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The Week Ahead: State Budget Talks

Senate leader Phil Berger is expected to unveil a budget proposal this week.
Dave DeWitt
Senate leader Phil Berger is expected to unveil a budget proposal this week.
Senate leader Phil Berger is expected to unveil a budget proposal this week.
Dave DeWitt
Senate leader Phil Berger is expected to unveil a budget proposal this week.

The new fiscal year begins July 1, and lawmakers could get a two-year budget plan in place by then if all goes as scheduled.

The Senate is expected to reveal its plan early this week and vote on the plan by Friday. Then the House would put out its plan, and negotiations on a final budget would commence.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger has said top legislative priorities would be raising teacher pay and cutting corporate and personal income taxes.

A revenue forecast from earlier this year suggests lawmakers will have some fiscal flexibility. The General Assembly's fiscal research division in January announced higher than expected tax revenues putting the state's general fund ahead of predictions.

Estimates now show the state to generate nearly $22.7 billion in tax revenue, a 2.5 percent increase over the budgeted amount.

“The anticipated revenue surplus is predominately the result of stronger-than-expected wage growth increasing both Personal Income tax and Sales tax collections,” according to the report.

Revenue forecast from the General Assembly Fiscal Research Division.
Fiscal Research Division
/
Jason deBruyn
Revenue forecast from the General Assembly Fiscal Research Division.

Copyright 2017 North Carolina Public Radio

Rusty Jacobs is a politics reporter for WUNC. Rusty previously worked at WUNC as a reporter and substitute host from 2001 until 2007 and now returns after a nine-year absence during which he went to law school at Carolina and then worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Wake County.