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In addition to funding raises for state employees and tax cuts, North Carolina’s newly enacted budget directs nearly $1.6 billion toward a variety of projects in lawmakers’ districts.
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These one-time appropriations, also called “pork” or “earmarks,” will fund everything from sewer upgrades to university buildings to controversial crisis pregnancy centers, which counsel women against abortion.
And the money isn’t spread evenly.
North Carolina’s largest counties, like Wake and Mecklenburg, received some of the highest total amounts of spending, but less populous counties represented by powerful lawmakers received higher per-capita spending.
And a handful of counties, some of which are represented by lawmakers who have drawn the ire of Republican leadership, received no earmark funding at all.
Republicans negotiated the budget after a year of delay and passed it with some Democratic support, and Democratic Gov. Josh Stein signed it into law.
Democrats in the legislature said they were largely excluded from the budget process, despite having submitted requests for earmarks in their districts.
“We represent 4 million North Carolinians, and yet they will not talk to us about the needs for our constituents,” Senate Democratic leader Sydney Batch said. “We did provide them with a lot of the projects that we wanted and requested to be funded, and I don’t believe that any of them — or very little of them — were actually even considered.”
House Speaker Destin Hall, a Caldwell County Republican, said some Democratic requests did make it into the final budget bill.
“Members always have projects they’re interested in in their districts, and so we try to accommodate that where it’s reasonable, which we have in this budget,” he said.
North Carolina’s largest county, Wake — which houses the state government in Raleigh — received the largest total earmark spending by far, totaling over $473 million. Much of that money will go to construction projects at NC State University, as well as toward the construction of the new downtown Education Campus.
But when looking at earmark spending per capita, Madison County came out on top, with lawmakers allocating $12.5 million per 10,000 people to the hurricane-stricken county of 22,000.
The vast majority of the funding for Madison goes toward grants for projects related to damage from the remnants of Hurricane Helene.
Madison is represented in the Senate by Sen. Ralph Hise, who serves as deputy president pro tempore. He is one of several Republicans to throw his name in the hat to replace outgoing Sen. Phil Berger as leader of the Senate.
The second-highest county in per capita spending was Martin, which received just under $12 million per 10,000 people. Most of this money will go toward the creation of a rural emergency care center.
That hospital would be located in the district of Rep. Shelly Willingham, a moderate Democrat who lost his primary election this year after siding with Republicans on key votes.
Last month, Republican lawmakers overrode Stein’s vetoes to enact new restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs as well as a law requiring further state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
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That vote was only made possible by the absences of Willingham and his colleague, Rep. Carla Cunningham — another moderate who lost her primary.
Both Willingham and Cunningham had been at the Legislative Building earlier that day, but left ahead of the vote. Neither have responded to N&O questions about the reasons for their absence.
Both voted for the state budget.
Watauga County, which is represented in the House by Speaker Destin Hall, came in third for per capita spending, at $10 million per 10,000 people. Much of that money will go toward renovations and building projects at Appalachian State University.
Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, said it’s not unusual for North Carolina’s top Republicans to direct significant funding to their districts, noting that former House Speaker Tim Moore brought significant projects to his home county of Cleveland.
“The leadership tends to get more than their fair share, which means the leader’s district tends to get more than their fair share,” he said. “So that’s, I think, to some degree to be expected.”
The News & Observer analyzed earmark spending based on a spreadsheet compiled by the General Assembly’s nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division at the request of Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Guilford County Democrat.
That spreadsheet does not necessarily include every budget appropriation for projects and grants throughout the state, as the definition of earmark is relatively subjective.
While most of North Carolina’s 100 counties received at least some earmarks in the budget, there were six that appear to have received exactly nothing.
Those include counties represented by two Republican senators who voted against the budget, Sens. Bobby Hanig and Norman Sanderson. Both lawmakers opposed the inclusion of ferry tolls in the budget, which will affect their coastal districts. (Sanderson flipped his vote to support the budget on a final vote.)
Not all the counties they represent were stiffed, but Halifax, Northampton, Warren and Hertford were.
“It’s no secret that Bobby Hanig and Republican leadership, particularly Berger World, are at odds with one another,” Cooper said. “… In some ways, that reinforces why Hanig did vote ‘no,’ because his district was not benefiting in any significant way.”
Halifax, Northampton and Warren are also represented in the House by Rep. Rodney Pierce, a Democrat who unseated Rep. Michael Wray — a moderate member of his party who often sided with Republicans. Pierce was also the lead plaintiff in a gerrymandering lawsuit seeking to strike down North Carolina’s Republican-drawn electoral maps. Pierce voted for the budget.
The other two counties which received no earmarks were Person and Hoke.
Person County was represented by Sen. Graig Meyer, a Democrat and fierce critic of Republican leadership. He resigned his seat earlier this year to take a new role as head of the North Carolina Justice Center. He was replaced by Sen. Jonah Garson, who voted against the budget.
Hoke County is represented by Democratic Rep. Garland Pierce in the House and Republican Sen. Danny Britt in the Senate. Both voted for the budget.
The budget includes over 900 line items for grants and projects across the state. Here are a few that stand out:
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