Under the Dome: House and Senate Republicans offer different assessments of where budget talks stand

Good morning! ☀️ Budget talks between the House and Senate GOP continue, even as House Republicans released a proposal to highlight their spending priorities, Rep. Donny Lambeth told reporters Tuesday morning.

Those priorities include child care and raises for state workers and teachers, the Winston-Salem Republican said.

Lambeth said that House and Senate Republicans involved in budget talks continue to send offers back and forth, and said the House made one as recently as Monday night.

He said that one of the key sticking points that remains is how much funding should be allocated in this year’s budget adjustment bill for child care. Other points still being negotiated are retiree bonuses, raises for teachers and state employees, and Medicaid provider rates.

Still, he said, Republicans in both chambers have made considerable progress so far, which could be reason to be optimistic about an agreement ultimately being reached.

“We’ve done so much work, we probably have 95% that we’ve already worked through with the conference committee,” Lambeth said, after the House Appropriations Committee met to go over the House GOP’s budget proposal. “So, it’s a matter now of taking the few items that are still — I call them stumbling blocks, and getting those resolved, as best we can, and get back on track, and I think that’s possible we could do that next week.”

Senate leader Phil Berger, responding to the House GOP’s spending proposal Tuesday evening, disagreed with Lambeth’s assessment that Republicans in the two chambers aren’t too far off on an agreement.

“The Senate has tried to work something out with the House; we have agreed to dip into the reserves, but not nearly to the tune of the House,” Berger told reporters. “And we’ve only done that to try to get a deal, and they continue to want to spend way too much money.”

Berger also said that “unless something changes drastically, the Senate plans to go home” at the end of this month. That would mean that the two-year budget that Republicans passed last year would remain in effect as enacted.

— Avi Bajpai and Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi

ADVOCATES PUSH FOR BLACK MATERNAL HEALTH LEGISLATION

Maternal health advocates, including birth and postpartum doulas who have served hundreds of families in the Triangle, called on lawmakers to pass legislation to address Black maternal mortality during an advocacy day at the General Assembly.

LaToshia Rouse, a certified birth and postpartum doula, said she knows the difference doulas can make in guiding women through pregnancy, including helping them manage their mental health and make informed decisions.

Rouse and other advocates urged lawmakers to take up legislation focused on Black maternal health that was filed last month by Durham Sen. Natalie Murdock and other Senate Democrats.

Murdock has filed several related bills in recent years, including one that would have allowed doula services to be covered by Medicaid.

The latest bill Murdock has filed, “MOMnibus 2.5,” would require the Department of Health and Human Services to help develop an evidence-based implicit bias training program for maternal care providers. It also outlines a list of rights for patients receiving care before and after birth at facilities such as hospitals and clinics.

The bill would also require DHHS to establish a grant program to launch and expand education programs in rural and underserved parts of the state to teach pregnant women and their families about healthy pregnancies, preparation for labor and birth, breastfeeding and caring for newborns.

In total, the bill calls for $5 million to be allocated for the implicit bias training program, education grant program, and other efforts — a sum Murdock said lawmakers should be able to set aside as GOP budget writers continue to negotiate adjustments to the state’s $30 billion, two-year budget.

“We know our colleagues have bragged about a billion-dollar surplus, so I think they can find $5 million,” Murdock said. “Black moms and Black babies deserve better. This $5 million investment is simply a down payment. They deserve and need much more.”

– Avi Bajpai

HOUSE BUDGET TARGETS PROSECUTORS WHO DISMISS CHARGES AGAINST PROTESTERS

A provision included in the budget proposal put forth by House Republicans on Monday would impose a new requirement on prosecutors, who would have to explain their reasoning if they dismiss charges against protesters or allow them to plead guilty to lesser charges.

The language would require prosecutors to provide the law enforcement agency that made the arrest with a detailed explanation for their reasoning, if they dismiss a broad range of charges grouped together as “civil disorder” cases, or allow the person to plead guilty to a lesser offense.

The misdemeanors and felonies included under “civil disorder” range from rioting to a misdemeanor for people who “make any rude or riotous noise, or be guilty of any disorderly conduct, in or near any public building or facility.”

Lorrin Freeman, the Wake County district attorney, told The News & Observer that the proposed requirement could have a chilling effect on prosecutors who seek alternatives to prosecution, such as dismissals for low-level offenses in exchange for community service.

House Speaker Tim Moore, meanwhile, said GOP lawmakers had heard frustration from law enforcement when cases involving “violence” at public disturbances “seemed to be dismissed willy-nilly.”

Get the full story from Kyle Ingram here.

BUDGET WOULD AUTHORIZE UP TO $180 MILLION FOR POE HALL RENOVATIONS

North Carolina State University could receive a substantial amount in state funds for renovations to Poe Hall, the academic building that remains closed due to the presence of toxic chemicals, under the House GOP’s budget proposal.

The proposal would allocate $5 million in one-time funds for “the design, engineering and implementation of building renovations at Poe Hall” during the upcoming 2024-25 fiscal year.

But it goes further to authorize a total of $180 million for the project.

University officials closed Poe Hall in November after preliminary tests showed the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs — toxic, synthetic chemicals that were banned from being produced in the U.S. in 1979.

Get the full story from Korie Dean here.

REALTORS HOPEFUL BILL WILL HELP HOMEOWNERS DEALING WITH SQUATTERS

A bipartisan bill moving forward in the House will help homeowners protect their property from squatters, real estate agents say.

House Bill 966, which has a lengthy list of sponsors from both parties, would establish an “expedited proceeding” to remove “unauthorized” people who “unlawfully” enter another person’s home, and ignore demands to leave.

GOP Rep. Steve Tyson, a Realtor and general contractor from New Bern and a bill sponsor, told lawmakers during a recent committee meeting that the bill is meant to help remove “trespassers” who exploit loopholes in the law to take over other people’s houses.

Leigh Brown and Amy Hedgecock, real estate agents who have both served as president of North Carolina Realtors, said the legislation is needed to boost protections for homeowners.

Get the full story from Vivienne Serret here.

That’s all for today. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol news.

• You can sign up to receive the Under the Dome newsletter at newsobserver.com/newsletters. Want your friends to get our email, too? Forward them this newsletter so they can sign up.

• We want to know what you would like to see in the Under the Dome newsletter. Do you like highlights from the legislature? Political analysis? Do you have a question you’d like The News & Observer team to answer? Tell us here. You can also email us at dome@newsobserver.com

• Don’t forget to follow our tweets and listen to our Under the Dome podcast for more developments.