NC Governor Roy Cooper Vetoes The Teacher Pay Bill
Governor Cooper vetoes the teacher pay bill, The pay-raise bills that Cooper vetoed only gave teachers a 3.9% raise over two years. He describing the increases as “insulting” and is asking Republican legislators to work with him for higher salaries for teachers.
Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed the legislature’s proposed raises for North Carolina teachers, calling them “inadequate.” Instead, he wants to negotiate for higher raises.
“It’s clear to me that legislators want to do this, and we shouldn’t accept these paltry pay raises when we have an opportunity to do more,” Cooper told reporters Friday morning at a news conference at the Executive Mansion in downtown Raleigh.
The Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly had approved average teacher raises of 3.9% over two years, including step increases for longevity. Lawmakers also passed 2% raises for non-instructional staff.
Cooper said he would negotiate pay raises separately from Medicaid expansion, which has been at the center of the budget stalemate more than four months into the new fiscal year.
Cooper cited Senate Republicans’ news release earlier this week mentioning bigger raises and a $1,000 bonus for all teachers. Republicans said they offered Senate Democratic leadership a proposed 4.9% raise for all teachers plus the one-time bonus as part of a budget deal.
“I’m ready to talk about that as a settlement to this, in addition to more pay for school personnel and community colleges and universities, that we’re talking about. I don’t think that’s enough, mind you. I proposed 9.1[%] and we compromised at 8.5, but I think we’re at a point now that we need to compromise in some middle ground,” Cooper said.
