From WRAL on October 23rd:

Teachers hoping to finally see a salary increase this year will have to wait a while longer.

That was the word from Senate Republican leaders Wednesday as they rolled out two “mini-budgets” providing funding for other increases in education and retiree compensation.

House Bill 377 provides money for scheduled “step” increases for teachers, assistant principals and instructional support personnel. Those increases are based on years of experience in North Carolina’s schools, and some, but not all teachers, are eligible for them. It also includes money to pay for principals’ salary increases and bonuses if their school was in the top 50 percent in the state for educational growth.

The bill does not include across-the-board pay raises for teachers. When Democrats on the the Senate Appropriations committee asked why not, Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown, the bill’s sponsor, said there had been no discussions on that topic with Gov. Roy Cooper.

That very same day according to NC Policy Watch:

N.C. Senate finance leaders are moving a tax cut bill for businesses with high net worth this week, even as the legislature has failed to put forward a comprehensive investment plan addressing the priorities of communities across the state.

That’s right. There is no final, comprehensive budget for our communities, but legislative leaders in the Senate will still give tax breaks to big companies.

Senate Bill 578 will adopt the franchise tax cuts proposed in the legislative budget at a time when corporations across North Carolina are paying the lowest corporate income tax rate applied to their profits in any state that taxes corporate income.

As the Budget & Tax Center detailed in an earlier analysis, this is not a tax cut that will reach the majority of businesses in North Carolina, and like corporate income tax cuts before it, it is unlikely to change the decisions of businesses around hiring or location.

The NCGA is intentionally not giving teachers raises because they are too busy giving more tax cuts to corporations that already are successful in a state that has the lowest corporate tax rate in the nation.

All while holding up budget talks.

Sen. Jerry Tillman said in the WRAL article,

Sen. Jerry Tillman. R-Randolph, said Cooper’s push for bigger teacher raises and a Medicaid expansion is unrealistic.

“Ask him to show where we’re going to be able to afford Medicaid expansion and teacher pay raises of 8.5 percent. There’s not enough money in this state unless you take it out of the taxpayer’s pocket,” Tillman said.

Yes, there is.

Maybe he and his cronies can stop giving more and more tax cuts to corporations and stop treating public schools and their teachers and staff with spite and ignorance.