Bill > S599

This bill appropriates funds for legislatively mandated salary increases for state employees and public school employees, and provides one-time bonus payments for local law enforcement officers and retirees of certain retirement systems, covering the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium. * **General Fund for State Employee and Public School Employee Salary Increases:** $881,262,599 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year and $1,021,070,241 for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. These funds are allocated to various state agencies and the Department of Public Instruction for salary increases. * **Highway Fund for Department of Transportation Salary Increases:** $24,884,648 in recurring funds for each year of the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium. * **General Fund for Local Law Enforcement Officer Bonuses:** $40,075,000 in nonrecurring funds for each year of the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium to provide bonuses to sworn local law enforcement officers. * **Teacher Salary Schedule Adjustments:** Establishes a new monthly teacher salary schedule for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, with increases based on years of experience, and outlines various salary supplements for teachers with advanced certifications or specific roles. * **Consolidated Teacher Bonus Program:** Funds are allocated for bonuses to eligible advanced course teachers, career and technical education (CTE) teachers, and teachers demonstrating student growth, based on performance data from the 2024-2025 school year. * **Supplemental Funding for Teacher Compensation:** Funds are allocated to local school administrative units to provide salary supplements to teachers and qualifying school administrators, with distribution based on a formula considering local economic factors. * **Principal and Assistant Principal Salary Schedules:** Establishes new annual salary schedules for principals and monthly salary calculations for assistant principals for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, with adjustments for experience and school performance. * **Principal Bonuses:** Funds are allocated for bonuses to principals based on their school's statewide growth percentage. * **Central Office and Noncertified Personnel Salary Increases:** Provides a 2.5% salary increase for superintendents, assistant superintendents, directors, supervisors, finance officers, and noncertified public school employees for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. * **State Employee Salary Increases:** Provides a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment for most state employees, with an additional 10.5% for sworn state law enforcement officers, effective July 1, 2025. * **Judicial and Legislative Branch Salary Adjustments:** Sets new annual salaries for various judicial officials, clerks of superior court, magistrates, legislative employees, principal clerks, and sergeants-at-arms. * **Community College and University of North Carolina Salary Increases:** Provides a 2.5% across-the-board salary increase for community college faculty and personnel, and for SHRA, EHRA, and teachers at the University of North Carolina. * **Correctional Officers, Youth Counselors, and Law Enforcement Officer Salary Schedules:** Establishes new experience-based annual salary schedules for correctional officers, youth counselors, youth services behavioral specialists, State Highway Patrol officers, SBI agents, Alcohol Law Enforcement officers, probation and parole officers, and juvenile court counselors for the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium. * **Retiree Cost-of-Living Supplement Payments:** Appropriates funds for one-time cost-of-living supplement payments to retirees of the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System, Consolidated Judicial Retirement System, and Legislative Retirement System in November 2025 and October 2026. * **Updates to Salary-Related Contributions:** Adjusts employer contribution rates for retirement, health, and related benefits for various employee groups for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.