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At a press conference this week, Democrat North Carolina Governor Josh Stein laid out his recommended state budget for the fiscal year 26-27, proposing that the state increase spending by nearly $3 billion. This came that the same as the same day that the state legislature kicked off its short session on Tuesday, with the governor holding this press conference and announcement about an hour before lawmakers convened in Raleigh. This is how the governor opened his comments earlier this week. About 13 months ago, I stood here and presented my long session budget, a balanced budget that placed value on our state's children. and invested in their future.
Thirteen months later, North Carolina still does not have a budget. But the needs remain. And that's what we're going to talk about this morning. North Carolina has a lot to be proud of. In many ways, we're the envy of the nation.
This past year, we've been ranked the number one state for business. the number one state for economic development. the number one state for workforce development. We're the number one state where people from other states are moving. We're the number one state for job growth.
We're experiencing this success because of our people. And because as a state, we have invested in them over decades. But we're putting that winning formula at risk. Our state has fallen behind in key metrics for public education, public safety. and healthcare.
Since the General Assembly last enacted a full budget two and a half years ago, We have added 325,000 new residents to North Carolina. Seeing six to eight percent inflation. suffered the worst natural disaster in state history. and experienced a federal government placing unprecedented unfunded mandates on state and local governments. We cannot simply stand still and hope for the best.
That's Governor Josh Stein reeling off a list of state honors, talking about the number one ranking in business, economic development, workforce development, job growth, a lot of the great factors that we are dealing with here in North Carolina.
However, as you heard there at the end, the governor warning that things have to change. It wasn't long until the governor jumped into talking about the public education system here in North Carolina. If we're going to continue to build on our long-term economic success, we must start by investing in our public schools. Our children truly are our future, so investing in them must be our greatest priority. Yet We are ranked 49th in the country.
in terms of how much we spend on each student's education. It's pitiful. We rank lower than all of our neighboring states in starting teacher pay. We're 43rd in the country. and teacher pay.
And we have one child care slot. For every five families, who are looking for one. These are some embarrassing and unacceptable facts. The governor talking in Raleigh on Tuesday, laying out his budget for the fiscal year 26-27, continuing on the topic of public education, a major rallying call for those on the political left. My budget will make starting teacher salaries in North Carolina the highest in the Southeast.
while significantly raising wages for all teachers. eliminating pay plateaus and bringing back master's pay. The budget also focuses on student achievement. By expanding Advanced Teaching Roles Initiative, My budget will give our best teachers an opportunity to take on leadership roles impact more students, and earn more money for it. We also want to extend the gains students are making from the science of reading by expanding the initiative to additional grades.
My budget also proposes several investments to enhance student safety and well-being. I call for more funding for school safety grants to keep kids safe at school. We need more support staff like counselors, nurses, social workers. They in the schools can help to improve students' mental health. Reduce absenteeism.
and strengthen academic performance. My budget will hire more of all of them. We will also fund long overdue repairs of public schools across the state. We will adjust our special education funding formula to better support exceptional students. And we will work to reduce childhood hunger.
I am proposing free school breakfast to invest in kids' health, attendance, behavior, and academic success. The governor also highlighting that he wants the state to approve a reoccurring funding that will unlock federal funding for what is called the Sunbucks program. That is a summer program that he says will provide meals to children in the summer, as well as helping counties with SNAP. That's the supplemental nutrition assistance program, previously known as Food Stamps. The governor took a shot at the Opportunity Scholarship Program, the school choice voucher system here in North Carolina, as well, claiming that it does not work for the state of North Carolina and its families.
And if we're serious about the success of North Carolina's 1.5 million public school students, We should not be taking money away from them to pay for wealthy parents to send their kids to unaccountable private schools. Over the next decade, if left unchecked, we're going to take $7.5 billion away from our public schools and spend them on private schools with little to no accountability. And for the record, The voucher program is not about expanding choice. Nearly every single student Who received a private school voucher for the first time? Never attended a public school.
It's simply taking public dollars to send to families who were already sending their children. to a public parents who could already afford to send their children to a private school. Dr. Bob Lubke, who is the director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, told CarolinaJournal.com: I could not disagree with Stein more. He ignores basic facts and shaves the truth.
The Opportunity Scholarship Program does not take money from public schools. The Opportunity Scholarship Program is about choice. It is about empowering parents with the ability to choose an education that best fits the needs and abilities of their child. In our most recent Carolina Journal poll talking about the Opportunity Scholarship Program back in January, we asked more than 600 voters across the state of North Carolina what their thoughts were on the opportunity scholarship program. 63.7% of individuals responded that they either strongly or somewhat supported the opportunity scholarship program, compared to less than 30%, 29.2%, that said they oppose either somewhat or Strongly opposed the program.
