Gov. Roy Cooper to visit Wilmington Wednesday

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Gov. Roy Cooper will make his first visit to Wilmington Wednesday since taking office.

According to his office, Cooper will visit Bradley Creek Elementary School at 1:15 p.m. and discuss his plan to raise teacher pay.

Monday Cooper said the two-year budget plan he will soon send legislators will include an average 5 percent pay raise for teachers for the next school year and another 5 percent increase for the year after that. Cooper says the $813 million investment wouldn’t require tax increases.

The Democratic governor will soon present his budget to a Republican-controlled General Assembly that has been raising teacher salaries in recent years.

“After he opposed recent Republican budgets that increased average teacher pay by 15.5 percent, we are pleased Roy Cooper has finally joined legislative efforts to undo the damage of years of Democratic teacher furloughs and teacher pay freezes,” Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said in a statement yesterday. “We look forward to reviewing his complete budget proposal.”