Budget writers in the House and Senate may not be done before the fiscal year begins July 1.
Rep. Mickey Michaux, a Durham Democrat and senior budget writer in the House said it's "fairly likely" that lawmakers will miss the deadline and have to adopt a so-called "continuing resolution" which authorizes state government to continue to function in the absence of a budget.
"It looks like the Senate is flagging a lot of stuff that we've been doing," Michaux said, of the budget conference, the meetings in which House and Senate budget writers negotiate a compromise.
Michaux said the continuing resolution would likely authorize state spending at the level of the current year minus a certain percentage to accommodate the steep drop in revenue.
Continuing resolutions, which are technically bills and not resolutions, are nothing new, even in years when the state is enjoying surpluses, said Gerry Cohen, director of the Legislative Drafting Division.
The legislature missed the fiscal year deadline in seven of the last 10 budget cycles.
More after the jump.
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Without the continuing spending bills state government could not spend any new money. It could fix roads with previously purchased asphalt, but the state might not be able to pay the state employees to apply it, Cohen said.
Those situations are just hypothetical, however, since the legislature has always at least adopted a continuing spending bill by June 30.
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