NC lawmakers send Gov. Stein a budget bill. When could it become law?
North Carolina legislators sent Democratic Gov. Josh Stein a budget bill on Wednesday that spends more than $1 billion in taxpayer money this year, but is far less than what the still-delayed comprehensive budget would do.
“Budgeting has gotten much more complex as the years pass. It takes time to negotiate a good budget. We have the option of moving fast for the sake of being agreeable and pass something quickly,” Rep. Donny Lambeth said on the House floor ahead of the vote.
He told The News & Observer on Tuesday that when lawmakers return to Raleigh for a few days at the end of August, they could pass another budget bill, including the overall budget bill that’s a two-year spending plan with raises and tax cuts, which are big issues at the center of House and Senate Republican leadership’s negotiations.
The “mini” budget bill adds jobs and new locations for the Division of Motor Vehicles to solve the state department’s long-running problems and delays. It also gives step-increase raises to teachers and those state employees who are on a step-increase raise system. However, overall raises for teachers and state employees are not in this budget bill.
Lawmakers came back to Raleigh this week for just a one-day session for the Senate and two days for the House, which passed the mini budget on Wednesday during its session.
The bill passed the Senate 47-2 on Tuesday, with only two votes against, from Democratic Sens. Natalie Murdock and Sophia Chitlik, both of Durham. Murdock told reporters that the bill doesn’t go far enough.
Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch, a Wake County Democrat, voted for the mini budget but said “it keeps the lights on for only a little bit longer.”
During the House floor debate on the bill, Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat, spoke against the bill, saying that Democrats did not have a part in crafting it and said it was a “Band-Aid when we have severe wounds elsewhere.”
The House passed the bill 91-23.
“This meets some of the needs on things like school funding allotments across community colleges and K-12 and Medicaid rebase. So there’s still a chance that we may add to this at some point this year,” House Speaker Destin Hall told reporters after the floor session Wednesday.
“We just think that the funding that’s in this version of the more limited budget will get us to the next step in our negotiations,” he said.
Hall said he met with Senate leader Phil Berger over breakfast on Wednesday morning, and they talked about the budget.
When the step raises, DMV expansion take effect
House Bill 125’s step-increases for North Carolina public school teachers are raises that must be approved by the legislature to go into effect. Any state employee on a step-increase raise plan would also get raises if the bill becomes law, including law enforcement.
As soon as Stein signs the bill into law, it is retroactive to July 1, so step-increase raises would be immediately effective.
The bill also includes Medicaid rebase funding, capital projects, JetZero incentives, DMV hiring, state auditor positions, State Board of Elections positions and money for the Agricultural Disaster Crop Loss Program.
The DMV provisions in the bill funds 40 new full-time driver’s license examiner positions this year and another 21 jobs in the second year. New DMV offices would be added in Brunswick County, Cabarrus County, Fuquay-Varina in Wake County and Garland in Sampson County.
Stein highlighted Medicaid rebase and DMV staff as major issues impacted by the budget delay on Tuesday, which are both included in the bill just sent to his desk.
Stein has 10 days to sign, veto or let the bill become law without his signature. The sooner he signs it, the sooner the bill takes effect.
Funding for eCourts, SBI, Highway Patrol added to separate bill
More budget money passed the House on Wednesday as an amendment to an unrelated driver’s license bill. Lambeth said that it was too late to add to the mini budget, so they used the other bill as a vehicle to add more money, noting that budget progress continues to be made.
The additions include $5 million for eCourts, $15 million for cybersecurity, $1.4 million to the State Bureau of Investigation and $3 million for the State Highway Patrol, which is under the Stein administration.
Hall said those additions were requests from Stein and state agencies. The funding in that bill, Senate Bill 245, will need to be approved again by the Senate because of the amendment.
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 11:25 AM with the headline "NC lawmakers send Gov. Stein a budget bill. When could it become law?."
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