The North Carolina Senate was the last to release its proposed budget, doing so in a press conference on Monday afternoon. The proposed House budget was passed last month, and Governor Pat McCrory’s proposed budget was unveiled in March.
The budget that is approved will probably be a compromise between all three proposals, said Rep. Mark Brody, who serves Anson and Union counties in the N.C. House of Representatives. On Monday afternoon, he admitted that he hadn’t had a chance to look over the Senate’s proposal yet. “We’ll see what the agreements are and what the disagreements are, and we’ll go from there,” Brody said.
One of the major aspects of this year’s budget is the projected $400 million surplus, which Brody said he hopes will be given back to the taxpayers in some form. “What’s most important in my mind is what to do with the surplus,” he said. “I know we’re going to do a Medicaid overrun, which will absorb some of that surplus, but I think we’ll have some interesting things pertaining to Anson County.”
Brody said he will fight to ensure that the budget includes funding for incentives, especially those that will go toward bringing business and industry to rural counties. “I really hope to have some incentives for rural counties like Anson County,” he said. “Usually, all the incentive funding goes to Mecklenburg and Wake. I think the Senate version deals with that.”
Brody said both he and Sen. Tom McInnis, who represents Anson in the Senate, are working to maintain funding for Anson High School’s Youth Career Connect program.
“I support the Senate budget because if offers the rural counties additional revenue via the change in sales tax distribution and additional pay for our teachers, prison guards, and highway patrol officers,” Sen. McInnis said on Tuesday morning. “This budget strengthens our economic development for all counties in our state. It offers a fix for Medicaid. Finally, it offers a balanced budget that keeps our spending on priority areas across all areas of state government.”
“Voters expect us to keep our promises and maintain the budgeting and spending discipline and commitment to pro-growth tax reforms that helped give us a $400 million surplus this year,” Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said during the press conference Monday. “I’m grateful to members of the Senate for crafting a structurally sound, sustainable budget that does just that, by setting priorities, living within our means and taking steps to let North Carolinians keep more of their own money.”
Major highlights of the proposed state budget are listed below. The full budget proposals can be found online at ncleg.net.
Taxes
The Senate proposal includes cutting the personal income tax rate from 5.75 to 5.5 percent beginning in 2016.
Similarly, the governor’s budget called for no increase in taxes.
Education
The Senate budget increases funding for K-12 public schools by $453 million, for community colleges by $5 million and for the University of North Carolina system by $160 million over two years. The House plan would increase K-12 spending by $269 million. The House budget also includes $88.9 million next fiscal year to continue to fund teacher assistants at the current level.
The Senate plan also calls for increasing teacher salaries to $35,000 for starting teachers, up to $50,000 for those with 25 years or more of experience. Sen. McInnis said the Senate’s budget also aims to “reduce class sizes in kindergarten to a 1:17 and in grades 1-3 to a 1:15 teacher-student ratio — a level research has repeatedly shown is key to academic success in early grades.”
All three plans increase funding for textbooks and digital resources for classrooms.
Transportation
The proposed Senate budget includes “adjustments” to DMV fees “reflect inflation since the last adjustment a decade ago.” The House proposal goes a step further, increasing driver’s license, vehicle titles and other fees by 50 percent, and increasing the vehicle registration fee from $28 to $42.
The House proposes to reduce the gas tax by 3 cents, and the Senate’s plan increases funding for road and bridge maintenance throughout the state.
According to a press release from Sen. McInnis, the Senate budget “makes good on repeated promises from state leaders of both parties to end the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars from the Highway Fund to the General Fund and ensure that money is finally spent on building and maintaining safe roads and bridges.”
McInnis added, “Our structurally sound and sustainable budget … [sets] priorities, living within our means and taking steps to let North Carolinians keep more of their own money.