NC House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) talks to reporters July 30, 2025. (Photo: Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline)
The North Carolina House on Wednesday put a final stamp on a limited state spending plan that a leading negotiator called a step that will lead to a full budget.
The House approved the stopgap budget with a 91-23 vote. The Senate approved the proposal Tuesday, so it now goes to Gov. Josh Stein for his consideration.
Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Forsyth), a House budget committee senior chairman, called the plan a solid compromise that will cover essentials while House and Senate negotiators work toward an agreement on a comprehensive budget.
Legislators have not passed a spending plan for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, that includes raises for state employees and teachers, new initiatives, or tax provisions.
While extolling the bill, Lambeth acknowledged that more work needs to be done to determine how much more money the state Medicaid program needs to cover increased expenses and enrollment.
The mini-budget includes $600 million to account for those increases. Lambeth said that sum is less than the state Department of Health and Human Services requested. Stein’s budget proposal included more than $700 million to cover those costs. Lambeth said the DHHS request is now more than $800 million.
There’s a dispute between the legislative staff and DHHS, Lambeth said in a brief interview, and budget writers need to dig into the numbers. In any case, Medicaid won’t run low on money until the spring of 2026, Lambeth said, giving legislators time to examine the budget request and potentially make decisions about adjusting provider rates.
More than 3 million North Carolinians are enrolled in the government health insurance program. The federal government picks up most of the cost, and the states pay a share.
Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham) questioned giving DHHS less than it said it needs to cover Medicaid costs. She also criticized the lack of raises for teachers and state employees and cost-of-living adjustments for retired government workers.
The mini-budget includes money for salary step increases for teachers, principals, and eligible state employees. It does not have additional across-the-board raises.
“We’re putting a Band-Aid where we have a severe wound,” she said.
Rep. Phil Rubin (D-Wake) questioned allowing state Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes to make seven political hires.
Hayes is a former top aide to House Speaker Destin Hall. When the Board of Elections switched from Democratic to Republican control in May, it hired Hayes to run the state elections office. No other elections board director, Democratic or Republican, needed to make political hires, Rubin said.
“This is not a cabinet-level agency,” Rubin said. “This is not a political office. It is a non-partisan agency that is supposed to be our referees.”
The state Board of Elections will also be allotted $1.5 million to hire its own lawyers so it doesn’t have to rely on state Justice Department attorneys.
Rubin called that a ‘slush fund.”
Legislators still have to figure out how to handle federal cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.
President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill made deep cuts in social welfare programs while cutting taxes for the wealthy. Trump signed the bill into law on July 4.
The changes will cost North Carolina tens of billions of dollars in Medicaid funding over 10 years and will require the state to shoulder a greater share of the cost to administer SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Hall told reporters Wednesday that legislators have started talking about state impacts, but probably wouldn’t address them until next year.
“Medicaid and the health care system in general is a complicated system,” Hall said. “We want to get it right. There’s a lot of state dollars involved.”
Hence then, the article about a stopgap nc budget gets a final vote with questions remaining about medicaid funding was published today ( ) and is available on NC news line ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( A stopgap NC budget gets a final vote, with questions remaining about Medicaid funding )
Also on site :
- My Wife Doesn’t Know I Watched Her Cheat On Me. My Reaction Might Shock Us Both.
- The Good Ship Murder Christmas special cast: Meet the characters
- Eight fire crews tackling blaze at West Midlands Wetherspoon pub