Payments to parents in NC Republicans’ virus relief package – Tulsa World

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina legislature will reconvene briefly starting Wednesday to consider spending leftover federal COVID-19 relief funds to reach the pockets of parents, the unemployed and poll workers.

House and Senate Republicans announced they have agreed on a package they want to send to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper this week that would spend a little over $1 billion in coronavirus relief from Congress.

The package would include sending $325 payments to households of an estimated 1.8 million children. The “Extra Credit” payments, which would cost $440 million and be sent by December, is designed to help cover additional expenses families are facing during the pandemic, such as child care and education materials while going to school online.

“With schools closed, parents are facing many unexpected financial burdens,” budget writer Sen. Brent Jackson of Sampson County said at a news conference. “This assistance is designed to alleviate help alleviate some of that burden and show that we care.”

The proposal will raise state unemployment benefits by $50 a week for all displaced workers through the end of the year, so the maximum benefit will reach $400.

There’s also money to boost pay for Election Day precinct workers by $100 as a way for county election boards to staff voting locations. Election officials are worried too many older adults won’t work polls this year because they’re at higher risk for contracting coronavirus.

The General Assembly had already earmarked well over $2 billion in federal relief dollars by late June, but the state’s $3.5 billion share of the federal coronavirus relief package must be spent by year’s end or it will be forfeited. The legislature last met in early July.

Cooper will have to decide whether to sign or veto the legislature’s package, which contains some elements of the governor’s own $978 million COVID-19 relief proposal last week. That includes ensuring K-12 school districts won’t lose revenue if enrollment drops and providing money for testing, tracing and personal protective equipment. There’s also money to help child care centers remain financially viable and businesses that keep their workforce employed.

“The No. 1 thing that we have to do it get our economy back open and help those people who are out of a job and get … North Carolina going again,” said GOP Rep. Dean Arp of Union County, another top budget writer.

But Cooper didn’t have the direct payments to parents. And the GOP plan would expand income eligibility for taxpayer-funded scholarships for children to attend K-12 private schools. That’s a program Cooper and his education allies strongly oppose. Republicans said the pandemic has magnified the need for alternatives to public education.

Cooper said Tuesday at a news conference that he didn’t yet know much about the plan. But House Minority Leader Darren Jackson of Wake County separately blasted the GOP proposal as “completely inadequate for meeting our state’s needs and will leave working North Carolinians behind. … It’s a Band-Aid that looks good in a press release but does nothing to solve the long-term effects of this pandemic.”

While a Cooper veto could withstand an override vote if all Democrats support him, a stalemate risks incumbents from both parties if the federal money isn’t spent. Cooper and all 170 legislative seats are on the November ballot.

Republicans also won’t consider Cooper’s proposal last week to spend $559 million more from state government revenues. The spending would have included bonuses of $1,000 to $2,000 for public education workers, $50 million for programs for at-risk public school students. But Republicans said there’s too much fiscal uncertainty related to the pandemic to spend unanticipated tax collections from the previous year now, like Cooper proposes.

“While it would always be nice just to go in and spend money on everything … we don’t know what what the fall is going to do with this virus,” House Speaker Tim Moore of Cleveland County said earlier this week.

GOP leaders said they’ll have little else on their agenda before leaving Thursday, save for legislation that locates a little money to recruit an unnamed company to the state.

The Legislative Building will remain open to the public during the session but stick to a reduced capacity to encourage social distancing.

Visitors and staff will receive body temperature readings using new thermal imaging technology installed at entrances last week. People with high temperatures won’t be allowed to enter the building. Lawmakers also had access to COVID-19 testing before Wednesday’s opening.