news-record.com

RALEIGH — Republican lawmakers banked today on a new $19.7 billion budget proposal for next year to bypass long negotiations with Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue, a plan that would preserve funds for 13,000 teaching assistant positions while letting temporary taxes expire on time.

The Senate made significant changes to its version released last week of a state government spending plan through mid-2013 as a compromise with House Republicans after negotiating a deal for days. GOP leaders are optimistic they'll attract enough House Democrats to vote for the final product to avoid a potential veto showdown with Perdue.

The potential deal would spend $300 million more for public schools than the House budget plan approved earlier this month, according to the budget document. The new version restores funding for 13,000 teaching assistant positions in grades 1-3 that had been eliminated in an earlier Senate plan. The House had eliminated assistants in grades 1-2. The University of North Carolina System also would receive $100 million more than the House budget proposed.

Five House Democrats voted for the House version of the budget four weeks ago, raising hopes among Republicans that they could get at least four of them to support a final budget compromise. Four would be needed to get the three-fifths of the House members necessary in the House to overturn any Perdue veto. The GOP majority in the Senate already is veto-proof.

Temporary taxes approved by a Democratic-led Legislature in 2009 to close a budget gap still would expire on time, meaning the state would lose more than $1.3 billion in revenues. A new small-business tax break would remain in place, but a Senate proposal to cut all three individual income tax brackets by a quarter-percentage point would be shelved.

The extra funds to raise overall public education spending to nearly $11 billion in the compromise largely came from reducing reserves and the coming year's payment for public employee pension funds.

The updated proposal also would:

— scale back the extent of the elimination of Medicaid services that the federal government doesn't require the state to provide, largely to the level that was proposed in the House budget. The measure would keep in place most adult dental care, podiatry and chiropractic services.

— keep the State Bureau of Investigation and its embattled crime laboratory within the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Roy Cooper. Last week's Senate plan had shifted oversight to the new Department of Public Safety, which would be led by a secretary appointed by the governor.

— retain Senate provisions that would prevent regulators in the Departments of Agriculture, Labor and Environment and Natural Resources from issuing rules that are more stringent than the federal government. Environmental activists have complained the change would make it more difficult for the state to protect the state's air and water.

— abolish the Health and Wellness Trust Fund, which receives 25 percent of the state's share of the national tobacco settlement, and shift its $32.9 million to a state division to continue smoking and obesity prevention programs, among others. The Golden LEAF Foundation, which receives half of the settlement money, would lose $17.6 million annually for the next two years.

Perdue and other Democrats have been critical of the separate House and Senate plans, particularly on public education. They said the earlier Senate plan would have eliminated more than 20,000 positions through state government.

Perdue wrote a letter late last week to Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis raising more objections beyond public education. Her Cabinet members contend the GOP plans would make citizens less safe in their communities and slow the state's response to hurricanes, tornadoes and other disasters.