(The Center Square) – With the North Carolina legislature convening this week, one bright spot is that there could be more money for lawmakers to allocate.
New state revenue projections are forecasting an extra $413 million in the current fiscal years.
“The upward revision is due to more robust economic growth than foreseen at the time of the last consensus forecast in May 2023,” says a statement from the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management.
That could spark new life into a legislative session that many had predicted would be noneventful in an election year, Bob Phillips, executive director of the nonprofit group Common Cause North Carolina told The Center Square.
“The Legislature had actually been budgeting for a slight drop in revenues,” Phillips said. “l suspect budget adjustments and salary bumps for state employees and teachers might be some of the things they will do.”
This year’s session, which starts Wednesday, is expected to run through July 31, the short session in a two-year legislative cycle.
“The short session by definition is to handle adjusting the budget for the biennium,” Phillips said. “But they are also allowed to take up any bill that passed one of the chambers during the last long session. Items that have any kind of monetary appropriation are also eligible. For all practical purposes, regardless of who is in power, Democrats or Republicans, they can do what they want.”
Phillips believes legislators want to provide salary bumps for state employees, particularly teachers.
“There is a very high vacancy rate for teachers,” he said. “I don’t think people view this as a partisan issue. I think everyone wants to see what can be done to improve pay. Maybe the governor would like to see it go higher for teachers than what the majority party, Republicans, will offer. But I do think that’s one thing they will do.”
There is one legislative change from last year that Common Cause North Carolina hopes will be rescinded during this year’s session.
Last fall, the Legislature in the budget bill included a provision that exempts lawmakers from having to provide public access to their records, Phillips said.
“They can use their own discretion to decide what they want to release, whether they want to destroy the records, sell them, archive them,” he said. “It goes against what we’ve always had in North Carolina which is a brighter light on public records, more transparency.”
The John Locke Foundation has formed a coalition of groups to push for repealing the law, said Phillips.
“We’re definitely supportive of repealing that law,” he said. “Greater transparency usually means greater accountability and that’s good for democracy.”
