Governor Pat McCrory says he approves of the legislature's spending plan for state and will sign the bill.
The Senate already passed the $21 billion budget bill today and the House will likely approve it Saturday morning.
Governor Pat McCrory touted the budget proposal at a press conference on Friday.
“We've got a 2.2 percent increase in the general fund budget with no tax increase, with teacher pay raises, no elimination of teachers assistants and we've kept the integrity of our Medicaid, I'm proud of it,” he said.
But the Governor also took time to note things that were not included in the budget bill. For example, in his plan, he wanted additional funding for school textbooks and to reward teachers who decide to pursue master's degrees.
McCrory also says he wants to move forward on a coal ash cleanup plan since lawmakers decided to delay legislation. He plans to sign an executive order to assess the ash ponds and drain water from four high-priority coal sites.
“DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] will begin ground-water assessment of coal ash ponds of all 14 of Duke Energy’s facilities and these assessments are the first step toward closure of the coal ash ponds,” McCrory said.