With less than two weeks before the start of a new fiscal year for state government, Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper aren't close to compromising on a state budget.

The two sides have each other over a barrel: Democrats don't have enough votes in the General Assembly to pass what Cooper wants, and, for the first time in seven years, Republicans don't have enough votes to override a possible veto.

Other WRAL Top Stories

So, each side is waiting for the other to blink.

Medicaid expansion is among Cooper's main demands. It was a big issue in his 2016 campaign, and he's included it in budget proposals in each of the past three years. He has never said he would veto a budget that doesn't include Medicaid expansion, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown said Tuesday that budget negotiators were told that it has to be on the table.

"We just feel like that one item shouldn't dictate the rest of the conversation," said Brown, R-Onslow. "We're willing to sit down with the governor and have negotiations and conversations and try to work out the differences, but it shouldn't be an ultimatum based on one item."

Within hours of the first meeting between legislative budget-writers and members of Cooper's administration on Tuesday morning, Senate leaders fired a letter of complaint off to the governor.

"We have all fought our share of political battles over the past 30 months. The budget does not have to be another chapter of that history," reads the letter, signed by Brown and Sens. Kathy Harrington, R-Gaston, and Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, the three co-chairs of the Senate Appropriations committee.

"We sincerely wish to engage in productive negotiations to reach a compromise budget," the letter continues. "That is of course not possible if you will not come to the table. That is not a negotiation."

The senators spell out why they have remained opposed to Medicaid expansion, including the potential that state taxpayers will eventually be on the hook for millions of dollars in health costs and that it could pit the elderly and children against working adults for access to health care.

"You can't say, 'Unless this happens, nothing else will happen,'" Brown said. "If you do that, then you have no negotiation from the very beginning, and I think that's the approach that he's taking at this point."

House Minority Leader Darren Jackson said GOP leaders walked in with ultimatums of their own.

"If the Senate's proposal is, 'We're not going to consider Medicaid expansion, and we're going to have a $250-plus-million tax cut, and if you want to talk, you have to accept those conditions,' that's not negotiating," said Jackson, D-Wake.

Medicaid expansion should be a deal breaker, he said, because it's the one issue all 55 House Democrats agree on. Republicans are engaging in political theatrics because the math is on Cooper's side, he added.

"They know we're looking at not having a budget because they're not willing to give on anything, and so they're trying to say, 'Well, it's not our fault. It's the House Democrats' [fault], or it's the Governor's Office."

If not budget agreement is in place by July 1, most of the current budget will continue to be in effect. But some programs won't have funding, and raises will be on hold till they strike a deal.