Raises for teachers could come with new school year, even if no NC budget deal is reached

Hundreds of thousands of North Carolina students will start a new school year in about a month. And the teachers and staff who work in traditional calendar schools don’t yet know how much they will be paid.

The state budget standoff this summer between the Republican-dominated House and Senate could be resolved as soon as this week, with House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger meeting again Thursday as they continue to negotiate a deal.

But if there’s no deal yet, teachers and state employees could potentially still get raises by September, Moore told reporters on Thursday.

“The Plan B, let’s say for some reason, we can’t reach a budget — I believe we’ll reach a budget, but let’s say that we can’t — then what we can do is adopt the mini budget, which will then take into account pay raises, (school) enrollment growth, Medicaid rebates. Basically those things that aren’t really controversial, but need to get done to keep the government functioning,” Moore said.

Berger said last week that if it comes to having to pass mini budgets, a bill with raises would be a priority. Moore said he would support the first mini budget being pay raises.

In 2019, when the state budget standoff was between the governor and General Assembly rather than within the the legislature as it is this summer, a series of piecemeal budgets were passed instead of a full budget bill.

Medicaid expansion

Mini budgets, if they happen in August, won’t include Medicaid expansion. However, Moore said he supports N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley’s move to start getting ready for expansion. DHHS will start the process as if the budget will be passed by Sept. 1, so it can go into effect on Oct. 1.

Kinsley said in DHHS’ announcement Wednesday that “moving forward now sets the department on a path to be able to get health care coverage to thousands of people as soon as possible.”

DHHS, which is part of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration, also wants Medicaid expansion decoupled from the budget, but Republican leadership isn’t interested. Cooper signed an expansion bill into law this spring, but its implementation is tied to the budget.

“Medicaid has to be a part of the full budget,” Moore said. If there isn’t a budget by Sept. 1, he said, they will reassess.

The amount of raises are already set, but the leaders are bogged down over the amount of balancing reserves, revenue and tax cuts.

Moore quipped that last time he and Berger negotiated the budget, homemade pimento cheese sandwiches got them over the finish line, so he might get some from Harris Teeter.

In a tweet later on Thursday, Cooper criticized the Republicans’ impasse over tax cuts and asked, “Why not just middle class tax cuts, real teacher pay raises & Medicaid expansion?”