NC House and Senate vote for budget, with support and dissent from both parties
North Carolina lawmakers took key votes on the long-awaited $34 billion budget Wednesday. Both the House and Senate gave tentative approval to the major spending plan, with final votes set for Thursday.
The bill passed the Senate on a bipartisan 36-13 vote with several Democrats in favor, but two Republicans against it.
In the House, debate lasted more than two hours, with Democrats speaking against the bill while some also said they would still vote in favor of it.
The House vote on Senate Bill 257 was 92-23, with several Democrats joining Republicans in favor, including House Democratic Leader Robert Reives — though he criticized the bill, and being left out of the process.
Rep. Amos Quick, a Greensboro Democrat, said he would vote in favor of the budget, but with as little enthusiasm as he does eating fast food instead of healthy food.
He said that while Democrats don’t bear the responsibility of the late budget, “we do feel the weight of the widespread criticism across the state that this state is the only one that has not passed a comprehensive budget.”
But a top Senate budget writer, Sen. Brent Jackson of Sampson County, said the plan “reflects the need to rein in spending while prioritizing our state’s most pressing needs.”
“Republicans have been good stewards of taxpayer funds, and we’re not going to change that course now,” he said, noting that while the bill includes tax cuts, it still represents a 7% increase in spending over the last enacted budget.
The bill was released on Tuesday morning, posted to the General Assembly website. House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate leader Phil Berger had announced a deal on major items in May, but were still negotiating the final legislation for more than a month. The bill revealed this week was not heard in committees, and is the product of negotiations between Republican Senate and House leaders. It cannot be amended on the floor.
Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch of Apex said the proposed budget “only gets us halfway there, and halfway does not deserve full credit.”
She said the budget doesn’t come close to “meeting this critical moment” of rising costs for North Carolinians.
“Some of my Democratic colleagues will vote for this budget today. Some will not, and that is because we understand every day of a delay only adds to someone’s pain,” Batch said. “And after 366 days of pain, we are not going to needlessly extend it one more day.”
Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters after the vote that the “Democrats have had a constant mantra for the last year that we need a budget, need a budget, need a budget. For them to vote against a budget seems to me to open them up to some ridicule.”
Ferry toll draws ‘no’ vote from two Republican senators
Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Republican from Powells Point, voted against the bill.
His opposition stemmed from a provision in the budget that creates a new toll for using ferry routes in Eastern North Carolina, which he also opposed in the 2025 Senate budget proposal.
Hanig, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress and won’t be back next year, drew attention last year for opposing a GOP-backed bill in an episode some dub “shrimpgate.” On Wednesday, he said the toll could be called a “fee, but it is a tax.”
“No North Carolina citizen should have to pay a toll to ride on a ferry,” he said.
“I made a promise to my constituents a long time ago that I would not vote for a ferry tax,” and ”so for that reason, I have to be no on this budget,” he said.
Hanig and Sen. Norman Sanderson were the only two Republican senators to vote against the budget.
Sanderson, similar to Hanig, asked his Senate colleagues to reconsider the ferry tolls. He said a complete audit of the ferry system could find savings elsewhere.
Sanderson, of Pamlico County on the coast, said the ferry is “a part of our life. It really is. We don’t even think about using it anymore.”
“This is very important to the ones that live in coastal Eastern North Carolina,” he said. “It’s an intricate part of our transportation system, and it’s not something that I feel like that we should double charge our people to use.”
Berger told reporters that “we have members that have local issues that they perceive as very important to their constituents, and that’s just what happens from time to time.”
What’s next
Once passed by both chambers, the bill will head to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who has 10 days to act. He has not yet indicated whether he will sign the measure, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature.
The budget was due last July but was delayed because of disagreements between the Senate and House on several issues, primarily the rate of tax cuts and amount of raises for teachers and state employees. Legislative leaders announced their budget agreement in mid-May, ending months of gridlock.
If Stein vetoes the bill, Republicans have enough votes in the Senate to override him but remain one vote short in the House, meaning they would need support from at least one Democrat or independent. A majority of House Democrats voted in favor of the GOP-written budget in 2025.
What’s in the budget
The final budget spans more than 600 pages and includes raises for thousands of teachers and state employees and funding for the new fiscal year that began on Wednesday for several state agencies and programs.
It is not retroactive, meaning new funding for the fiscal year that just ended is not included. The state runs on a two-year budget cycle, and the lack of a 2025 budget meant the state operated under spending levels approved under the 2023 budget. Lawmakers also passed a few small spending bills in late 2025 and authorized some step-increase raises.
