RALEIGH, N.C. — With a new state budget already four months overdue, leaders in the North Carolina House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, have agreed on a small spending bill they approved on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, there was still a chance the deal — even as minor as it was — could have fallen apart, according to a top Republican. The bill sailed through both chambers with bipartisan support, but the bigger budget battle isn’t over.

Hours before the new spending bill became public, Sen. Ralph Hise, a top Senate budget writer from Mitchell County, revealed to The News & Observer it would include spending for the State Highway Patrol and for step increase raises — which are based on longevity — at certain state agencies.

After a contentious morning voting session over drawing a new map of congressional districts, the Senate was in recess until noon, when a new, unseen bill was to be presented. Called a conference report, the new legislation is something that certain House and Senate Republicans have already agreed on and can’t be amended, meaning it gets only an up or down vote.

The bill was revealed less than an hour before votes were taken in the Senate. Lawmakers removed the contents of an existing measure, Senate Bill 449, and replaced them with the new proposal. It then passed the Senate unanimously, 46-0.

On Tuesday evening, the House voted to approve it, too, 104-6, with zero debate. It now goes to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein to sign or veto.

Some money for state raises, Highway Patrol in bill

The bill doesn’t include the big-ticket items like across-the-board raises, Medicaid and tax cuts, Hise said, noting that the legislation would be “insignificant in the conversation of the budget.”

Negotiations between the House and Senate, led by Republicans House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate leader Phil Berger, have been at a near-stalemate for months. The General Assembly has only been back in session sporadically for a few days at a time since leaving its daily work behind at the end of June.

Lawmakers did agree to pass two so-called mini budget bills, one in July and one in September, that included minor spending including authorizing step increases. Hise said the new bill would give the Office of State Budget and Management funds needed for those step increases in some state agency jobs.

Other items in the bill include money for Highway Patrol equipment, General Assembly police, selling state property in Raleigh, and granting a request from the UNC System for increases in out-of-state students’ tuition at universities participating in the NC Promise program.

During the September session, each chamber passed additional small spending bills that the other rejected.

The big budget stalemate issues still stand: the House wants to adjust the levels of state revenue that will trigger future tax cuts, and the Senate does not. Senate Republicans also want to keep the 2023 plan to fund a new children’s hospital, which House leadership does not.

Even this small bill could have still failed, with Hise cautioning against saying it would definitely pass both chambers, hours before they did.

“We’ll wait and see the vote,” Hise said Tuesday morning. “It’s fallen apart too many times for me to say that.”

After passing the Senate, the spending bill was sent to the House, which quickly took up the vote for a brief voting session Tuesday evening. The House has another session on Wednesday, while the Senate adjourned its voting sessions for at least the next month.

Hise isn’t one of the lawmakers from each chamber who negotiated the bill, he said, though he was told what’s in it.

On Monday, Stein said Republican lawmakers are “failing” the state by not passing a comprehensive state budget, which was due July 1.

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