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Senate budget ends health retirement benefits for future teachers and state...
A few short lines in the 2015-17 Senate budget would eliminate state-paid health retirement benefits for teachers and state employees hired after January 1, 2016. “This will negatively impact the...
View ArticleSenate leaders dodge questions about proposal to end retirement health care...
The News & Observer reports that when faced with questions about why the Senate included a provision in its budget proposal that would end retirement health care for future teachers and state...
View ArticleEditorial blasts plan to cut health coverage for state retirees
The story broken by NC Policy Watch reporter Lindsay Wagner (i.e. one of the reporters unwelcome at Gov. Pat McCrory events) about the Senate’s secretive plan to cut health insurance benefits for...
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Leg. staff offers better mousetrap on retiree benefits. Will the Senate buy it?
Legislative staff pitched a policy solution to lawmakers on Monday that could reduce the state’s $25.5 billion unfunded liability associated with the Retiree Health Benefit Fund by 11.8 percent,...
View ArticleJust in: House, Senate reach deal on teacher & state employee pay raises
*This post has been updated to reflect comments from Senate budget writer Harry Brown indicating that all state employees AND teachers will receive $750 bonuses during the 2015-16 fiscal year. The News...
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Another austerity budget — 429 pages of it
Legislative leaders did their best yesterday afternoon to spin their new budget agreement in a positive light by describing it as a compromise that spends more than last year in absolute dollars and...
View ArticleGovernor’s “thank you” to state employees is mostly talk and very little...
You’d think Gov. Pat McCrory would be embarrassed to release a video recognizing state employees (see below) on the same day that the ink is drying on a new state budget that once more leaves them...
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Giant raises for UNC bosses are simply wrong
Be sure to check out this morning’s front page Progressive Voices commentary over on the main Policy Watch site by Appalachian State professor Michael Behrent. In it, Behrent decries the massive...
View ArticleSurprise! State employees receive last minute bonus during early voting
Here’s the latest entry in the “there’s nothing new under the sun, but this is till depressing as heck” department. A lot of state employees received the following notice last week (and we’re sure it...
View ArticleIs North Carolina going to break its promise to retired state employees?
Unless you’re a fiscal policy wonk (don’t be ashamed if you are), you may not know that North Carolina needs to figure out how to keep a more than $25 billion promise. House Bill 24 and Senate Bill 22...
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Conservative hypocrisy front and center again on issue of state employees and...
This morning’s big story in Raleigh’s News & Observer concerns the actions of Pat McCrory to make hundreds of political appointees into career state employees right before he left office. This is...
View ArticleSenate headed down the wrong path on state employee pensions, healthcare?
North Carolina’s state employees would see a bleaker and more uncertain retirement under a proposal heard in the Senate Pensions and Retirement Committee yesterday. Under the North Carolina Retirement...
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House wants to give retirees a bonus, Senate wants to cut benefits for future...
Stark differences exist between how the budgets passed by the North Carolina House and Senate would treat retired public servants. While the House wants to provide a one-time bump in pension payments,...
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State legislature targets retiree health benefits for teachers and state...
Buried in the fine print of the final budget is a provision that will eliminate retiree health benefits for teachers and other state employees hired after 2021, a move that is both unnecessary and...
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Re: State Govt Employees – Legislature misses opportunity to align state...
The legislature has been touting its living wage proposal for state employees—an important first step in recognizing the important role that these workers play in our communities and the economy even...
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Piecemeal budgets reveal dysfunctional process and a refusal to come to the...
Yesterday the NC House gave unanimous approval to the Senate’s version of four bills that would provide pay raises to state employees, adult correctional employees, state highway patrol employees, and...
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ICYMI: NC posts helpful COVID-19/coronavirus FAQ’s for state employees
In case you missed it, the state North Carolina Office of State Human Resources has posted an FAQ’s page that includes a great deal of useful information for state employees — including: Who is...
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More tax cuts, small teacher raises, major infrastructure spending in the NC...
NC Senate leader Phil Berger The Senate Republicans’ state budget proposal features tax cuts deeper than those they’ve already approved, smaller than usual teacher raises, and billions for...
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Do state employees need to get COVID-19 vaccinations or regular tests?...
Starting Sept. 8, thousands of state employees who work for state cabinet agencies – think corrections officers, highway planners, and environmental regulators – must show they’ve been vaccinated for...
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PW special report: NC treasurer’s love for cash in the pension fund hobbled...
State Treasurer Dale Folwell addresses members of the NC Council of State on August 2, 2022. (Photo: Screen grab from video stream) Key takeaways: * The pension fund holds much more of its money in...
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State Treasurer Dale Folwell should be doing a better job of investing NC...
State Treasurer Dale Folwell addresses members of the NC Council of State on August 2, 2022. (Photo: Screen grab from video stream)State Treasurer Dale Folwell addresses members of the NC Council of...
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Labor shortage hitting NC health department means fewer people served
The job vacancy rate at the state Department of Health and Human Services has nearly doubled since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and staff shortages have limited the state’s ability to...
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NC Budget & Tax Center fiscal policy analyst Suzy Khachaturyan explains why...
Read: Missing the mark for North Carolina: 2022-23 state budget fails to address the many effects of inflation The post NC Budget & Tax Center fiscal policy analyst Suzy Khachaturyan explains why...
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Committee pitches juvenile justice funding as legislative session begins
Juvenile detention bedrooms at the C.A. Dillon facility each have a window. There are 10 to a wing in one building and 12 to a wing in another. (Photo by Melissa Boughton)Juvenile detention bedrooms at...
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Reaping what anti-government policies have sown: North Carolina’s chronic...
(Image via Flickr | CC-BY-SA 2.0)(Image via Flickr | CC-BY-SA 2.0) The much-faster-than-expected economic recovery that’s followed the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic has produced several encouraging...
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