A fiscal game of chicken between Republicans and Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue continued this week as the GOP-controlled House passed a budget for the new fiscal year that lands 4 percent below Perdue’s spending target.

Republicans gained five Democratic converts in the House in a veto-proof 72-47 vote Wednesday afternoon, but the alliance remains tenuous, and Perdue has promised that, when all is said and done, members of her party will be united in opposition.

During a 10-hour debate Tuesday, Democrats put forward dozens of amendments aimed at scrubbing or revising parts of the budget, including provisions holding back public funds for abortion. Outside the Legislative Building in downtown Raleigh, teachers gathered to protest the education cuts.

Toward the end of the evening, debate turned even more hostile when Rep. Edgar Starnes, R-Caldwell, offered an amendment to repeal public financing for campaigns. Democrats claimed the issue had nothing to do with the budget and should be run as a separate bill, and Starnes withdrew the amendment.

Earlier in the week, House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, argued that the $19.3 billion spending plan isn’t as disastrous as Democrats make out.

“We don’t believe this is an austerity budget,” Tillis said. “We believe it’s a prosperity budget. We believe it’s putting money in the pockets of the private sector, working families, and small businesses so that we can create jobs that sustain beyond next year’s appropriation.”

Democrats dismissed that assertion, saying the budget would result in layoffs of up to 30,000 state workers. “We are about to see the largest public layoff in North Carolina and maybe in American history,” Perdue said at a fundraiser over the weekend.

“If in fact the estimates are right and we’re fixing to do away with 30,000 jobs in this state, that’s about three-quarters of a percent on the unemployment rate,” said Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe. “I’m concerned what that will do to the economy.”

But Tillis estimated job loses in the 5,000 to 7,000 range, and he said the cuts are necessary to return the state’s fiscal house to order. “We are prepared, willing, and able to defend this budget,” he said.

The spending plan now goes to the Senate, then a conference committee where differences will be resolved. Members of the Republican Senate caucus met behind closed doors all day Thursday to discuss the budget. The first committee meetings in that chamber are scheduled for Tuesday.

Broadband, annexation, DNA

In non-budget news, House Bill 129, Level Playing Field/Local Gov’t Competition, is on its way to Perdue’s desk after the House voted Thursday to concur with an amended Senate substitute. The measure would curb the ability of municipalities to create broadband systems that compete with private companies.

The new version exempts a number of communities from the requirements already fitted with municipal broadband, including Wilson and Salisbury. It passed both chambers with bipartisan majorities.

On Thursday, the House Finance Committee took up a measure — House Bill 845, Annexation Reform Act of 2011 — that would prevent a municipal annexation if 60 percent of landowners file petitions against it.

Sponsors expected the bill to be fast-tracked through committee and reach the House floor this week, but it stalled. The committee didn’t even take a vote.

A different measure — Senate Bill 27, Involuntary Annexation Moratorium — already has passed the Senate and is awaiting movement in the House.

Another bill seeing action this week would expand law enforcement officers’ ability to collect DNA samples from suspects arrested for felonies.

House Bill 483, DNA Samples/Additional Felonies, gained tentative approval in the House Monday night in a 73-44 vote. A final vote was scheduled for Thursday, but was put off until next week.

State Health Plan fix delayed

Also this week, the House delayed action on a bill reforming the State Health Plan, a measure Perdue vetoed. The legislation would increase premiums in order to keep the plan solvent and transfer it from the jurisdiction of the General Assembly to the state treasurer’s office. A vote was postponed until Tuesday.

A stalemate between Perdue and legislative Republicans continued this week over extension of unemployment benefits for 37,000 North Carolinians. The sides haven’t reached an agreement over a GOP-backed bill that would extend the benefits while also restricting Perdue’s muscle in budget negotiations.

Action on other bills

The following bills also saw action this week:

• Senate Bill 709, Energy Jobs Act: Would expand North Carolina’s ability to drill for natural gas off its coast. Also requires Perdue to enter into a regional compact with Virginia and South Carolina on the issue. Passed the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday; the full Senate is expected to take it up this Tuesday.

• Perdue signed two bills into law. The first — Senate Bill 464, Debt Reduction Act of 2011 — trims state indebtedness for capital improvement projects, including a horse farm in Rockingham County. The second — House Bill 215, Unborn Victims of Violence Act/Ethen’s Law — mirrors federal law in recognizing a separate, unborn victim in the event of a violent attack on a pregnant woman.

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.