North Carolina budget now law after year-long delay

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein signed North Carolina‘s long-overdue state budget into law on July 7, ending a year-long standoff that left the state last in the nation to pass a new spending plan, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

The $35 billion budget, drafted by Republican lawmakers, delivers raises for teachers, state law enforcement, and UNC System and community college employees, the N&O reported. Teachers will receive an average 8 percent raise, with the highest increases going to starting teachers. Law enforcement raises range from 10.1 percent to 27.5 percent, and most state employees will receive 3 percent raises.

Stein called the budget a compromise, citing what he described as the “largest starting teacher pay raise in nearly 50 years,” full Medicaid funding and $700 million for Western North Carolina’s continued recovery from Hurricane Helene, the N&O reported.

“These are real wins worthy of celebration and worthy of my signature,” he said.

But Stein also criticized the measure, saying raises for many state employees fall short of keeping pace with inflation and calling out provisions he said are “fully of unconstitutional and petty provisions that strip power from the executive branch,” the N&O reported. He said his administration would “review our options” regarding potential legal challenges to those provisions.

The bill passed 88-21 in the House and 35-10 in the Senate, with support from half of House Democrats and several Senate Democrats, per the N&O. Republicans hold a veto-proof supermajority in the Senate but needed Democratic support in the House to override a potential veto.

Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said the budget builds on more than a decade of GOP fiscal policy, while House Speaker Destin Hall called it “the best budget in decades,” the N&O reported. Berger, who lost his primary in March, will leave the legislature at year’s end.