WHAT IT MEANS: "Back to the drawing board," according to Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, who joined Governor Cooper at a Friday Morning press conference announcing the veto. While Medicaid expansion was a major priority of the governor's not found in the legislature's budget, Governor Cooper said he objected to the plan for numerous reasons. "This budget as written doesn't move us forward," he said.
ON TAP: The governor expects Democrats in the legislature to sustain his veto, as there is no longer a veto-proof majority across the aisle. House and Senate minority leaders agreed there would be no override. The governor added that his staff would spend next week analyzing the details for a counter-proposal he would give legislative leaders, likely in the week following. Firing back, Sen. Phil Berger on Friday he had already asked for a counter-offer and didn't receive one. "This is and has always been about Medicaid expansion," Senator Berger contended.
THE SKINNY: A vetoed budget means negotiation over the contents of the expansive plan, which as approved by the General Assembly fills out hundreds of pages of programming, including many pieces of interest to cities and towns. While we wait to see what happens on a compromise, we will in this Bulletin link to
a full explainer document on where the governor, House and Senate have stood on specific budget items. Meanwhile, lawmakers continue to move priority bills, and we'll highlight some of the pertinent ones here. Read on.
After weeks of work among House and Senate budget negotiators, the chambers on Thursday gave approval (by votes of 33-15 in the Senate; 64-49 in the House) to
a $24 billion compromise spending plan and sent it to Gov. Roy Cooper. He announced his veto of the plan relatively quickly.
"This budget won't do," Governor Cooper said at a
press conference at the Executive Mansion on Friday morning surrounded by supporters, including legislative Democrats. He explained that while he wanted Medicaid expansion in the plan, which doesn't include it, he had a list of other reasons for pulling out the veto stamp. In remarks, he described North Carolinians having a hard time with health care and students in inadequate learning environments, and declared that the budget doesn't do enough to help.
Just after the veto,
Senate leader Phil Berger responded that the majority party's leaders in the legislature tried to work with Governor Cooper and had asked for a counter-offer to their positions, but never received one. "This is and has always been about Medicaid expansion," Senator Berger said before highlighting other parts of the budget, like raises for state employees and teachers. Earlier talks between the governor and legislature about Medicaid expansion in the budget did not produce an agreement.
What's next? Negotiation, just days before the start of the new fiscal year. "I promise to work hard on a compromise solution," Governor Cooper said Friday, adding he expects Democrats to sustain his veto, which Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue and House Minority Leader Darren Jackson backed up in their own remarks Friday. "We're going back to the drawing board," Senator Blue said.
A bill backed by the League and sponsored by Municipal Caucus co-chairs Reps. Gale Adcock and Steve Ross cleared the House in a series of floor and committee votes this week. HB 557 Municipal Omnibus Bill, which improves government efficiency on a wide variety of topics, now heads to the Senate for its consideration. The bill included provisions in support of several top goals of cities, including one that extends the notification a county must give the municipalities within it when the county commission switches the method it uses to distribute sales tax among the municipalities. The current window for notification is two months, and the bill would extend that time to five months prior to a switch. This change would allow affected municipalities more time to adjust their budgets for the different funding level. Read about the other items contained in this bill in a prior League report.