District 59 State Rep. Jon Hardister ( R-Guilford) who is the House majority whip held a fund raiser at the Painted Plate at the Vineyard last Thursday with North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) as the featured speaker.

Moore said he left budget negotiations in Raleigh to drive to Greensboro to the fundraiser and would be heading straight back to Raleigh to continue those negotiations.   Since the legislature is supposed to pass a budget by June 30, it’s impressive that Moore would take time out for a fundraiser in Greensboro.

Moore also said that he and President Pro Tem of the state Senate Phil Berger had a meeting with Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday morning, but he didn’t think anything would come of it.

It certainly appears Moore was right about that.  Moore and Berger sent out a press release on Monday noting that they had asked Cooper for “specific compromise proposals,” but that Cooper didn’t bring any to the meeting.

Cooper has said he wants Medicaid expansion in the budget and Moore and Berger have offered to talk about possible ways to expand Medicaid as a separate issue after the budget is passed.

Moore said Thursday that the state House and Senate had reached agreement on a budget and it would be ready for a vote as early as Friday, but may wait to see if an agreement can be reached with the governor which appears to be what is happening.

As things stand, it appears the state House and Senate will pass a budget this week and Cooper will veto it.   Moore noted that if that happened to override the governor’s veto in the House, he would need all the Republicans and seven Democrats to vote for it.

At the fundraiser, Moore talked about the strong economy brought about by implementing Republican policies.  He said, “Taxes are the lowest they have been in many decades.”  He added that government doesn’t create jobs but, “We pass policies that allow those who create jobs to do so.

Moore also had some things to say about Hardister.  He said that when some House members get up to speak, nobody listens but “When Representative Hardister stands up to debate a bill people turn around and pay attention. He’s someone I actually pay attention to.”

Hardister said that he had heard that it seemed early to be holding a fundraiser, but filing for the 2020 election was in December and the primary was in March so it wasn’t that far away.

Hardister noted that when the Republicans started talking about tax cuts the Democrats said that the cuts would cause huge budget deficits, but Republicans cut taxes and have had budget surpluses.  He said that this year the budget surplus was $600 million and that since the Republicans won control of the government 700,000 new jobs had been created in the state.