CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Republicans at the North Carolina General Assembly are at an impasse in this year’s budget talks.

The reason?

According to Senate leader Phil Berger: “Pork.”

Berger told reporters after Thursday’s Senate session that the House wants to spend $1 billion from the state’s reserves on earmarks. He does not want to do that.

The state has about a $1 billion revenue surplus this year, which is less than what was projected in the spring, but still significant. Berger said the House wants to spend both the surplus and money from reserves.

Republicans control both the House and Senate, so they also control the state’s spending plan. In general, the Senate favors more conservative spending than the House. That’s the case this legislative session, too.

‘We are not making progress’

Berger told The News & Observer on Tuesday that he wasn’t ready to “sound the alarm” yet on the budget possibly being derailed. That was before he and Moore met about the budget.

On Thursday, Berger said, “We are not making progress.”

“The good news is we have a budget. We adopted a two-year budget last year, and we have a budget,” Berger said. “The real sticking point at this point is that — notwithstanding the fact that we have seen revenue projections that are about a billion dollars more than what we anticipated — spending that billion dollars is not enough for the House.

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