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RALEIGH — When lawmakers completed the bulk of their work this summer, Sen. Phil Berger was sure North Carolina was on a new course.

Republicans, who for the time since the 1800s controlled both the House and Senate, ticked off a list of accomplishments, including a budget that cut taxes and spending.

“This has been a session of real accomplishment and real change in direction for North Carolina, a direction that the people of N.C. have long been looking for,” Berger said in June.

Four months later, Berger and his GOP colleagues are finding the ship of state doesn’t turn on a dime.

Republicans said that by cutting taxes, reducing regulations and reining in lawsuits, the state would see both an economic resurgence and a slimmer, more responsive state government.

But lawmakers aren’t yet seeing the benefits of those changes show up in economic indicators such as the unemployment rate. And they said executive agencies have been slow in implementing changes that lawmakers passed into law this summer.

For example, lawmakers learned Thursday that the state’s Medicaid health insurance program for the poor and disabled faces a $139 million deficit.

That’s because N.C. Department of Health and Human Services officials have not been able to make changes prescribed by the legislature as quickly as lawmakers envisioned, in large part because federal regulators haven’t given them the go-ahead.

The federal Medicaid bureaucracy is notorious for how slowly it allows changes to state programs, a fact Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue said she made very clear when the budget was under construction.

Both sides blamed one another last week for the problem, which could lead to steep cuts in mental health programs or other services deemed “optional” under federal guidelines.

Berger, who noted that the bulk of the deficit was inherited from a previous legislature, also pointed out that Perdue and federal health care administrators working for a Democratic president might not be moving with all due alacrity.

“We have a situation where we have an administration in Washington and an administration here (in Raleigh) that are kind of on the same track philosophically — so could these things really be moved quicker than they are?” Berger asked.

It’s all part of the fact it’s the legislative branch that said, 'This is what we’re going to do,’ and the executive branch that’s supposed to carry it out.”

The Republican-run legislature and Democratic governor have clashed over more than a few items this year. Perdue vetoed the General Assembly’s budget and 14 other bills, and the two sides clashed over an incentives deal that failed to lure a tire manufacturer to the state.

Still, legislative leaders held back from calling the Perdue administration uncooperative last week, saying mainly that there were questions that needed to be answered.

“I think to a large extent they’re doing what we asked them,” said House Speaker Thom Tillis.

He said lawmakers had stepped up their oversight work this year to make sure Republican leaders see their plans executed. “Generally speaking, we’re giving them the benefit of the doubt.”

But there is doubt.

Sen. Harry Brown, a Jacksonville Republican, on Thursday asked the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on Government Operations — its top oversight body co-chaired by Berger and Tillis — to make sure agencies were curbing the creation of new regulations as lawmakers ordered earlier this year.

And Republicans were annoyed this week to find that the Commerce Department had not yet undertaken a study of how to repay the federal government for $2.5 billion in help paying unemployment claims. That’s despite the governor signing the bill ordering the study in March. As a result of the slow response, there will be an increase to employers’ unemployment insurance rates.

Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco told the Government Operations committee last week that he was “sorry” it had taken longer than called for to assemble the study. The Commerce Department, he said, had to make sure it had the money to pay for the review.

“I’m not sure saying there was no money allocated is fair,” said Sen. Bob Rucho, a Matthews Republican.

“Again, we’re here. Let’s move forward, let’s make it happen,” Crisco said, deflecting the criticism.

In addition to not always seeing their plans carried out, Republicans have not seen the economic boon they predicted their budget would bring.

North Carolina’s unemployment rate is 10.5 percent, and economic indicators such as housing sales do not yet point to a resurgence.

“It is early,” Berger said. “Remember, the budget didn’t go into effect until July 1.” He pointed to reports that show the state largely on budget and seeing revenue collections like sales taxes come in ahead of projections. “The thing that concerns everybody the most is how flat those employment numbers are,” Berger said.

Legislative Republicans have taken some heat for unemployment figures, in part because the budget required agencies to lay off a large number of workers. The Department of Public Instruction reported cutting more than 2,400 positions in the school system alone because of the GOP-constructed budget that took over July 1.

“Somebody made the absurd statement that our budget somehow caused unemployment to go up,” Tillis said. “Well if that’s true, I guess North Carolina’s budget caused the entire nation’s unemployment to go up because that was a national phenomenon.”

Tillis argued the benefits of the Republican budget and regulation-cutting moves have created more jobs than the state lost.

Republican lawmakers argue that with more time, and maybe more cooperation, some of those positive effects will be more evident.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com