(RALEIGH) -- North Carolina lawmakers have overturned the historic veto of Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of the state budget.

The Republican-led Senate voted 31-19 to block the veto of the $19.7 billion spending plan.  The House voted 73-46 on the override just past midnight Wednesday.  Five House Democrats broke party lines to give Republicans a super-majority in both chambers.

GOP lawmakers said the budget plan appropriately addressed a shortfall of more than $2 billion while letting a temporary sales tax expire. Democrats argued the two-year budget would result in thousands of teacher layoffs despite Republican claims that those education positions would mostly be protected. Perdue said she vetoed the plan because it would cause “generational damage” to public schools and universities.

“Final passage of this bipartisan budget signals a new, more responsible era in North Carolina state government – one in which legislators spend tax dollars wisely, fuel job creation in the private sector, and refuse to settle for average results in education,” Senate president Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said in a statement. “Despite the governor’s frantic media campaign, apocalyptic rhetoric, and creative accounting, the facts are clear: our $19.7 billion budget will do more for public classrooms and help the economy create more jobs than her own proposal.”

Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, applauded Perdue for vetoing the plan even though she knew it would be overridden. “I certainly admire that in a leader,” he added. “From our side of the isle we owe her a great debt of gratitude to put some emphasis on what we think is happening.”

The final vote came as many school teachers sat in the Senate gallery to observe the proceedings. The North Carolina Association of Educators held a press conference earlier in the day, hoping to put a face on the number of teachers that stand to lose jobs.

“It's devastating,” said Jill Elberson, a Randolph County teacher who recently got her pink slip. “Just like everybody else I have bills to pay. I’m not sure how I’m going to pay my children’s insurance when I’m not getting a check. Unemployment is not going to cover that.”

Senate Republicans countered that any layoffs that already occurred were a result of the current Democratic spending plan, which runs through June 30.

“Please don’t saddle us with anymore than we’ve put in there and we’ll take credit for that – or blame, however it goes,” Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph. “But these pink slips are not our doing.”

Republicans balked at the idea of extending the temporary one-cent hike in order to avoid deeper cuts to education and health programs. Berger said raising additional revenue wouldn’t solve the state’s problems.

“It doesn’t work in our personal lives. It doesn’t for our businesses and it doesn’t work for government, ultimately,” he said. “So more spending is not the answer.”