Around 7% of voters said that they were unsure what their thoughts were on the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which continues to gain a lot of steam and momentum here across the Tar Heel State. The governor, after transitioning away from education, talked about tax cuts that he is set to lay out, as well as some of the high costs that North Carolina is currently dealing with. Childcare is one cost that's weighing heavily on families. Another is the cost of housing. You may remember that I said that 325,000 people have moved here since we last passed a full budget.
And you've heard it said before that if you will build it, they will come.
Well, it turns out in North Carolina, if you don't build it, they will still come.
So, my budget invests in building more workforce housing. and it rewards local governments that increase housing supply in their jurisdictions. Whether it's housing and child care. Or it's electricity. groceries, and gas, Too many families are struggling to make ends meet and cover their monthly expenses.
That's why in my budget, I am cutting taxes to put more money into the pockets of North Carolina's working families. My budget proposes four tax cuts. A refundable child and dependent care tax cut to help parents afford the cost of child care. A working families tax cut. To ensure that low to moderate income workers keep more of what they earn, and it could mean up to $800 for certain families each year.
A back-to-school sales tax holiday in August to help families afford school supplies while holding local governments harmless on revenue. And a larger standard personal income deduction for every North Carolinian taxpayer. During this time of economic insecurity, My budget also enhances unemployment benefits to support people who lose their job through no fault of their own as they work to find their next job. These investments and these tax cuts or what it looks like to be truly pro-family. That's Democrat Governor Josh Stein in Raleigh on Tuesday, just about an hour ahead of the official gavel in of the North Carolina General Assembly's 2026 short session, laying out his budget priorities for the 26-27 fiscal year.
We've got more from the governor, including his thoughts on Republicans' current plan for tax cuts in the state of North Carolina, public safety, and some crime concerns, as well as increasing the job market and investing within the community college system across North Carolina. We'll have those details coming up here in just a couple of minutes. We've been doing mornings the same way for a long time now. Hit the snooze button. Hit the snooze button again.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT, Governor Josh Stein, the Democrat governor here in North Carolina, laid out his recommended state budget for fiscal year 26-27 yesterday, proposing that the state increase its spending by nearly $3 billion the same day that the state legislature began its short session. For those that are not familiar with how the process plays out here in North Carolina, the governor is really not part of the budget process in any meaningful way. That process is started either by the North Carolina House or Senate. It is debated in great detail within the legislature. And if there is a budget that can be agreed upon, it is by both chambers of the General Assembly.
It is passed by both groups and then sent to the governor for a signature.
So his $3 billion. Budget increase, his recommended state budget is simply just that. It is a recommendation. He has no meaningful part in that process. We've heard the governor talk about the need to increase public school funding across the state, heard his comments on the Opportunity Scholarship Program, claiming it only helps wealthy families across the state, and talking about his plan to cut.
Taxes here in North Carolina and increase a variety of different spending. He then took a shot at the Republican General Assembly, claiming that their current plan to continue to reduce the corporate tax and personal income tax rate will be detrimental for the state of North Carolina. If we go through with the pre-programmed tax breaks that mostly benefit wealthy folks, we will be undermining a critical element of what makes North Carolina so special.
So, I am calling on the General Assembly to look closely at the current realities we live in and to hit pause on these outdated. pre-programmed tax breaks. And if we don't... We will face an imminent shortfall in our budget of $5 billion. Risking massive cuts to critical services, the likes of which we have not experienced in North Carolina since the Great Recession 17 years ago.
North Carolina has the ninth lowest state and local tax burden in the country. has the lowest tax on businesses in the country. And it is already cutting taxes $1.3 billion this year. To be clear. Let's not raise taxes, but let's take a pause on these cuts and maintain the rates exactly where they are.
Budgets require choices. And with the choice between investing in our children's education in the health of our kids. versus giving money to corporate shareholders? Or between cutting taxes for working families and cutting taxes for wealthy out-of-staters? I choose North Carolina's kids, families, and future every time.
A little bit of an embellishment of the truth there by Governor Josh Stein. The current tax rate in North Carolina is set to be cut across the board for personal income tax. Anybody that files a tax return with the state of North Carolina would see relief from that. The corporate income tax rate is also set to be cut and moved down to zero by the year 2030 under current legislation within Raleigh. Both of those figures are based on tax triggers or revenue triggers, I should say, that are said if the state brings in X number of dollars, the tax rate will continue to fall.
