Bouncing budgets
Published July 2, 2014
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, July 2, 2014.
The state House spending plan hit the Senate like a rubber check Monday. It bounced right back.
The 41-page budget modification bill approved unanimously by the House last week was a scaled-down, stop-gap version of a 2014-15 proposed budget that previously weighed in at 275 pages. It was meant primarily to provide pay raises for teachers and other state employees while the two chambers continue to negotiate other details. The new fiscal year began Tuesday with no agreement in sight.
Senators didn’t think much of the House’s Budget Lite, which had been unveiled by Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) and Gov. Pat McCrory. Senate Rules Committee Chairman Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson) called it a gimmick and promptly returned it. It bounced for insufficient funds to cover Medicaid costs, Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said, adding its estimates were $200 million to $300 million too low.
McCrory disagreed Tuesday, accusing Senate leaders of preventing senators from voting on the plan. Now, a General Assembly “short” session that should have ended by now could continue for the better part of July.
The budget deadline isn’t a big deal. The budget wasn’t approved last year until July 24. Because that was a two-year budget, no action is technically required. State government can continue spending at the same level it did for the past year.
Failing to act, however, would leave teachers without a pay raise for another year. It would leave the Department of Environment and Natural Resources without additional inspectors to police coal ash ponds. It would leave veterans and their dependents without tuition assistance.
The House and Senate have major differences regarding the amount of teacher pay raises and the conditions under which teachers could get them. In the Senate budget, teachers would earn more money but only if they surrender their tenure. The House budget doesn’t make that demand. However, it relies on an unrealistic expectation of increased lottery revenue. Its Budget Lite does not, however.
Medicaid funding is another point of disagreement. In addition to disputing cost assumptions, the Senate wants to cut enrollments by rewriting eligibility rules — reducing “welfare spending,” Berger told WRAL.
Senators seem to be prepared to wait for the House to back down. Will it? Tillis, running for the U.S. Senate, wants to return to campaigning. He already has missed some recent House sessions. Yet, he doesn’t want to adjourn the session without providing the promised pay raises.
Ideally, the Senate at least will agree to the Tillis-McCrory stop-gap, which will grant those pay raises immediately — not only to teachers but to state troopers and other employees who have gone without for years.
The Tillis-McCrory plan is also better because it doesn’t prune Medicaid rolls. If there’s a funding shortfall, the reason is the excessive tax cuts granted last year. When the state depletes its accounts, it is bound to bounce checks needed to cover vital services.
