McCrory's state budget aids prisons, education and veterans

March 06--RALEIGH -- North Carolina can increase its spending without increasing taxes, Gov. Pat McCrory promised when he released his proposed budget for the next two years Thursday.

McCrory's priorities include increased mental health care in the prisons, bigger salaries for nearly 10,000 correctional officers, more money for teachers and education, and a tighter focus on programs for the military and veterans.

"Our goal is to continue to demand efficiency and effectiveness in how we deliver our services," McCrory said during a presentation of the budget. "We're still fixing parts of the government that have been broken for decades. And investing in those areas and reengineering those areas to make sure our taxpayers get the best bang for their hardworking tax dollars."

McCrory proposed a $21.5 billion General Fund -- the portion of the budget that covers most government services people may see in their everyday lives such as public education and colleges, state parks and the court system. This would be for 2015-16, starting July 1. For the second year, he proposes $22.2 billion in spending.

McCrory also wants the state to borrow as much as $2.8 billion for long-term projects. About half would pay for transportation projects and the other half would repair or replace old government buildings in poor condition.

The state should increase its spending on K-12 public education by 2.8 percent, or $235 million, McCrory said. This would continue an ongoing effort to set the starting salary for North Carolina public school teachers at $35,000, implement a plan to offer teachers performance-based raises and increase spending by $70 million on textbooks and other instructional supplies.

It also would hire 1,400 additional teachers over the next two years to accommodate the state's growing number of students, the budget document says.

"In general I think it's in the right direction," said Cumberland County schools Superintendent Frank Till, whose budget is heavily dependent on the state. "In general I think it's a good start and we'll have to work on it as we go through the session."

During last year's legislative session, Till worked with McCrory to pressure state lawmakers to adopt some of the governor's educational priorities for teacher pay and classroom teaching assistants.

Although the McCrory budget lists raises for teachers, correctional officers and state troopers, plus has a special fund to pay extra for hard-to-hire sectors such as engineering and information technology, not all workers get raises. And retirees wouldn't get cost-of-living increases in their pension payments.

That drew criticism.

"Lawmakers need to be reminded that just last week while others slept in their warm beds and played in the snow, state employees worked around the clock," said Mitch Leonard, the interim director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina.

All state workers and retirees should get raises, Leonard said.

Last year a prison inmate with mental illness died of thirst after he was held in solitary confinement for 35 days.

McCrory's budget would establish behavioral health treatment units at eight prisons over the next two years ($17.8 million). Also he would hire 66 people over the next two years to put to use 72 beds for mental health patients that are in the hospital at Central Prison in Raleigh.

These efforts are in addition to other steps to improve the training of prison staff, including the establishment of a new training academy for correctional officers and others. It would be in Moore County and cost more than $3 million over the next two years.

To help the military and veterans, McCrory wants to take existing programs for them and have a single agency, a Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. That change would not increase the budget, he said.

He also wants to create additional veterans courts -- criminal courts dedicated to veterans who get in trouble with the law that consider their status and backgrounds in the military. Cumberland and Harnett counties have veterans courts.

The developers seeking to rehabilitate the Prince Charles hotel in downtown Fayetteville would be happy to know that McCrory wants North Carolina to bring back its defunct Historic Property Tax Credit. The program is intended to help the owners of distressed historic properties, such as the Prince Charles, obtain additional cash to pay for renovations.

McCrory's ideas are only that, ideas. Nothing he proposes will take effect unless the state legislature agrees.

If lawmakers send him a budget he dislikes, McCrory can veto it. But both the House and Senate, controlled by his fellow Republicans, have supermajorities that can override his veto.

Staff writer Paul Woolverton can be reached at woolvertonp@fayobserver.com, in Raleigh at 919-828-7641 or in Fayetteville at 910-486-3512.

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