Another Option Emerges to Expand North Carolina Gambling, but Most Democrats Say They Won't Back It

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) The prospects of enacting soon an overdue North Carolina budget, permitting more state-sanctioned gambling and implementing Medicaid expansion stayed uncertain Monday as Republicans suggested dividing the topics between two bills. But most Democratic colleagues were unwilling to provide the necessary votes.

Action for passing a two-year state government spending plan idled last week when House Republicans said they didn't have enough votes to pass the budget on their own if it contained language that would authorize four additional casinos and legalize video gambling machines statewide.

Senate leader Phil Berger said House leaders should have gone forward with votes on the budget containing the casinos and video machines because a majority of House Republicans still supported them.

But a proposal that surfaced over the weekend would place the gambling expansion and language implementing Medicaid expansion together in the same bill that would be voted on later this week. And a separate budget bill, taking out the gambling that a lot of Republicans opposed, would be voted on separately, Rep. Jason Saine of Lincoln County, the Houses top budget writer, told media outlets.