The following is a statement from Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger:  

Teacher and state employee raises, school construction funding, Raise the Age implementation, rape kit testing all held hostage over a single policy disagreement

Latest budget update: Governor has not backed away from Medicaid-or-nothing ultimatum; won’t even respond to Sen. Berger Raleigh, N.C. – North Carolina has been operating on a continuing budget for 30 days. A new budget cannot be finalized because Governor Cooper is maintaining his Medicaid-or-nothing ultimatum.

Senator Berger said, "The Governor will not sign any budget unless Medicaid expansion is first passed into law, so it’s difficult to take him seriously when he says he wants to negotiate the budget. I don’t think that one policy disagreement should hold up teacher and state employee raises, school construction, rape kit testing, and more. I hope that Governor Cooper will drop his Medicaid-or-nothing ultimatum so we can move forward with legitimate negotiations on other topics. In the meantime, there is a continuing budget in place based on last year’s spending levels that funds the critical functions of state government."

The continuing budget’s spending level is $23.8 billion, including debt service. That spending level will continue until a new budget is enacted.

The new budget, which Governor Cooper vetoed because of his Medicaid-or-nothing ultimatum, provided state employees with a historic 5% raise; gave teachers their sixth and seventh consecutive pay raises; provided for $4.4 billion over 10 years for school construction; and funded priority projects in communities across the state.