House and Senate budget negotiators were finalizing the finer points of the state budget Monday.
The plan right now is to get the document read into the record before midnight so the House and Senate can take its first vote Tuesday. There is no bill to read yet, but lawmakers talked about the basic points.
In education, the current proposal would leave K-3 alone and increase class size in higher grades. Local school administrators would have to find further cuts. Officials would also have flexibility to move money around or tap stimulus funds to mitigate cuts.
"They are far better at determining what needs to be done than we," said Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat and the chamber's majority leader.
The education cuts would have been far worse without some $990 million in proposed tax increases, said Sen. Linda Garrou, a key budget negotiator.
"Children in North Carolina are going to get a quality education," she said. "I can't tell you the number of teachers we would have lost if you did not have this additional revenue."
Rand said the budget would include some layoffs of state employees.
"There will be some but we've tried to minimize it," he said.
Update: The final budget agreement would not specifically raise class size in grades 4 through 12. Local school officials would have to find ways, including possible class size increases, to cut spending.
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Re: Budget would protect K-3
"Cut" 4-12? Cut what? We had so little money last year there are no field trips in high school, biology students can't do disections, we couldn't replace texrbooks that were falling apart, and our English as a Second Language teacher was a long term sub who didn't speak a second language. Hwere are we supposed to cut from? Class size? What do we do with 35 kids in a room designed for 28? Stack them up? Pray at least 5 kids are absent everyday?