Senate passes $65B+ budget, Democrats want changes made
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A big step forward on Thursday as lawmakers decide what to spend billions of your taxpayer dollars on. The state budget has moved to the House after the Senate passed its version Thursday morning with some bipartisan support.
Four Democrats voted in favor of the budget, but the majority of them say it's a failure.
$65.9 billion budget for 2025-27 passes NC Senate, heads now to the House
'It's, I think, an unfortunate and sad day for North Carolinians,' Democratic Senator Sydney Batch said.
The two-year budget totals more than $65 billion, with millions going to continued recovery efforts in western North Carolina, colleges and universities across the state, and to the state's rainy day fund.
It includes pay raises for teachers and state employees, but Democrats say they're too small.
'State employees got literally a modicum, an offensive raise, and we're at a time in which we know that the price of everything is going up,' Senator Batch said.
The budget is now with the House, also led by Republicans. Senate leadership is hopeful for some agreement.
'Probably the only thing that I fully expect the House not to make any changes on would be the agreed spend number that we had,' Senator Phil Berger said. 'We should also be in agreement on the balance in the rainy day fund at the end of the day.'
But Democrats hope the House makes major changes.
'We have working families that live paycheck to paycheck, cannot take a day off, and literally have to figure out how to make that work for their families, and so in a time when we know that it's hard to even be working just one job, and many North Carolinians do not, we should be doing things and passing legislation that actually helps them, this budget fails them,' Senator Batch said.
Senators are hopeful the final budget will be passed before the end of June.
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