The N.C. House presented its budget proposal on Tuesday, and while not perfect it is a vast improvement over proposals from the N.C. Senate and the governor's office. State employees would receive a true $1,000 pay increase in the House plan and retirees would receive a 1.44-percent cost-of-living adjustment. Teachers would receive an average raise of 5 percent in the House plan.

Call your representative today to let them know that state employees deserve a real pay raise as well. Tell them that while no state employee begrudges another public employee a meaningful pay raise, the rising tide should lift all boats. Life costs like food, housing and medicine are the same for everyone.

Both the governor's plan and the Senate plan called for a $1,000 "salary and benefits" increase that was really an $809 increase because their figure included "benefits" the state is required to pay by law. The Senate also gave retirees a much smaller COLA. The House budget also makes fewer cuts among agencies, compared to the large reductions proposed by the Senate in order to redistribute tax dollars to large film companies and tax breaks for the wealthy.

While SEANC sees this plan as a step in the right direction in some respects - certainly better than the Senate - there remains room for improvement. State employees haven't had a meaningful raise in six years, and we will continue to point this out as the budget process continues into conference committees next week.

There also are a few troubling provisions, including language that would allow the Department of Public Safety to privatize maintenance at prisons despite a recent report by the department itself showing that such efforts result in no savings for taxpayers, and that state employees provide a much better service to the state.

We will continue to work with legislators to ensure that they value our public employees and fight to keep vital services funded to protect the taxpayers.

Other items in the House budget of note for state employees:

• Takes $22 million from the State Health Plan that was offered up by State Treasurer Janet Cowell in an effort to get in legislators' good graces, instead of using that money to put back into the health plan to lower costs for state employees and retirees.
• Allows the Department of Public Safety to expand private maintenance contracts to additional facilities even though a recent report by the department proved it to be a loser for taxpayers.
• Continues to fund the Wright School, a facility in Durham that provides mental health treatment to children age 6-12 with serious emotional and behavioral disorders. The school's funding was cut in the Senate budget.
• Provides funding for nine positions to enhance oversight of child welfare services in local county departments of social services.
• Closes four Children Development Service Agencies, while allowing the Department of Health and Human Services to contract with private providers to serve those areas.
• Provides a full step salary increase for State Highway Patrol troopers eligible. Those not eligible would receive a $1,000 pay increase.
• Transfers the State Bureau of Investigation from the Department of Justice to the Department of Public Safety.
• Eliminates a prison regional office and the female command and distributes the prisons into four remaining regional offices. Consolidates management of Tillery and Caledonia correctional institutions in Halifax County. Closes Fountain Correctional Center for Women (CCW) and North Piedmont CCW and converts Eastern Correctional Institution in Greene County to a female minimum-custody facility.
• Authorizes the Department of Transportation to further privatize preconstruction efforts.
• Removes all misdemeanants from State prison. The misdemeanants will shift to county jails with convictions on or after October 1, 2014, and DWI offenders will shift on or after January 1, 2015.

SEANC's team of lobbyists will be at the N.C. General Assembly each day until the final gavel to ensure public services and the people who provide them have a voice in the budget debate. Members are encouraged to join your lobbying team to advocate for your pay raises. Click here to find out how.