NC Senate leaders refuse to debate colleagues’ amendments that would improve budget proposal

The Senate budget proposal for the coming fiscal year was approved on Monday night in a party-line vote.  The prospects of it becoming law before the end of the fiscal year on June 30 remain dim, and there are no plans that the Senate and House will negotiate a final spending plan before they leave for a summer vacation. In a moment where families face rising costs for nearly everything and over a thousand child-care providers are at risk of closure, the failure of Senate and House leaders to pass a budget will have ripple effects throughout our communities and economy.

The budget passed by the Senate wouldn’t come close to meeting our state’s needs, but beyond the bill itself, the process revealed Senate leaders’ failure to even consider a series of amendments that would have improved it. Multiple senators attempted, in proposal after proposal, to amend the budget and align it with people’s priorities by investing in child-care providers, public school teachers, maternal and infant health, fair elections, and more.  Every one of these proposals is within our state’s means using our public money, including unanticipated revenue and funds that would be available if we redirected money away from private interests and toward systemic solutions.

Again and again, the majority used procedural motions to dismiss these amendments immediately. Below is a quick review of amendments that were introduced and then immediately “laid upon the table,” a procedural move that requires a vote but prohibits debate or consideration of the proposal.

• Senator Jay Chaudhuri noted that the budget included just 75 percent of the funding needed for child-care stabilization grants, but that North Carolina needs to be 100 percent in for working families. “We should be 100% in,” he stated, “because just two weeks ago, the Chamber of Commerce found the [lack of access to] child care cost our state $5.65 billion a year in productivity.” The amendment he introduced would have undone funding increases for private school vouchers and instead used those funds to fully support the child-care sector, fully funding the stabilization grants among other investments.
• Senator Lisa Grafstein proposed an amendment to increase funding for Medicaid by $100 million. This would bring Medicaid funding back to the amount initially funded in the biennial budget, which the state Department of Health and Human Services has said is necessary to meet people’s needs, especially for people with disabilities.
• Senator Natasha Marcus spoke to the goal of safe and secure elections, arguing this was something they should be able to agree on as a Senate body. The amendment she introduced would have funded long overdue updates to informational management systems and staff at the State Board of Elections to fill critical vacancies. Of the staff positions she advocated for funding, Senator Marcus noted that “These are the people that provide security assistance and election administration for all 100 county boards of election across our state.”
• Senator Kandie Smith’s amendment proposed raising state employee salaries by 5 percent, up from the 3 percent currently in the budget, and also giving retirees a one-time annual cost-of-living raise of 2 percent. While Senate leaders had thanked staff throughout their discussion of the budget bill, she said that the meaningful way to show state employees appreciation and to fill vacancies across the state would be to raise their pay.
• Senator Natalie Murdock spoke to North Carolina’s statewide infant mortality rate, which is the 16th highest in the nation, and introduced an amendment to invest $4 million in maternal and reproductive health. It would have included funds for Medicaid maternal support and a grant to fund programs that improve maternal health outcomes for Black women, created a paid family and medical leave insurance program, and protected access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which has been under threat as states restrict access to reproductive health.
• Senator Rachel Hunt introduced two amendments which would have invested $376 million in raising teacher salaries. She told her colleagues that “when we talk about North Carolina being an economic leader in the South … we have to provide a pro-teacher climate that attracts economic development and puts North Carolina at an economic advantage.”

Every one of these amendments was dismissed with no response to the arguments and concerns raised by Senators who introduced them. The fact that Senate leaders refuse to debate the merits of their budget proposal and consider well-reasoned and fiscally responsible amendments is yet another piece of evidence that our public money is not being stewarded effectively.