Teachers will receive an average 8% raise, although the increases vary based on years of experience, with many veteran teachers receiving smaller raises because of salary plateaus. Most state employees will receive a 3% across-the-board raise, while law enforcement officers will receive increases ranging from 10.1% to 27.5%. Retirees will receive a 2.5% bonus this year if the budget becomes law.
Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Republican education budget writer, said the budget invests in advanced teaching role salary supplements, improving student results in mathematics and instruction on the use of artificial intelligence.
The budget also includes dropping the individual income tax rate to 3.49% in 2027, and eliminates some vacant state positions, freeing up money to be used by Republicans for other priorities. It also puts $450 million in the state’s rainy day fund and hundreds of millions more in other savings funds.
The Office of Health Equity, within the state’s health and human services department, which works to improve health access and eliminate health disparities, would be closed and its functions transferred to the Division of Public Health. Also eliminated is the Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses in the Department of Administration and funding for a program that aims to increase the progression and completion rates of minority male students.
Beyond raises and cuts, the budget includes several big-ticket items such as over $700 million more for Helene recovery needs, over $1 billion for Medicaid and $208 million for a pediatric hospital being built by Duke Health and UNC Health.
Medicaid “continues to be a cautionary tale of our increased healthcare costs received across the state of North Carolina,” said Sen. Benton Sawrey, a Johnston County Republican and healthcare budget writer.
“It continues to be one of the largest parts of our budget and eat off costs for things that we do,” he said, adding that the budget also includes funding to maintain “program integrity.” That includes $2.5 million in one-time funds to the state auditor’s office for an investigation of waste and abuse within the Medicaid’s program.
Also in the healthcare realm is $9 million in funding for North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilots, an experimental initiative that uses Medicaid funds to cover nonmedical services like food, housing and transportation. While showing positive results, it did not receive funding in 2025, and the program suspended operations. There is also funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, and SUN Bucks, which provides summer food assistance to eligible children while school is out.
Sen. Julie Mayfield, an Asheville Democrat who voted for the budget, praised funding for Healthy Opportunities Pilots and indigent defense services. But the money is not enough to expand the pilots, she said, and the budget cuts money going to legal aid organizations providing services for low-income people.
She contrasted the budget increasing taxes on gambling with also allowing gamblers to deduct their losses as an itemized deduction on their income taxes. She also pointed to the budget cutting hundreds of positions to fund other areas, such as the average 3% raise for state employees, which she said does not keep up with inflation.
Other provisions include ending a sales tax exemption for data centers for electricity used on site (though it keeps several others), increasing the tax rate from 18% to 23% on what the state taxes sports gambling operators, consumer protections for ticket resale websites and prohibiting those under 21 from entering vape shops.
Notably not in the bill is funding for a Major League Baseball stadium in Raleigh or a clawback of funding for NCInnovation, a nonprofit awarded $500 million to help UNC System researchers convert promising concepts into revenue-generating businesses.
Another provision also calls for an end to physical motor vehicle registration cards and renewal stickers, replacing them with an electronic system.
House debate on raises, process, earmarks
Hall said the long debate this past year “was ultimately worth it.” Hall praised the budget for cutting taxes as well as putting $1 billion in savings.
Rep. Erin Paré, a Holly Springs Republican and budget writer, thanked Hall and other House Republicans for fighting during salary negotiations, “for holding the line through these budget negotiations, and making sure that we can stand before the people of North Carolina today with such an excellent, historic package” on raises.
Another budget writer, Republican Rep. Tricia Cotham of Mint Hill, praised education programs in the budget, including Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes information for families at the start of school years, and “no more lunch shaming,” as the budget will require school boards to offer the same lunch to all students, regardless of whether the student has meal debt.
House Democrats criticized being left out of budget talks.
Raleigh Rep. Phil Rubin criticized the budget for being both too fast and too slow, referencing the year delay along with the fast-tracking of the bill this week.
“The delay was painful for ordinary North Carolinians,” Rubin said, and said there should be accountability for keeping people waiting and then “leaving them out cold.”
There were no public hearings about the state budget bill, unlike what local governments do.
Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat, said that policy in the budget should be discussed in committees, not just put in a budget bill that cannot be amended.
Other House Democrats questioned retirees only receiving a bonus.
“So to the 300,000 state retirees, I apologize for us not doing the right thing,” Knightdale Rep. James Roberson said, adding that he hopes “one day we will get this right” and recognize their contributions with recurring raises instead of bonuses.
Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat, urged more spending for the Department of Adult Correction, including air conditioning in prisons.
While she thinks “not all is bad” in the budget, there are still “real problems” in a bill that could have had “a little assistance and ideas from our side of the aisle.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2026 at 2:31 PM with the headline "NC House and Senate vote for budget, with support and dissent from both parties."
