State government complex, school safety, and more: What else is in NC’s budget
Republican leaders in the General Assembly proposed a new spending plan Tuesday that would revise and complement the two-year budget they passed last November.
The budget includes higher raises for state workers and teachers, with no new tax cuts on top of the schedule lawmakers agreed on last year to gradually reduce the corporate income tax rate over the next few years.
The 193-page spending plan, which lawmakers are aiming to pass through both the state House and Senate by Saturday before the legislature adjourns and send to Gov. Roy Cooper, includes many other spending items, including money to build a new government complex in downtown Raleigh; cover co-pays for students who qualify for reduced-price lunches; and pay for new school safety measures in the wake of mass shootings.
Here are five budget items that stand out.
New office complex housing governor’s staff
The budget includes plans for multiple changes to the existing layout of state government buildings in downtown Raleigh.
Among them is a provision tasking the Department of Administration with planning and designing a new “State Government Executive Headquarters facility” that would host the governor’s staff, personnel and operations for various state agencies, and include a chamber for the Council of State to hold its meetings. The council is made of the state’s top executive-branch officials.
The budget requires construction on the project to begin by July 1, 2023.
Another provision states that the current building used by the Department of Administration, at 116 W Jones St., would be torn down and replaced by a new “Education Campus.” The campus would provide offices for the UNC System and Community Colleges System, as well as the departments of Public Instruction and Commerce.
The proposal would require the Department of Administration, working with the Legislative Services Office, to relocate all employees from the existing building by July 1, 2023. Demolition of the building would be required no later than Oct. 31, 2023.
More safety resources for schools
The new budget addresses some of the elevated concerns about school safety in the aftermath of May’s mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
The budget includes an additional $15 million in grants that school districts can apply for to have school resource officers in elementary and middle schools. Few elementary schools have a police officer assigned to them.
Other school safety measures include:
$32 million in grants to support students in crisis, provide school safety training and purchase safety equipment for schools.
$26 million to help schools cover the salaries needed to keep officers in high schools.
$5 million to help North Carolina historically black colleges and universities prepare for cybersecurity and bomb threats following a nationwide spike in threats against HBCUs.
School choice expansion
The budget also reflects efforts by Republican lawmakers to expand school choice options in the face of opposition from Democratic legislators who say those alternatives are hurting traditional public schools.
The increase in school choice has occurred at a time when enrollment has dropped in traditional public schools. Unlike the past two years, lawmakers didn’t include a provision that would protect school districts from funding cuts if they have fewer kids than they did before the pandemic.
The budget would raise the income eligibility for an Opportunity Scholarship covering private school tuition to 200% of the income needed to qualify for a federally subsidized meal, or about $100,000 a year for a family of four. The proposal also includes an additional $56 million a year for the voucher program.
Free school lunches for eligible students
The budget would spend $3.9 million from the Department of Public Instruction to make school lunches free for all students who qualify for reduced-price meals. This would apply to all schools participating in the National School Lunch Program and would be in effect for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
Federal COVID-19 waivers have allowed all students at U.S. public schools, regardless of family income, to have free school meals. However, those waivers expire June 30. The state’s budget proposal reintroduces the qualification that only students from families below a certain income level are eligible for the program.
Some other education items in the budget include:
A $250,000-a-year grant program for schools to provide free feminine hygiene products such as tampons. The program was so popular this school year that it ran out of money.
Permission for the state’s two popular but low-performing virtual charter schools to stay open through the 2024-25 school year. Then they could apply to the State Board of Education for renewal of their charter.
Water infrastructure
Legislators would continue to fund drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects. They allocated more than $611 million for 90 projects across the state.
Examples of projects that would be funded in the budget include $10 million for a wastewater treatment plant in Onslow County, $25 million for a water reclamation facility in Clayton and $1 million for a pump station in Elizabeth City.
The federal infrastructure law will provide nearly $223 million in additional grants that can help remediate water supplies and build new infrastructure. Of those funds, more than $86 million is available for projects to remediate lead service lines, while more than $23 million is available to address “forever chemicals” and other so-called “emerging compounds.”
Staff writers Avi Bajpai, T. Keung Hui, Kyle Ingram and Adam Wagner contributed to this report.
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