budget

News Director Greg Collard and reporters Ben Bradford and Tom Bullock (sitting in for Lisa Miller) discuss how lawmakers finally reached a budget deal. They also discuss the myriad of disputes that have dragged out and kept Tom and Ben up late at night, even prompting one of them to turn a WFAE studio into a bedroom of sorts.

If there was a word of the night at yesterday’s Mecklenburg County Commissioners meeting, it would have been “teachers.” Not surprising since the board was set to approve its $1.3 billion budget, which includes more money for schools and a referendum for this November that would add money for teacher pay. The meeting turned terse and politically divisive and even had a bit of a budgetary surprise.

Mecklenburg County commissioners are weighing whether to give CMS employees a raise out of the county’s pocket be that by paying the district an extra $26.7 million or asking voters to approve a quarter cent sales tax. A few hundred teachers showed up to a public hearing last night to make their case. 

Teachers get the top-billing in most stories about education budget cuts. But there are a lot of other people who make a school run such as guidance counselors, school psychologists and social workers. CMS wants the county to foot the bill to add about forty of these positions next year.

State lawmakers began digging into the details of Governor Pat McCrory’s budget today as did state agencies, lobbyists and, reporters too. McCrory plans to pay for raises for all state employees in part by cutting funds to the UNC system. But his budget includes plenty of other cuts and additions large and small. WFAE’s Lisa Miller joined Mark Rumsey to discuss some of them.