(The Center Square) – For the second time in nearly 11 years, North Carolina has a signed budget.
First-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein on Tuesday signed the $34.4 billion spending plan passed Thursday by the Republican majority General Assembly. The 2026 Appropriations Act, known also as Senate Bill 257, brings Hurricane Helene relief with $700 million and adds $450 million to the Savings Reserve in the General Fund – often called the rainy day fund – to lift its balance to more than $4.2 billion.
The state’s rapidly growing population of 11.2 million will get billions of dollars in tax cuts; have 8% average pay raises for teachers amid increases across the board for all state employees; and send more than $1 billion into funding the state’s Medicaid program.
“This budget bill gets a lot of things right,” Stein said in a signing ceremony. “It delivers the largest starting teacher pay raise in nearly 50 years and the largest overall teacher pay raise in the last 15 years. It protects healthcare for millions of North Carolinians by fully funding Medicaid. It gives double-digit pay raises to state law enforcement officers and bonuses to local law enforcement.
“It appropriates another $700 million to help people of western North Carolina continue their recovery from Hurricane Helene. The budget also makes meaningful investments in our community colleges, the DMV, childcare, and summer food programs for our kids. These are real wins worthy of celebration and worthy of my signature.”
The budget was due to be enacted July 1, 2025. The negotiations stalled and were not resolved until this spring and early summer. Lawmakers, in the interim, passed spending measures to bridge the gap.
And, a 2016 state law kept other resources funded through the most recent state budget.
“Our fiscal policies resulted in an incredible decade of success and economic growth,” said Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, the president pro tempore of the upper chamber. “Senate Republicans fought to secure a budget that would continue those efforts, and the budget Governor Stein signed does just that. It continues to slash tax rates for all North Carolinians and prioritize the needs of our citizens, not bureaucrats.”
Final passage was 35-10 in the Senate and 88-21 in the House of Representatives. In the upper chamber, no Republicans were against although three took excused absences; in the lower chamber, no Republicans were against and six took excused absences. Among Democrats, eight in the Senate and 21 in the House were for the bill. Two unaffiliated lawmakers in the House, formerly Democrats, were also in favor.
“Today, the best budget in decades becomes law, delivering historic raises for teachers and law enforcement, as well as tax relief for the working men and women of our state,” said House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell. “There is something in this budget for every North Carolinian, and the meaningful investments we’ve made will deliver real results that strengthen our communities, put more money back in people’s pockets, and improve lives across our state.”
Stein signing the budget is a reversal from his good friend and predecessor, U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper.
Before Tuesday, North Carolina had just one two-year state budget signed into law in the last 3,946 days. Former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory on Sept. 18, 2015, signed the biennial state budget into law, and on July 14, 2016, signed the budget adjustments into law.
Cooper’s lone signature on a two-year budget was 1,693 days ago for the 2021-22 spending plan. The last appropriation he signed was a midterm adjustment the next year in 2022.
Cooper vetoed two-year budgets for 2017-18 and 2019-20, and midterm adjustments in 2018 and 2024. The 2017-18 plan veto was overridden.
Cooper allowed a two-year budget to become law without his signature (2023-24) in his long-sought request for Medicaid expansion. That spending plan was active through June 30, 2025.
Interestingly, Cooper is campaigning for U.S. Senate as a moderate who has worked across the aisle in bipartisan negotiation. In addition to gridlock of state budgets, on multiple occasions he filed litigation to challenge laws where his veto fell to overrides.
The only other vetoes of previous appropriations in state history were in June 2012 (Modify 2011 Appropriations Act, House Bill 950) and June 2011 (Appropriations Act of 2011, House Bill 200), each by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.
Each of Perdue’s vetoes were overridden.
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