Email from the House Republicans

The North Carolina House of Representatives voted 73-46 early Wednesday in favor of overriding Governor Bev Perdue’s veto of the General Assembly budget. The bipartisan vote is a historic victory for the GOP House majority, in large part due to the support of five Democrats who voted for the budget and have endured consistent pressure from Perdue and her allies to reject an override.

“I applaud the House members who voted to override the Governor’s veto,” said House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg). “I’m especially honored to share this victory with five courageous Democrats, who put partisan politics aside to support a budget that is good for their constituents and their state.”

Governor Perdue vetoed the budget despite the fact that it brings state spending in line with revenues, cuts taxes by over a billion dollars, promotes job growth and fully funds every teacher and teacher assistant position in the state.

“This budget is fiscally responsible and economically sustainable,” Tillis said. “It reverses a decades-long trend of state government spending beyond its means, and puts over a billion dollars back into the hands of North Carolinians. This is a good day for our state.”
The override measure now goes to the Senate, where the Republicans already hold a veto-proof majority. If the veto is overridden in the Senate, the budget automatically becomes law.

Promises Made, Promises Kept

HB 200, fulfills promises made last fall:

• Balances the budget, closing a $2.5 billion shortfall
• Allows the temporary sales and income tax increases to expire, putting $1.3 billion back into the hands of North Carolina taxpayers
• Provides tax relief for small businesses allowing them to expand and put people back to work
• Protects education – fully funding all classroom teachers and teacher’s assistants
• Brings state spending in line with revenues and places North Carolina back on the path to fiscal responsibility

Right Sizing the budget – Fiscal Responsibility:

• Cuts state spending by approximately 4%.  Spending has more than doubled in the past 10 years.
• More than doubles the amount of money in the Rainy Day Fund - $185 million
• Allocates $125 million for renovation and repair of university and state buildings
• Fully funds the state’s retirement system

Creates Private Sector Jobs:

• Cuts taxes for EVERY North Carolinian by allowing temporary taxes to expire, reducing the state’s sales tax from 7.75% to 6.75%
• Implements small business tax relief – exempting the first $50,000 of small business income from income tax
• Creates nearly 14,000 private sector jobs in the first year (30,000 over the next two years) by returning nearly $1.5 billion to the hands of taxpayers of North Carolina
• Extends unemployment benefits for 40,000 North Carolinians whose benefits have expired

Reforming Education – A priority on Early Childhood Education:

• HB 200  begins us on the path of education reform in North Carolina.  Republicans believe that every child should be reading by the time they leave 3rd Grade.  Currently 23% fail to do so, yet only 3% are held back.
• Reduces class sizes in grades 1-3 from 18:1 to 17:1 – adding more than 1,100 additional teachers
• Protects every teacher and teacher assistant position currently employed
• Provides liability insurance for teachers and school employees to help ensure their safety in the classroom
• Does not pass down fiscal responsibility for school buses, tort claims and worker’s compensation claims to the counties like the Governor’s budget proposed – saving counties $75 million
• Allocates $100 million to the Public School Building Capital Fund to assist counties in building, renovating and upgrading schools with new technology.  Governor’s budget proposed only $55 million
• Creates a performance pay model for teachers and state employees to retain and reward our state’s best and brightest employees

Protecting Health and Human Services – No Services Lost:

• Over half of all the budget reductions in the Department of Health and Human Services have been achieved through savings with no loss of services.  We have also maximized the swapping of federal block grant funds for state funds.
• All DHHS treatment facilities, schools, mental health hospitals and contract beds have been preserved.
• All 23 optional medical services in the Medicaid program have been preserved.
• We have paved the way for major Mental Health Reform in North Carolina.   
• We have achieved pharmacy and medication savings through new initiatives to increase utilization of generic drugs. 

We have restored the Governor’s proposed cuts to local health departments and senior services, and taken steps to lessen the financial burden on counties.