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North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein might well give his stamp of approval to the first comprehensive state budget to cross his desk since he took office a year and half ago.
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The governor is set to announce his decision Tuesday. The potential nod by Stein, joining some of his fellow Democrats in favor of a final budget that was negotiated without their involvement, would put a punctuation mark on the long debate over a budget.
It was always primarily a fight among Republicans.
Even as the final legislation was revealed, top leaders of the GOP-controlled Senate and House of Representatives did not join together to announce it, as they had the prior month when they reached a deal. There was no fanfare.
The document was posted on the General Assembly’s website, and reporters talked to lawmakers separately.
Within days, the 170 state lawmakers — with significant Democratic support in both the House and Senate — passed the budget bill and went home to their districts in time for the Fourth of July.
As the House took its final vote on the budget Thursday, some lawmakers — both Democrats and Republicans — left some parting shots for the Senate.
Lawmakers won’t be back in session again until the last week in July.
When it came to final budget talks — House Republicans negotiating with Senate Republicans — Democrats were left out.
Rep. Amber Baker, a Forsyth County Democrat, said during the bill’s final debate that she and other House Democrats “were not invited into the conversations.”
“We were not asked our opinions, and as I’ve stood on this floor and said so many times, we, too, have good ideas, because had we participated in the budget writing process, there would have been many changes that we heard about and have read about on this budget that would have led to a better quality of life for our voters,” Baker said.
She said she had hoped Republicans would apologize to North Carolinians for the delay.
House Minority Leader Robert Reives placed the blame for Democrats being left out on Senate Republicans, who kept their chamber’s Democrats out of budget talks from the beginning. Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch kept a running clock in her office noting the long delay, and drew GOP scorn for a satirical, expletive-laden video about the missing spending plan.
In the budget proposal that a majority of House Democrats supported last year, Reives said that Speaker Destin Hall did let them be part of conversations.
“The (2025) House budget was completely different — that was an actual bipartisan budget, that was (Hall and Reives) sitting down, saying, ‘here’s what we can live with, here’s what we can’t live with,’ and putting something together,” Reives said after a key vote last week.
A majority of House Democrats voted for that budget last year, but weren’t part of talks this year. Reives also criticized policy placed in the 634-page final budget, including provisions shifting appointment power away from Stein, which he said he thinks were added by the Senate.
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Some House Republicans noted that just because the Senate is controlled by Republicans, too, it doesn’t mean they always work together.
Greensboro Republican Rep. John Blust was the most blunt, calling it “a majority of one” on the Senate side. His frank comments drew laughter in the House, where they were seen as a reference to Senate leader Phil Berger’s leadership style.
Berger is the top Republican in the Senate, and has been one of, if not the most powerful politicians in the state for many years. But a GOP challenger, Sam Page, defeated Berger by 23 votes in the March primary election. Page announced he will resign as Rockingham County sheriff at the end of July to focus on his campaign in the GOP-leaning district.
“I’d love some advice,” Blust said to Democrats in response to their criticism.
“I can’t go over there with a gun and make them move my bill. So I’d love some insight on how to make the Senate move on things,” he said.
Reives responded with humor, saying they could always donate to Democratic campaigns and then Democrats could take control of the Senate. He also noted this is Berger’s last year in the General Assembly.
House vs. Senate debates are recurring, and as debate refocused on the legislation at hand, Hall quipped that “criticisms of the Senate are always in order.”
The lighter moment was the latest acknowledgement of the inter-chamber battle that caused the yearlong delay, frustrating many lawmakers.
Berger was dismissive when reporters asked about chamber dynamics and delay after the Senate took final votes on the budget, only saying that negotiations “took longer to get started” with Hall than they did with Hall’s predecessor, Tim Moore.
He also echoed what he’s told reporters previously about the budget delay, noting the House calendar included fewer workdays than the Senate. Generally, House votes this year have been held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while the Senate also took votes on Thursdays.
Berger said the delay was caused by House Republicans’ insistence on slowing down future tax cuts, which Berger did not want to do. Eventually, he and Hall reached a deal on tax policy and teacher pay — Hall’s main budget priority — in May that formed the core of the final budget.
Both sides blame the other for unwillingness to move.
Hall said the long debate this past year “was ultimately worth it.”
Holly Springs Republican Rep. Erin Paré thanked Hall and other House Republicans for fighting the Senate during salary negotiations, “for holding the line through these budget negotiations, and making sure that we can stand before the people of North Carolina today with such an excellent, historic package” on raises.
Starting teacher base pay rises from $41,000 to $48,000 in the budget, with an average 8% teacher raise. And law enforcement officers receive double-digit raises.
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Kyle Ingram contributed to this report.