And as the governor stated, while he is not in this case, advocating for an increase, he is advocating to stop those cuts and keeping the tax rate where they currently are here in North Carolina. The governor then transitioned to talking about the job market, the workforce development, as well as North Carolina's community college system. Here's Governor Stein. Since January 1st, 2025. 15 months.
We've announced nearly 41,000 new jobs, nearly $28 billion in capital investment. It's in every corner of the state, and these are good jobs with good wages. Economic development is a team sport, and I tell you, Team North Carolina is the best in the business. We've got to keep at it. We've got to not only grow this economy, but make sure that it works for everybody.
We have to invest in people so that they have the knowledge and skills to succeed in what is an ever-changing economy. A four-year college is great for many people. But it's not right for every person, and someone shouldn't have to have a bachelor's degree to earn an income sufficient to support a family. That's why I propose more support for short-term workforce training programs and apprenticeships. to expand pathways available to good paying jobs.
In many ways, our state's community colleges are our secret weapon. Almost all North Carolinians live within 30 minutes. Of a community college, and these schools have great relationships with our state's employers. They know what students need to succeed.
So we must accelerate their impact. We must commit to propel NC. It's a new funding formula that prioritizes programs in high demand, high wage fields. That's Governor Josh Stein in Raleigh on Tuesday talking about the workforce development, talking about how many folks in the state live close to the community college system, encouraging apprenticeship programs and other sort of certificate-based programs that can lead individuals to high-income jobs. Public safety also remains a major concern across the state of North Carolina, especially in our major cities.
The governor highlighted some of the issues there as well. Everyone wants to live in safety, to go about their daily lives without fear. But several recent high-profile incidents have ended in tragedy. and as we mourn the loss of all of those lives taken by violence, Many people feel unsafe in their homes or in their communities. To remedy this, it starts with law enforcement.
The people who protect us. and we must recruit and retain the best. When there are too many vacancies, It means that every other law enforcement officer has to carry a bigger load, and it means that they cannot cover as much territory. That's why in my budget I am calling for raising the pay for all state law enforcement officers. Correctional officers and youth counselors.
And offering hiring bonuses to new officers or those coming from out of state to work in state or local law enforcement agencies. My budget also gives law enforcement more tools that they need to succeed. including body cameras and VIPER communications equipment. It includes behavioral threat assessments for our schools and more funding for school resource officers. It includes a Juvenile Justice Residential Crisis Unit to serve more young people who are experiencing mental health crises.
It includes treatment for opioid use disorder in our correctional facilities.
so that people who are experiencing addiction can get help before they re-enter. Our communities. And it includes a fentanyl control unit of law enforcement and prosecutors to investigate and stop the flow of this deadly poison into our state. Many of the discussions about public safety do remain ongoing in the North Carolina legislature. We are likely to see a variety, a litany of different committees dealing with some of the things there that the governor just highlighted from fentanyl to drug trafficking across the state.
We'll see some of that play out during this legislative short session and keep you up to date with the details. All right, wrapping all of that up, here were the governor's closing comments in Raleigh on Tuesday. Our goals are so important for the state. I want so much for North Carolina. Building an economy that works for everyone.
strengthening our public schools and workforce. supporting families with the cost of living. Keeping families safe and healthy. and maximizing the impact of every single tax dollar. We cannot afford to miss this moment.
My budget? It's about opportunity. I believe that if you work hard, Where you come from should never limit how far you can go. That is the promise of North Carolina. Delivering on that promise is what drives me as your governor.
Delivering on that promise is what this budget is all about. I am grateful to the General Assembly for its consideration of the budget, and I look forward to working with them in the coming weeks so that we can do right by every single North Carolinian. The legislative short session did officially begin yesterday. Lawmakers are set to be in Raleigh for the remainder of April, a couple of voting days in May, June, and wrapping everything up right ahead of the July the 4th holiday. You can read more on the governor's recommended proposed budget.
As I've noted, he does not have any significant piece in the budget process itself that is strictly coming out of the legislature. Those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline: Stein proposes $3 billion spending increase, raises tax cuts, and voucher freezes. Again, those details at CarolinaJournal.com. It's 5:38.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good Wednesday morning to you. There is a lot of chatter about redistricting across the nation right now. Big votes taking place in the state of Virginia.
For those that follow North Carolina politics pretty closely, you've seen over the last 10 or 15 years, even going back further, a lot of discussion over gerrymandering and redistricting. We're following an interesting legal challenge this morning that is starting to heat up once again, dealing with two North Carolina Senate districts in northeastern North Carolina to walk us through the latest out of the courts this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation. joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, it is a tale as old as time redistricting lawsuits here in North Carolina.
