RALEIGH — Chances that a budget standoff between Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper will be resolved soon appear small enough that GOP legislators are looking to spend more funds to keep state government humming, then possibly go home. Negotiations between Cooper and GOP lawmakers on a compromise have gone nowhere since June 28, when Cooper vetoed the two-year budget bill drawn up by Republicans. The focus of negotiations has been on whether the state should expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands more low-income adults, which Cooper and his allies want.
