RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN/AP) – North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced during a Wednesday press conference that he vetoed the nearly $24 billion budget plan approved last week.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly gave its final approval late last week for the spending plan for the year starting July 1.
Cooper and his allies haven’t been happy with what the GOP put inside the plan and what it left out.
Cooper wanted more money for teacher raises and recommended some income tax breaks taking place in 2019 be blocked.
“It’s important for me to veto this,” Cooper said. He said the plan “doesn’t cut it.”
Republican legislative leaders said soon after that they plan to vote to override the veto.
“It’s not a surprise, but it is a disappointment. And, what you’ve got is a budget that give significant raises to teachers, better than 6 percent,” said Senate leader Phil Berger (R), adding he expects the override vote to happen by the end of the week.
Some teachers who marched in downtown Raleigh a few weeks ago demanding more funding for education stood alongside Cooper as he made his announcement.
Teachers highlighted the struggles they face in getting supplies for the classroom, with many spending their own money on items such as textbooks.
“I assumed we were sending a message to our elected legislators that more needed to be done for our students,” said Nashonda Bender-Cooke, a special education teacher in Wake County. “I’m a mother of a child with special needs. So, I want to make sure that she’s got teacher assistants in the classroom with her.”
In the budget Cooper proposed, teachers would get an average 8 percent pay raise. He also set a goal of raising teacher pay to the national average in four years.
“So, part of the problem with what the governor proposes is, he proposes a budget that is ultimately unbalanced down the road,” Berger said.
Ahead of the governor’s announcement, Republicans called attention to a report by the General Assembly’s nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division that estimates Cooper’s proposed budget would lead to a nearly $470 million budget gap in the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
Cooper said, “We can make sure that we have the money available for public education if we stop these tax cuts that are going for people who don’t need it.”