What's the latest that you're following?
Well, that's true, Nick. And this particular debate about redistricting is now at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
So it's already gotten through the trial process and now is up at the appeals court. What's happening in this case is that two black plaintiffs, one of whom during the course of this legislation was elected to the state House of Representatives, so Representative Rodney Pierce and another gentleman named Moses Matthews, sued after the latest state senate plan was developed, saying that in northeastern North Carolina, at least one district should have been drawn in a way that it would be majority-minority and would give black voters an opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice.
Now, this is the type of challenge that came about as we were getting ready for the 2024 elections. The judge overseeing the case refused to grant an injunction to block the map. And the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also went along with that, saying, no to an injunction. But then the case still continued, and there was a trial over whether these districts, districts one and two in northeastern North Carolina, were in some way racially discriminatory.
Judge James Dever came out with a 125-page ruling that eventually said, no, there's nothing racially discriminatory about this. This is the General Assembly acting in a way that was constitutional and compliant with the Voting Rights Act in drawing its districts.
So now the case, that ruling from Judge Dever has been appealed to the Fourth Circuit. The plaintiffs in the case have already made their pitch to the Fourth Circuit, and the latest development was that the leaders of the General Assembly, the Republican leaders who are defending the current state Senate map, made their written argument to the Fourth Circuit saying, look, there's nothing about this that's unconstitutional. The opening of their argument is for 30 years, the courts have been telling us that, A, that there is no need for a special majority-minority district in northeastern North Carolina, and B, if you drew a district specifically with that goal in mind, it would be unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. They also said that, look, not only did you have this 125-page order from Judge Dever striking this case down, but these same districts were part of lawsuit that took place earlier in the middle part of North Carolina, the middle district, in which a three-judge panel also struck down challenges to these same districts. And so basically the ending of the opening argument from the lawmakers in this case was four judges couldn't have gotten this wrong.
They were right to uphold these districts and the Fourth Circuit should do so as well. I should point out that you might remember that when the latest plans came out for both the state senate And also the state house. And then on the other side, for the congressional map, a series of lawsuits were filed. And now, this is one of the only suits that still remains out there. There were two other suits that were consolidated for trial.
Not only did the plaintiffs lose, but then after they lost, they didn't even want to appeal. They dropped all of their case.
So the only cases that are left. Are this challenge to the two state Senate districts of Northeastern North Carolina in federal court and in state court? The Court of Appeals has yet to issue its ruling in former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr's fair elections suit, where he's trying to strike down a couple of districts in the congressional map and legislative maps as violating a fair election standard that he wants the courts to uphold, but that nowhere is written anywhere in the Constitution. Mitch, these redistricting lawsuits, especially the ones that deal with the North Carolina General Assembly, are always interesting because of the timeframe. Seemingly, no matter when these things are filed, and traditionally they take, as you noted, years to go through the court system, these suits that we're talking about in northeastern North Carolina go back before the 2024 election.
It is always interesting that whenever we talk about them, we are seemingly always very close to another election in the General Assembly, which, of course, happens every two years. And I would imagine that that's got to be a concern, at least for some of the parties involved in this case. As we get deeper and deeper into 2026, candidate filing has already taken place. We saw the primaries back in March. I mean, this puts the courts in kind of an interesting position where a lot of this stuff behind the scenes for the election has already been done.
Yes, and I don't think anyone is expecting that anything that happens at the Fourth Circuit would affect the 2026 election because we're basically in the briefing period now. There hasn't been any oral argument scheduled, and so that would take some time too. And then, if there was a decision that struck these districts down from the Fourth Circuit, you would be so far along in the election process that it would be kind of difficult because not only would you have to redraw districts one and two, but there would likely be some sort of impact in the surrounding districts as well. And so, that could lead to all kinds of shenanigans for redrawing the state senate map. But I think all sides are.
Moving forward with the presumption that if the Fourth Circuit ruled against. These maps that what you would have is that there would be something that would have to be redrawn for the 2028 election cycle. If there was a demand to try to get some sort of action for 2026, there would have been a call for an expedited review. Remember, I mentioned earlier that when the suit was originally filed, there was an attempt to get an injunction against the maps for 2024. That failed.
Neither a trial judge nor the Fourth Circuit was willing to go along with that.
So they really didn't have the plaintiffs, that is, didn't really have an opportunity to go back and say, well, let's try to get another injunction because the courts have already said no to an injunction. They've allowed the court process to play out with a trial, with all of the full briefing. But if there's going to be any change to these districts, it would likely be for the 2028 election cycle. No one's expecting there to be some sort of ruling that comes out that says, aha, these districts are bad.
