Lawmakers in the state House have tentatively approved a 19 billion dollar budget that makes deep cuts to education and health care.
Legislators debated the Republican penned budget for nearly ten hours yesterday. Republican representative Mitch Gillespie of Marion told colleagues it's the most responsible budget that could be put together in a slow economy.
Mitch Gillespie: "So is this budget a bad budget? Well there are some things I don't like, but overall in this kind of times, I think it is a very responsible budget that has done the critical things for North Carolina."
Republican leaders in Raleigh tout their budget plan as one that would shrink state government and save hundreds of millions of dollars in education and health care. But Democrats say the plan would harm public schools as well as the UNC system, which would face cuts of up to fifteen percent.