NCGA Legislative Update: Budget Negotiation Update

On Friday, Senate and House appropriations chairs and leaders met to agree upon a final budget spending figure. The Senate and House have agreed to a $18.9 billion dollar budget.  They have not yet worked out all the details regarding a revenue package that will raise $990 million in new money.

Here is a quick recap of what the two chambers original budget totals were:

Senate passed a budget that spent:
FY 09-10 $20,048,773,017  ($20.1 billion)
FY 10-11- $21,284,428,623

Senate included a tax package of $500 million in their budget.

House passed a budget that spent:
FY 09-10: $18,583,763,145  ($18.6 billion)
FY 10-11: $19,402,877,454

House included in their budget a tax package that raised $780 million. 

The new House and Senate agreed upon budget is set at $18.9 billion  which would increase the House budget by $300 million.

Three departments are targeted to receive restoration funding and the funding items will be at the discretion of the subcommittee conference chairs.  The three departments are Education, Justice and Public Safety and Health and Human Services.

Advocates will be working during the week to see that the Department of Health and Human Services receives a large enough portion of the restoration funding to ensure that critical services are not devastated by the current budget crisis.  To restore the worst of the cuts DHHS would require an additional appropriation of $150 million dollars.  This is the numbers leaders in the House and Senate will be hearing from health care advocates across the state.