The state House is scheduled to vote later today on its budget proposal, but Senate leader Phil Berger says his chamber won't support the House plan.
Berger says he's opposed to the House's proposal to spend hundreds of millions of dollars from reserve funds. That money would pay for Medicaid needs and infrastructure projects related to the new Toyota battery plant in Randolph County.
"We have agreed to dip into the reserves, but not nearly to the tune that the House wants to. And we've only done that to try to get a deal, and they continue to want to spend way too much money," he said.
Berger says the negotiations between the two chambers aren't making any progress, and he says it's possible that the legislature could end its session without a budget agreement.
If that happens, state employees and teachers would still get scheduled raises from last year's budget bill. But they wouldn't get the extra raises in the House's proposal to spend a billion-dollar revenue surplus. And child care centers wouldn't get money to offset the loss of federal funds.