GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Governor Roy Cooper visited Greensboro Thursday to talk about teacher pay raises in his budget proposal.
His visit comes the day after thousands of teachers rallied in Raleigh demanding more education funding and higher pay.
Under the Governor's budget proposal, all teachers would get at least a 5 percent pay increase. The average pay raise would be 8 percent, according to Governor Cooper.
He wants to pay for the raises by freezing the corporate income tax rate at 3 percent. The rate was scheduled to go down to 2.5 percent in 2019.
Governor Cooper also wants to freeze the personal income tax rate at 5.499% for people making more than $200,000. This personal income tax rate was scheduled to go down next year.
"You have to prioritize. Are you going to prioritize these tax cuts or are you going to prioritize public education?" Governor Cooper said.
Republican Representative Jon Hardister said the corporate income tax cuts have brought more than 400,000 jobs to North Carolina since the cuts began in 2013.
"That's money that's in the pocket of hardworking North Carolinians. It's also money that businesses are using to invest in their employees, to grow their company," Rep. Hardister explained. "And when that happens there's more budget revenue because there's a stronger economy."
It's a balancing act that the General Assembly will have to weigh as they work to pass the budget.
Republican leadership has already pledged a 6 percent pay increase for teachers in the coming year, which they say would be paid for without freezing the scheduled tax cuts.