January 14, 2020
The North Carolina General Assembly was back in Raleigh today for a special session to address several outstanding legislative matters. After today, legislators will not return to Raleigh for short session until April 28th. During the interim, legislators may meet for oversight or study committees.
In a press conference this morning, Senate Leader Phil Berger stated that Senate Democrats were all united in sustaining Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget. To override a veto, you must have three-fifths of members present vote to do so. Republican Senators needed at least one Democratic vote in order to override the budget veto.
The Senate did not vote on the budget veto override and the state will continue to operate on the current budget and the mini-budgets that were passed during the long session. Without a new budget in place, Senator Berger stated he did not see the need for a second year budget when the legislature comes back for short session at the end of April.
The Senate tried to override two other vetoed bills this afternoon, including SB 354: Strengthening Educators Pay Act, and SB 553: Regulatory Reform Act. The bills were voted on along party lines, and Republicans were not able to override the Governor’s vetoes. SB 354 would have given North Carolina teachers a 3.9% pay increase, which Democrats voted against stating that it was not substantial enough.
The House passed SB 622: Reduce Threshold/Medical Expense Deduction, which would update the tax code to match the expected federal provisions that Congress passed in December. This bill would reduce the threshold amount for the North Carolina medical and dental expense deduction from 10% to 7.5% of the adjusted gross income for the 2019 and 2020 taxable years. The Senate did not vote on this bill today.
The House and Senate voted unanimously to pass SB 560: Veteran Scholarship Funding. This bill would appropriate $2.4 million to the Department of Military and Veteran Affairs to go toward scholarships for children of wartime veterans. Both chambers also passed an adjournment resolution, which outlined what bills are eligible for short session and when the legislature will return.