The Senate had a conference committee meeting this afternoon where they rolled out their 7th proposal for a budget compromise. Both Senate and House conferees were present at the meeting. After a brief presentation of the spending items and the methodology behind their new figures, the meeting adjourned.

The Senate lowered its Teacher Pay proposal from 11 percent to 8 percent, splitting halfway between the original proposals. The most recent House proposal was 6 percent, so there is still some negotiating to be done with the teacher pay raise.

The Senate has moved much closer to the House positions on a number of issues. This meeting was unlike many of the former and the mood was much lighter and there was joking between the two chambers. A final budget proposal doesn’t seem too far in the future.

Here are the major Senate spending items and their positions relative to the House’s latest proposal. Numbers in parenthesis are cuts or negative.

 

Budget Item House Offer 5 Senate Offer 7
Reduce Senate TA cut by 50% (114,916,787)
HHS, Senate scenario maintains eligibility standards – House/Governor position on Aged, Blind, Disabled (120,152,934) (150,001,676)
Teacher Pay, Senate splits difference amounts with Governor’s step reform 219,426,078 342,855,891
School Based Administrators Compensation, Senate matches Governor’s position 10,158,319 5,952,042
Non-Certified, Central Office Personnel & DPI Compensation, Senate matches House position 66,732,014 66,159,235
NCSSM Teachers & Other State Agency Teachers, Senate makes a technical modification to give all teachers the same pay raise 2,318,079
Clerks, Magistrates, SHP Step Increases, Senate matches House position 9,189,132
All other State Employee Compensation, Senate matches House position 125,625,772 116,471,085