NC governor unveils COVID relief budget, including bonuses for teachers, college staff

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NC governor unveils COVID relief budget, including bonuses for teachers, college staff

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Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, Adam Wagner
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North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper laid out his budget recommendations for coronavirus relief spending Thursday, continuing efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 with an eye to recovery for businesses and residents.

That includes one-time bonuses of $2,500 for teachers and principals, $1,500 for school personnel in public K-12 schools and $2,000 for workers in our community colleges and universities, Cooper said.

“These teachers and school personnel are the only state employees who did not get raises the last two years and we need this boost to help keep them on board and reward their hard work,” Cooper said.

Cooper’s budget priorities for allocating federal funding come come as the Republican-led General Assembly already has passed one COVID-19 relief bill with a second one expected to roll out within the next week.

The first bill includes broadband internet expansion funding, $95 million for vaccine distribution, $1.6 billion to help schools reopen safely and extends the application deadline for parents who didn’t get $335 checks this past fall.

Also on Thursday, a majority of the Senate backed a bill to require schools to offer an in-person learning option. That bill still needs a final Senate vote next week, then goes to the House.

Here is Cooper’s proposal, according to a news release:

  • “Approximately $2 billion for emergency assistance for public and private K-12 schools and higher education institutions.

  • “$336 million for childcare and development block grants.

  • “Approximately $700 million for access to vaccines and testing, tracing and prevention measures to slow the spread of the virus.

  • “$546 million for emergency rental assistance

  • “$258 million for Highway Infrastructure and $65 million for airports.

  • “$47 million for Community Mental Health Services.

  • “Funding for food assistance programs, such as SNAP and school nutrition.

  • “$468 million for bonuses for educators and school personnel in public K-12 schools, community colleges and the university system.”

Update to NC alert system

Thursday’s press conference included an update of the state’s county alert system, which uses COVID-19 case rates in counties, in addition to test positivity rates and the impact to local hospitals to gauge how the virus is spreading through communities.

There are now 61 counties labeled as red, or having critical community spread. That’s down from 86 on Jan. 21.

“For the first time since we started this report back in November, our trends moved in a positive direction,” said Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

There are 33 counties labeled as orange, or having “substantial community spread,” the second-highest category. Only six are yellow, or “significant community spread” category.

“There’s still a lot of work ahead of us,” Cohen said, saying it is important that everyone continue to wear masks and follow other public health safety measures.

While COVID-19 cases have decreased from the post-holiday highs of January, North Carolina reported 169 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, the highest single day total since March, The News & Observer reported. Last month was the deadliest month of the pandemic as the state reported 2,587 deaths, or just over 26% of all deaths so far.

Vaccine update

The Biden Administration has announced it will launch the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program next week, with 31,200 doses coming to Walgreens locations in North Carolina. Those doses will be in addition to the state’s typical allocation of about 150,000 doses per week, Cohen told a House committee Thursday.

“I do see vaccine supply improving. I think the thing I don’t know is the timing of it,” Cohen told the House Health committee.

She reiterated comments that she has mentioned to other state officials this week — that the emergency use approval of a third vaccine, in addition to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna options, could hasten rollout.

North Carolina has administered 841,286 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine and 188,699 second doses, as of the end of Tuesday.

In an effort to determine when North Carolina should allow frontline essential workers to seek the vaccine, DHHS has been surveying vaccine providers to see what kind of demand they’re seeing from people who are at least 65 years old.

“There is still so much demand from the the current group that we are in,” Cohen said, “so I think it’s going to be a few weeks until we’re able to move forward to our frontline essential workers.”

DHHS describes frontline essential workers as people who have public-facing jobs. Cohen also said there are no plans to prioritize certain types of workers within Group 3, such as teachers. She also cautioned that Group 3 is a large one, with all teachers, public safety personnel and agricultural workers, among others.

“The supply is very low, so we’re not going to get to everyone the first day,” Cohen said.

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