RALEIGH — Both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly passed its budget conference report contained in House Bill 10 this past week.
The bill includes $248 million in nonrecurring funds to clear the waitlist for the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) and $215.5 million in recurring funds is included for scholarship awards for the 2025-26 fiscal year. ESA+ waitlists that cover children with disabilities will get $24.7 million recurring funds.
The OSP funds would be “retroactive to the beginning of this school year,” and “families would be eligible for a tuition reimbursement from their school.”
Other spending includes $64 million in recurring funds for Community College enrollment growth and $95 million in recurring funds will go toward K-12 enrollment increases, a combined $377 million in recurring and nonrecurring funds for Medicaid, $55.1 million for infrastructure improvements in Chatham County, and $150 million for “major transportation improvements” at the Randolph County megasite.
The House passed the measure on Wednesday by a vote of 67-43. Three Democrats voted for passage; Reps. Carla Cunningham (Mecklenburg), Shelly Willingham (Edgecombe), and Michael Wray (Northampton).
“A responsible state budget is critical to helping North Carolina families weather these tough economic times brought on by the failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration,” House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) said in a press release.
“By empowering students and parents to choose what type of education bet fits their needs, regardless of zip code or income, the Opportunity Scholarship Program puts kids and their futures first,” said K-12 Education Co-Chair Rep. Tricia Cotham (R-Mecklenburg) who also noted that clearing waitlist was a “victory” for families.
The Senate passed the measure by a vote of 27-17 down party lines on Monday.
Democrats in both chambers spoke in opposition of the bill, mainly in two areas; the Opportunity Scholarship Program funding and the provisions requiring sheriffs to cooperate with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests.
Senators Graig Meyer (D-Orange) opposed the bill during debate, saying he believes in public schools and called the scholarships “fool’s gold.”
“When I think about these taxpayer funded vouchers for private schools, I think that the majority of taxpayers know that we are looking at fool’s gold,” Meyer said. “I understand every parent’s desire to make sure that their child is well educated but I cannot understand how we, as a body, would sanction taxpayer funded spending on private schools that have almost no standards to ensure that children actually receive the education that we know they deserve.”
North Carolina private schools are required to administer standardized tests to their enrollees. Private schools must also be accredited either by the NC State Board of Education or by a national or regional accrediting agency.
Meyer owns and operates a diversity, equity and inclusion company that has been paid millions in public dollars from school systems in North Carolina and around the country.
Another repeated criticism by Democrats in both chambers claims the OSP takes money away from public school students yet the state’s per pupil funding rate remains the same at an average of over $12,200. According to the legislature’s Division of Fiscal Research, “Per-pupil State spending has increased at an average rate of 3% over the last 10 years,” from 2011 to 2022.
With regard to ICE provisions in House Bill 10, it requires jail administrators to determine a prisoner’s legal residency status and if they are unable to determine status, administrators must contact ICE and hold the individual for 48 hours. The ICE compliance requirements become effective on Dec. 1, 2024, and apply to offenses committed on or after that date.
Rep. Destin Hall (R-Caldwell), the primary sponsor of the original House Bill 10, ended debate on the ICE portion, disabusing Democrats of certain remarks they made earlier on the floor about people being “rounded up.”
“Members, the debate that I’ve heard today is not one that deals with the ICE bill at all,” said Hall. “We’ve been working on this now for five years. It’s passed multiple committees in this chamber, multiple committees in the Senate. It’s passed both the House and the Senate. It’s been worked on, it’s been changed. We’ve worked with the sheriff’s association over time. And the product is what you see before you today.”
“But what’s been described is nothing that’s in this bill,” Hall said. “And so it’s important to keep in mind that in this bill, we’re only talking about folks who are not only just here illegally, but that they’ve also been charged with a serious crime in our state; murder, rape, other violent crimes, not driving without a license, which I often hear from folks.”
Hall also went on to say that up until 2018 in the state sheriffs complied with ICE detainers voluntarily, adding all a detained does is hold the person for up to 48 hours until ICE takes custody.
Hall said when a detainer request is issued, ICE usually takes custody the same day and those individuals are usually here illegally and have committed crimes before.
“It’s not that they’re out rounding folks up, going into a workplace, and just taking a bunch of people out of there. That’s not happening,” said Hall. “It’s certainly not happening under the current administration.”
Durham Sheriff Clarence Birkhead issued a press release ahead of the Senate’s vote pushing back on the ICE provisions in House Bill 10.
“House Bill 10 is not only an attack on the immigrant community but also on the ability for sheriffs, like me, to determine how best to serve their communities and keep them safe,” Birkhead’s statement says in part.
Birkhead, a Democrat on the governor’s crime commission, has been known for refusing to cooperate with ICE detainers.
“A fundamental flaw of HB10 is it only requires Sheriffs to “reasonably” believe the person is subject to an ICE detainer and administrative warrant. For more than 200 years, probable cause has been the constitutional standard for arrest, custody and confinement,” Birkhead said.
In his statement he also criticized the legislature for “packaging the bill with funding that continues to undermine North Carolina’s education system,” and said he hopes Governor Roy Cooper vetoes the bill.
Birkhead is among a handful of sheriffs such as those in Mecklenburg and Wake County, who have publicly refused to work with ICE.
Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe told ABC 11 he opposes House Bill 10, because it “hinders the Sheriff’s Office’s ability to build relationships with the community and takes away authority from the Sheriff to set local law enforcement priorities.”
Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gerry McFadden issued a statement to media saying the bill “erodes the authority of a duly elected sheriff,” and believes Hispanic community members won’t want to come forward to report crimes, “because they’re going to simply live in fear.”
Overrides of four out of five vetoes Cooper issued during the legislative short session were also completed.
Three bills originating in the House had already been overridden by that chamber were completed by the Senate on Monday.
The overrides included House Bill155 (Titles for Off-Road Veh./Low Speed Veh. Insp.), House Bill 556 (Tenancy in Com./E-Notary/Small Claims Changes.) and House Bill 690 (No Centrl Bank Digital Currency Pmts to State.)
The Senate vote counts on each override were identical at 27-17 for each; all down party lines. House Bill 690 originally passed the Senate by a vote of 39-5, which means 12 Democrats flipped their vote to sustain the governor’s veto.
Senate Bills 166 (2024 Bldg. Code Regulatory Reform.), and 445 (Recording of Court-Filed Documents) were also overridden by Senate. The House overrode the first Senate bill did not get to a vote on Senate Bill 445, instead, placing it on the chamber’s October return date for action.
With the inclusion of the four overrides this week, all 26 of the 27 vetoes issued by Cooper during the short session have now been overridden.
Given recent statements made by Cooper at a Sept. 5 press conference, he is likely to add to his count with a veto of House Bill 10.
“Republican legislators are returning to Raleigh to siphon hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars out of public schools and give it to the wealthy through private school vouchers,” Cooper said. “This would be disastrous for our public schools and the future of our state. They should invest in public education instead so we can give teachers an overdue pay raise.”
