Finally, North Carolina Republicans have a budget. Here’s what’s good and bad | Opinion
At long last, North Carolina Republicans have unveiled a long-overdue spending plan that will spend billions of taxpayer dollars to fund programs and services across the state.
In other words, they did their job. Was that so hard?
Of course, it took them a year to get it done, leaving North Carolina the only state in the country without a budget. In most other workplaces, that kind of job performance wouldn’t cut it. But in the world of government, where inefficiency is the norm, Republicans seem to believe this is an accomplishment, and are patting themselves on the back for a job well done.
But there’s no reason to lavish praise upon lawmakers for doing something that should have been done long ago. The delay caused state agencies and workers a lot of hardship as they scrambled to do more with less. Passing a budget now doesn’t erase that, though we can all breathe a sigh of relief that it’s finally here.
To be fair, there are good things in this budget beyond just the fact that it’s a budget. The plan restores funding for the Healthy Opportunities Pilot, a groundbreaking Medicaid program, though the allocated funding is far less than what was originally requested. It also allocates funding for a new children’s hospital in the Triangle, and gives some teachers the biggest pay increase they’ve had in years. That’s certainly nothing to sneeze at.
The budget will also reinvest $35.8 million in savings from private school vouchers back into public schools. It’s not nearly as much as they lost when Opportunity Scholarships were radically expanded, but it’s a start. Some funding is also allocated to help local governments implement administrative changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that are now required by the federal government under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But it is one-time funding, and may not be enough to address the costs that are being shifted onto states and local governments.
But, as with any budget, there are also some downsides. State workers have raised concerns about the elimination of hundreds of vacant positions — most of which fall under the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Adult Corrections — and raises that don’t keep pace with inflation. Millions of dollars will be allocated to anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers.” And new powers would be given to Republican members of the Council of State by exempting them from administrative oversight.
There are a number of policy provisions included in the budget as well. As expected, there’s a provision that would force Charlotte and neighboring municipalities to reimburse the state for money already spent on the rejected I-77 toll lane project. It virtually blackmails the Charlotte area into reviving a project that local communities clearly do not want. Another provision would create a new process for people to challenge school library books and other materials they believe to be inappropriate or “obscene.” Every school district would be required to establish a “community library advisory committee” to review such challenges.
Ironically, Republicans are suddenly interested in expediency now that the budget has been completed. Lawmakers will begin voting on the budget Wednesday, just 24 hours after the 634-page document was released to Democratic lawmakers and to the public. There will be no committee hearings — which means no public comment — and no opportunity to amend the budget. Negotiations took place entirely behind closed doors. That’s not the way that business as important as this should be conducted.
Overall, this is actually a semi-decent budget. It may even be one of the best budgets that North Carolina has seen in recent years, though that’s not exactly a high bar. But it would have been a whole lot better a year ago, when it only had to address two years of growing needs instead of three. Thanks to the delay, this budget will only last us the next year, so lawmakers will have to repeat this process all over again next summer. Here’s hoping they can get it done faster next time.
Deputy Opinion Editor Paige Masten covers politics and the 2026 elections for The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer.
