Why Did N.C.’s Budget Take So Long?

State lawmakers sent Gov. Josh Stein a comprehensive budget on Thursday, ending a year-long impasse between House and Senate Republicans.

The bill cleared the General Assembly with substantial bipartisan support, including about half of Democrats in each chamber during an initial vote on Wednesday and final procedural vote on Thursday. The budget, which cleared the House 88-21 and Senate 35-10 on its last consideration, will almost certainly become law–either Stein will sign it, or allow it to become law without his signature after 10 days. 

Stein’s office declined to comment on his position on the bill, but said it is “reviewing the budget closely.”

There are several provisions likely to appeal to the governor.

The spending plan includes substantial teacher pay raises, with starting wages rising from $41,000 a year to $48,000. On average, teachers will see an 8% salary increase, before state and local supplements. Corrections officers, law enforcement personnel, and others will see even greater increases. Most state workers, however, will get a more modest 3% raise, while retirees will get a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment. 

While House Republicans wanted the raises to be retroactive to the previous fiscal year, they compromised with the Senate by agreeing to make them start in the fiscal year that began on July 1. Many workers will also receive one-time bonuses.

A number of Stein’s other top priorities made their way into the final budget. The governor asked lawmakers for $792 million for Hurricane Helene relief; the budget sets aside $700 million. 

He also requested lawmakers include $5 million for the SUN Bucks program, a U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative that provides parents a one-time credit of $120 per eligible child for food when school is out for the summer. Lawmakers funded the request for this fiscal year, but Stein wanted it to be recurring. 

One notable GOP priority the budget excludes is a separate elections bill that the governor disliked. Unlike many prior budgets, this year’s plan doesn’t pursue any major changes to election law.

House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate leader Phil Berger said they couldn’t recall a previous time the legislature passed a budget that didn’t at least make some election changes.  It does include funding for 14 new positions at the State Board of Elections and $15 million to modernize the election management system. 

“We got to a good place on a good product,” said Sen. Ralph Hise, a Mitchell County Republican and top budget negotiator. “Budgets are not to solve all the problems of the state. We’ve got a lot of work left to do on various issues, but I think we got to a good end.”

Bucking the Budget

The budget wasn’t without its critics, even from within with the GOP.

In a rare break from their party, two coastal Republicans opposed the budget over concerns with a provision adding tolls to all ferry routes starting in 2027. Coastal residents have the option of buying a $150 annual pass instead. But for Sens. Bobby Hanig of Currituck County and Norman Sanderson of Pamlico County, the provision was a poison pill.

“I made a promise to my constituents a long time ago that I would not vote for a ferry tax,” Hanig said during a floor debate.

It is the first time any House Republican has bucked their party on an enacted budget since 2014. A state senator hasn’t defected from the caucus on an enacted comprehensive budget since 2013.

Hanig wasn’t present for the procedural vote on Thursday, while Sanderson voted in support of the bill on its final consideration.

Many of the budget’s Democratic critics objected to the process, saying they wanted to be involved in drafting the legislation, or see Republicans resolve the impasse sooner. Cuts to vacant state government jobs are too sweeping, they said, and state worker raises should be higher. They also felt health care initiatives, such as the Healthy Opportunities Pilot program, deserved more funding.

But in the end, many ultimately came around to voting for the plan.

Democratic Rep. Amos Quick of Guilford County summed up his position most creatively: “I will vote for this budget, but with the same enthusiasm as I do eating bad food.”

House Democratic Leader Robert Reives said the House’s initial proposal last year was the best budget he had seen since he took office in 2014. He blamed the Senate for making changes that undermined the more sweeping raises the House had pursued. He also cited the looming power vacuum that Berger’s primary defeat has created as an opportunity to improve relations between the two chambers.

“The Senate’s gonna be a brand new place next year,” Reives said. “Let’s remind them of what good government looks like.”

Why’d It Take So Long?

It had been 1,014 days since lawmakers last sent a comprehensive budget to the governor. 

In 2023, Berger folded on his goal of bringing a casino to his Rockingham County district, which had become a major sticking point in deliberations with then-House Speaker Tim Moore. The two leaders couldn’t reach consensus the following year on budget adjustments for the short session.

When Hall took the House gavel in 2025, there was optimism that a fresher face could develop a better rapport. But that hasn’t materialized.

The Senate saw little incentive to renegotiate agreements it had reached in the 2023 budget on tax cuts and a children’s hospital. House negotiators proved equally stubborn on teacher and state worker pay raises. The result: talks collapsed last year, and discussions were reset after Berger lost his primary to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page.

As the short session got underway this spring, both chambers’ intransigence appeared to subside, perhaps in recognition of the political consequences inaction could have in this November’s election. 

After some uncertainty in late April and early May, Berger and Hall unveiled a framework for moving forward and set a target of passing the budget the week of June 15. That self-imposed deadline got kicked back a couple weeks as they resolved outstanding disagreements. 

Republican state Rep. John Blust, whose Guilford County district overlaps with Berger, pinned the blame on Berger, referring to his chamber as “a majority of one.”

“I don’t like the delay,” Blust said. “I don’t know how to make them move quicker.”

Two of the biggest issues left unaddressed: the Senate wanted to fund a possible Major League Baseball expansion team in Raleigh, and the House wanted to defund NCInnovation, a nonprofit meant to help commercialize university research.

In hindsight, House and Senate leaders recognized the budget process was far more difficult than it needed to be. And it’s not sustainable.

“I can’t say that I thought that it would go on for as long as it did, and that’s unfortunate that it did, but I also knew that my position and the position of our caucus was resolute,” Hall told reporters this week. 

“We just weren’t going to settle for anything less than having some real raises in this budget and fixing that tax package,” he continued. “I hope in the future that it doesn’t take as long and hopefully everybody in this chamber and the other one learn some lessons and we can get it done much quicker next time.”

Berger said he wished the House had made its view on MLB stadium funding clearer months earlier, but ultimately felt it wasn’t worth holding up the budget to resolve.

“We never had a response from the House as to what their position was,” Berger told reporters. “When it became clear that their position was that they were not going to be interested in moving forward, it was important for us to just recognize that, acknowledge that, and get on with the other things.”