N.C. Legislative Building
The following is a press release from the office of Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger
North Carolina Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) today announced an agreement on next year’s budget total. Expenditures for 2019-20 will total just over $24 billion, a 3.45 percent increase from last year’s budget total.
In a joint statement, Senator Berger and Speaker Moore said, “Responsible Republican budgeting has led to a boom decade for North Carolina. We don’t intend to change the formula that’s balanced our budget, provided revenue surpluses and record savings, lowered taxes for 99 percent of taxpayers, and resulted in more North Carolinians working than at any time in history.”
With the topline figure settled, House and Senate budget writers will fill in the details in the coming weeks. The latest projections from the nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division estimate revenues will total $24.8 billion next year.
The $24 billion figure does not include payments for the state’s debt service, which will come from the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund.
The budget agreement is consistent with state spending deals approved by Republican legislators this decade that responsibly limit total spending growth while prioritizing new money for education. A report from the National Education Association this week showed North Carolina has jumped ahead of 18 states in average teacher pay over the last five years. In that time, Republicans provided teachers with five consecutive pay raises, representing the third-highest increase in the entire country.