Now you have to, in the middle of the 2026 election cycle, go back and redraw them. And of course, Mitch, you talk about the 2028 election cycle. Just two short years later, we'll be getting new census data from the federal government, and maps will likely be redrawn anyway, as they are, should be at least every 10 years here in North Carolina. You focused on something that I thought was an interesting argument from state lawmakers. There's been a lot of discussion in this case and many others as it relates to redistricting about using racial data in redrawing these maps.
An interesting argument made by lawmakers that's saying, hey, if you are asking us to use racial data, that in this case, from their vantage point, could be unconstitutional. We've seen, at least from a political standpoint, Democrats arguing and claiming that Republicans are using that data while they have argued in court. No, we're not. There's no evidence that we are.
So it's a very interesting dynamic in a case like this. It really is. And one of the things that the plaintiffs in this case are running into is the impact of previous rulings. The General Assembly. Has basically two goals when it draws an election map.
One, elect as many Republicans as possible. That is part of their goal. But two, to have a map that survives a court challenge.
So anytime the court tells them what it can and can't do, it's going to factor that information into the next round of maps. And one of the things that the Republican-led General Assembly has done in its most recent redistricting efforts is to apply this notion that Whenever we have tried to draw a map that takes some account of race, then the courts have told us, no, you're taking too much account of race.
So they've said in recent Map drawing efforts, we're not going to take any account of race because there's no evidence that. We need to, so let's not take account of race. They are, of course, taking account partisan data, which the courts have said they can. Partisan gerrymandering cases are no longer allowed to move forward either in the federal courts or in the North Carolina state courts. And so the only potential for a plaintiff to win a case is to try to argue either malapportionment, that some districts are too large and too small based on population, which doesn't play very well because the General Assembly knows that malapportionment can be an issue.
So it draws the districts so that they're all mostly the same size population-wise. But then the second piece is you could argue racial gerrymandering. And the lawmaker's response has been, no, we're not taking any account of race. And all we're doing is trying to maximize the benefit for Republicans. And the courts have said we can do that.
And so your racial gerrymandering claims fail. Which is what courts have said in this most recent round of redistricting lawsuits, as well. As I mentioned earlier, The plaintiffs in the cases that challenged congressional and legislative maps that took place in a courtroom in Winston-Salem, they've now abandoned their suit. It's all over. And this is the only federal suit that's remaining challenging these two state Senate districts in northeastern North Carolina.
They've already failed to get an injunction in the case at both the trial court level and the Fourth Circuit. And in a 125-page order, the trial judge said no to their argument at the trial level.
So now their only hope is the Fourth Circuit. And the legislative leaders in their latest briefing are basically saying that hope should be slim and none because judges across the spectrum have been saying that no, there's no basis for this argument. And as Mitch, as you already noted, that we will likely, a very, very small likelihood that we would see any impact on these current elections coming up later this year. Potentially as we head into 2027 and 2028, we'll keep an eye on this as many of these. The legal challenges as it relates to redistricting can drag on for years and years.
We appreciate the information this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Need a new couch, a bigger TV, a fridge that actually stays cold? At Erin's, you can get the brands you love with flexible payments that work for your budget. Approval is easy and delivery is free.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT, recapping what was a busy day in North Carolina politics yesterday, the first day of the General Assembly's 2026 short session kicked off in Raleigh with both the North Carolina House and Senate gaveling in. There was a lot of questions before this session whether the North Carolina House would take up six veto overrides that did remain and have remained for months now on the House calendar. And as the business began in the House yesterday, we did learn that the veto override votes were not happening yesterday. It is not immediately clear when they will happen. They do remain on the calendar right now, and presumably lawmakers would take them up sometime before they gavel out in early July, but no official votes on those veto overrides yesterday.
Lawmakers are expecting. Back again in Raleigh today for additional votes. And from what we've learned from House Speaker Destin Hall, is that both the House and the Senate are getting together as it relates to Medicaid spending in North Carolina. There was a lot of discussion late last year about a shortfall within the Medicaid program, also called the Medicaid Rebase Program, as well. Lawmakers, and according to Destin Hall, in his closing comments within the House's session yesterday, indicated that there would be some movement on that at some point today, potentially even first votes coming today in both or one of the chambers of the General Assembly.
It is set to be a busy two and a half months in Raleigh. We are keeping you up to date around the clock over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And of course, we'll have the latest coming up for you each and every weekday morning, 5 to 6 a.m., right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Well, that's going to do it for a Wednesday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 a.m., right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 WBT.
