The tough work on the state budget has just begun.
The House early Friday morning passed Senate Bill 257, a $45.7 billion General Fund budget for the next two years. It spends nearly $350 million more than the Senate version of the General Fund budget passed three weeks ago.
The differences may not seem so big: less than 1 percent of the bottom line. But there are dramatic variations in a many policy priorities set out by House and Senate leaders.
They’ll have to reconcile them in a House-Senate budget conference, likely to start next week. (House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, signaled as much late Thursday night when he told lawmakers to be ready to get to work Monday if picked to sit a conference committee after the Senate almost certainly rejects the House plan.)
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Then they have to deal with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who’s suggested he’ll veto whatever emerges from the General Assembly. The governor’s budget outline spent $47.3 billion over the two-year cycle, nearly $2 billion more than the House plan and $1.7 billion more than the Senate’s.
Timing matters. Once the House-Senate “conference report” budget passes and goes to Cooper, the governor will have 10 days to sign it, veto it, or let it become law without his signature.
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