Dueling House and Senate mini-budgets complicate the chances of the legislature approving a stop-gap spending measure before the start of the new fiscal year.
The state House will not pass the mini-budget the Senate approved Tuesday.
Instead, the House budget committee voted on its own slimmed-down spending plans.
Republican budget writers in the House and Senate have been unable to bridge their considerable differences over spending and future taxation. They are not on track to approve a comprehensive budget before July 1.
Legislators plan to take a weeks-long break beginning this week. They are talking about returning to Raleigh for a few days each month if they have bills to approve. A comprehensive budget could come up for a vote later this summer.
House Speaker Destin Hall said the month-to-month schedule could continue into next year, when the regular “short session” begins.
State law allows spending to continue into the next fiscal year at previously approved levels, even without a new budget. But new initiatives won’t be funded, and state employees and teachers won’t know about their raises.
After the Senate approved its mini-budget on a 39-6 vote, Hall said his chamber would not agree to it.
The Senate’s bill “kind of creeps over into trying to get as close to a comprehensive budget as possible without having one,” he said.
While Hall was talking to reporters, the House budget committee began discussing its spending bills.
One includes 2.5% raises for state employees, raises teacher pay next year by an average of 6.4%, and reduces vacant state positions by 20% across state agencies.
A second bill includes money for about a dozen items and puts money into the state building fund.
Legislative leaders said they plan for their chambers to take their final votes of the month on Thursday.
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