes as no surprise considering Cooper named 2024 the year of public schools. But he argued that these investments, or lack thereof, will impact the state’s standing as No. 1 in business.

CEOs are asking about childcare, career training and education, he said. “They’re worried that their employees with young children will have to quit work because they don't have childcare," Cooper said.

Cooper’s plan would not raise taxes, Kristin Walker the State Budget Director said, and “taxes on the first $200,000 of individual income will go down,” according to the proposal. There would also be tax breaks for small businesses, childcare expenses and land donation to conservation.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: NC governor focuses on education, raises, childcare in budget proposal