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Democratic Gov. Josh Stein signed North Carolina’s long-overdue budget into law Tuesday, marking the largest spending plan in state history. The 634-page law includes money for Hurricane Helene relief, provides salary increases for state workers, and cuts income taxes, among other measures.
But the $34 billion budget also includes several provisions that move money for lesser-known priorities, such as a new complex at the North Carolina Zoo. Here are a few other interesting measures included in the budget.
Sports Around the State
Soon, residents of a small town in Cumberland County will be able to pick up their paddles and play ball. The town of Godwin, with a population of only 128 residents as of the 2020 census, will receive $90,000 from the state budget to build a pickleball court.
First Horizon Coliseum, formerly known as the Greensboro Coliseum, will receive $30 million for upgrades and equipment. A recurring host for Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournaments, the Coliseum is also the home arena for the UNC Greensboro Spartans.
Although the budget did not include any funding to entice a Major League Baseball team to Raleigh, it did direct some funds toward America’s pastime. In the Triangle, the spending agreement allocates $600,000 to Miracle League, which operates a baseball league for children and adults with special needs, while in the Triad, the spending agreement sends $170,000 to Kernersville Little League.
Two public schools can hit the ground running on improvements or equipment for their track and field facilities. The budget provided $400,000 to East Duplin High School in the southeast part of the state and $200,000 to Dillard Middle School in Goldsboro.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers
The budget includes at least $1.5 million in earmarks toward so-called crisis pregnancy centers, which are anti-abortion, Christian centers that offer a variety of services like pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, but not prenatal care.
The Assembly has previously reported on state funding for these centers and how they have often provided inaccurate information regarding contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and abortion to women seeking medical help.
The spending agreement separately allocates nearly $3.3 million to the Human Coalition, a nonprofit whose website states its goals are “to make abortion unthinkable and unnecessary” and “rescue children from abortion throughout America.” The funds are directed toward the group’s Continuum of Care program, which pairs women experiencing unplanned pregnancies with a social worker to “help address the circumstances prompting her to seek an abortion.”
Hold Your Horses
A common theme in this year’s appropriations? Horses.
The Corolla Wild Horse Fund will receive $1 million for breed conservation and habitat preservation efforts. The nonprofit works to protect and conserve the herd of wild horses that have roamed the Outer Banks since the 1500s, and provides educational resources to residents about the animals designated as North Carolina’s state horse.
Further down the coast, the budget allocates $100,000 to UNC Wilmington’s equestrian club. The student group has both a competitive team and volunteer and social club, with the team competing in three to five shows a semester. The group’s herd of eight horses includes Cash, Sandy, and Jaws.
The Prancing Horse Center for Therapeutic Horsemanship, located in the Sandhills, will get $50,000 from the budget. The nonprofit group serves people of all ages struggling with a variety of physical, cognitive, and mental health challenges through therapeutic horse riding.
Culture and Recreation
A number of museums around the state will get funding for upgrades and operations. The budget sends nearly $31 million to the North Carolina Museum of History and $4 million to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, both in Raleigh. It also allocates $4.4 million to the North Carolina Museum of Art, Winston-Salem, $750,000 to the Museum of the Marine in the southeast part of the state, and $100,000 to the North Carolina Pottery Museum in Randolph County.
The Waccamaw Siouan Indian Tribe will receive $435,000 for a new cultural center. One of eight state-recognized Native American tribes in North Carolina, the Waccamaw Siouan are located predominantly in the southeastern part of the state in Bladen and Columbus counties.
The budget also funds two outdoor opportunities. In Raleigh, $2 million is allocated to help relocate existing operations and create a new open-air pavilion at the State Farmer’s Market, while in the eastern part of the state, $20,000 will go to the Fremont Daffodil Festival. The festival, an annual tradition for decades in the small, rural town of Fremont, celebrates the arrival of spring and blooming of the daffodils.
Education
UNC-Chapel Hill will receive $35 million for the planning and development of its “satellite campus,” known as Carolina North. The project is located about two miles north of UNC-CH’s campus and will be a mixed-use development with academic and research facilities, retail, and housing. It remains to be seen whether Carolina North will also become the home of UNC-CH’s basketball arena.
The legislature is helping fund North Carolina’s medical school boom, providing $15 million to support the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine in Fayetteville. The budget also directs more than $109 million toward the construction of a new building at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine.
The claws are not out for North Carolina State University. It will receive $20 million for its Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Hub, which is researching a type of semiconductor technology that the university says could be more effective than traditional silicon.
