NC Gov. Josh Stein makes latest budget pitch to lawmakers, and it won’t be his last
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Stein requests $1.4 billion to fund critical needs, including raises and Medicaid.
- Legislature held procedural sessions with no action; short session starts April 21.
- Governor seeks retroactive pay raises to July 1, 2025 and further short‑session funds.
Good morning and welcome to the Under the Dome newsletter that focuses on the governor. I’m Capitol bureau chief Dawn Vaughan.
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein is making three budgetary pitches to the General Assembly before lawmakers begin their legislative short session on April 21. His first pitch, given this past week, was for “critical needs” that he wants funded now — not when, or if, they ever reach a deal on a new state budget.
Raises and Medicaid funding are the most acute, according to Stein, but lawmakers won’t be doing anything yet.
Procedural sessions came and went, and aside from a few study committees, there was no action in the House nor the Senate. Lawmakers will be back again for a few days in early April — also expected to be quiet — before reconvening on April 21.
If lawmakers suddenly decided to take up Stein’s raises proposal, he said the raises would be retroactive to when the fiscal year began, which was July 1, 2025. He told The News & Observer that he hopes the legislature will pass a raises bill now — then during the short session, “we can augment those raises potentially and make additional other investments.”
Top Republican leadership — Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall — are burrowed deep in their respective trenches over tax policy, and are not having budget negotiations.
You can read more in my story about why Berger is entrenched as he is on keeping future tax cuts, planned in 2023, on track:
The inaction is frustrating for more Democrats than just Stein. House Minority Leader Robert Reives criticized the continuing inaction, saying “another month without the prospect of action may not mean much to Republican leadership in Raleigh, but for hard-working North Carolinians who are struggling to get by, it is another month of doing nothing.”
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Reach me at dvaughan@newsobserver.com or the entire politics team at dome@newsobserver.com.
