By Avi Bajpai and T. Keung Hui
The Charlotte Observer
(The Charlotte Observer) The North Carolina House voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a sprawling budget bill containing two longstanding GOP priorities: a measure requiring sheriffs to cooperate with immigration authorities, and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for private school vouchers.
Republicans moved to defeat the outgoing Democratic governor’s veto — the latest in more than two dozen they’ve overridden since gaining a legislative supermajority last year — in one of the last sessions left before lawmakers adjourn in December. When they return to Raleigh in January, Republicans are expected to maintain a supermajority in the Senate, but lose it by one seat in the House.
The House took the first of two required votes, one in each chamber, on a busy day when House Republicans also held leadership elections to choose a new caucus leader who will serve as speaker next year, and prepared to unveil another major bill that would take away and change the powers of the incoming governor, attorney general, and state superintendent of public instruction — all offices that Democrats won earlier this month.
After around 40 minutes of debate, Republicans made a motion to end debate and proceed to a vote. The House voted 72-44 to override Cooper’s veto of House Bill 10, the “mini-budget” Republicans agreed on in September after months of budget talks.
The Senate was expected to hold its vote on the bill Wednesday afternoon, at which point GOP lawmakers would have managed to enact legislation requiring Democratic sheriffs who have resisted cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to cooperate with the federal agency, and providing nearly a half-billion dollars for vouchers.
Republicans have been trying to pass ICE cooperation legislation since 2019, after newly elected sheriffs in Democratic counties like Wake and Mecklenburg vowed the year prior, during the first Trump administration, to cut back or end cooperation with the agency that enforces immigration law and conducts deportations.
After previous standalone bills were vetoed by Cooper in 2019 and 2022, Republicans tried to pass the bill for a third time once they regained a supermajority last year. The bill ultimately got stuck in negotiations between both chambers this summer.
In September, Republicans said they had agreed to pass the crux of the bill, which requires sheriffs to comply with immigration detainers — requests from ICE regarding individuals who have been arrested and are believed to be in the country illegally. The detainers ask sheriffs to hold the suspects for up to 48 hours to give ICE agents time to take custody of them.
The ICE-cooperation provisions were combined with several other legislative priorities including voucher funding, and sent to Cooper’s desk.
Passage of the immigration enforcement bill comes now as former President Donald Trump readies his second administration and prepares to implement his campaign promise to “carry out the largest deportation operation in history.”
Private school vouchers
The legislation would also provide $463 million to clear the Opportunity Scholarship backlog, as well as provide funding for those families to continue to attend a private school next year.
Last year, state lawmakers overhauled the Opportunity Scholarship program so that any family could apply regardless of how much money they made. The program initially started a decade ago serving only low-income students.
Nearly 72,000 families applied this year to receive a new Opportunity Scholarship under the revised eligibility rules. The demand was so high that more than 50,000 students were put on a waiting list pending more state funding.
Families who are on the wait list had to be attending a private school on Oct. 1 to be eligible to get a voucher this school year. Depending on the family’s income, they’ll get a voucher of between $3,360 and $7,468 per child.
There are currently 32,459 students receiving an Opportunity Scholarship this school year. The number would rise after the veto is overridden.
More than 70% of the families on the waiting list would not have been eligible for a voucher when there were income limits. This group includes a family of four making more than $115,440 a yer.
During the debate, Democrats had focused on how wealthy families who were already at private schools would get a voucher now. In addition, Cooper said GOP lawmakers should use the new voucher money for Hurricane relief instead..
In contrast, Republicans focused on the middle-class families on the waiting list. The demand was so high this year that the state had run out of money to fund new applicants who would have qualified last year.
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