It has been fourteen days since Governor Roy Cooper and Democratic leaders offered a reasonable, balanced compromise to move forward with a new state budget and Republican leaders have still not returned a counteroffer.
Where is the Republican counter proposal?
Meanwhile, a new editorial from the Winston-Salem Journal has called out Republican leaders for using an entire state agency as “payola” instead of sitting down to negotiate with Governor Roy Cooper and Democratic leaders.
From that editorial:
And there is no sane or humane reason to deny health coverage to as many as 600,000 North Carolinians with a program that is 90% funded by the federal government and that also would create jobs, help address the opioid crisis and support struggling rural hospitals…
…While Cooper is standing fast in his support for Medicaid expansion, he’s also expressed his willingness to compromise on other key elements of the Republican budget, including supporting all the special local projects that Republican leaders have promoted. That would include restoring the $42.2 million to renovate the Stevens Center in downtown Winston-Salem and $15 million for the Hauser building renovation at Winston-Salem State University. We’d like to see those items returned to the budget, too. They would certainly be feathers in the caps of sponsors Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth and Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth.
Legislators return to work today and we hope they’ve had time to think good and hard about the needs of the state. Supporters of Medicaid expansion have never had a stronger hand to play. They may well win — as long as they stand firm and stand together.
Cooper’s compromise would close the health care coverage gap, raise teacher pay, cut taxes for people and guarantee school construction while balancing the budget and saving money in the Rainy Day Fund. It also included all the local projects that were in the Republican legislative budget. For more on that compromise offer, click HERE.
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