Lawmakers leave Raleigh without passing budget or expanding Medicaid

Instead of negotiating with Democrats on a budget that works for everyone, Republican leaders decided to adjourn last week and leave Raleigh. Although lawmakers plan to return next week to take up the latest round of court-ordered redistricting, under the adjournment resolution they will not take up budget issues again until January.

• Before leaving town, Republicans tried to essentially hold public school educators for ransom by promising to give them only a 4.4% raise over two years — but ONLY if Gov. Cooper’s budget veto was overridden. However, the governor called for an average 8.5% raise over two years in his compromise budget offer. 
• We’re now four months into the not-so-new budget year, and lawmakers still have not passed a budget. Republicans never even offered a counter-proposal to Gov. Cooper’s compromise budget. 
• GOP lawmakers tried to hold teacher pay hostage in an effort to jam through yet another corporate tax cut. They dodged the public’s clear mandate to expand affordable health care. And they would rather flush needed infrastructure projects down the drain instead of offering a meaningful compromise.

Voters want elected leaders to compromise to get things done. But only politicians who have rigged elections with radical gerrymandering could thumb their nose at voters as this legislature has.