Gov. Josh Stein signs North Carolina’s $34 billion budget<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGood morning everybody. Here today we have teachers, law enforcement, healthcare workers, and other public servants. You all are here because you value our people, educating them. Keeping them healthy, keeping them safe, serving them. It’s about time that we as *** state appropriately value you. This budget bill gets *** lot of things right. It delivers the largest starting teacher pay raise in nearly 50 years and the largest overall teacher pay raise in the last 15 years. It protects healthcare for millions of North Carolinians by fully funding Medicaid. It gives double-digit pay raises to state law enforcement officers and bonuses to local law enforcement officers. It appropriates another $700 million to help the people of Western North Carolina continue their recovery from Hurricane Helene. The budget also makes meaningful investments in our community colleges, the DMV, child care, and summer food programs for our kids. These are real wins worthy of celebration and worthy of my signature. So after careful deliberation, this morning, I will sign the state budget into law. I won’t sweep this budget’s flaws under the rug, however, the legislature is slashing more than 1000 state government positions, making it harder for us to meet the people’s health and safety needs. Many state employees’ raises don’t even keep up with inflation, and even the more meaningful raises that are in the budget still leave us lagging behind our neighbors and competitive salaries. The budget cruelly punishes low income people who need access to justice. It eliminates the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, which ensures that all people can get the care they need to address their health conditions. As well as the Office of historically underutilized Businesses, which connects people to jobs and opportunities. It creates unfunded mandates for local governments. At the same time, the General Assembly is taking away mechanisms that are available to them to raise revenues. It makes real the General Assembly’s wrongheaded threats of retribution against Charlotte. Charlotte needs to enhance road safety and minimize community impact, and that balancing process should be collaborative. It’s full of unconstitutional and petty provisions that strip power from the executive branch, politicize state government. and undermine its efficiency. These provisions are certainly counterproductive. But as I previously noted, the legislature has accepted many of my big ticket budget recommendations. And having just celebrated America 250 this weekend, we remember that our democracy has always run on compromise for the common good. And for these reasons and because it delivers for North Carolinians in important ways, I support this budget. Let me tell you how it delivers. The budget delivers for Christian. Christian Martin is *** Winston-Salem native who teaches 8th grade English and social studies in Craven County. He also serves on my teacher advisory committee, and he’s here with us today. He’s known that he wanted to become *** teacher ever since he was in high school. And as his college friends were debating careers with better financial outcomes, he knew that to pursue his passion, he would have to make *** financial sacrifice. Beginning teachers are choosing to forego other more lucrative careers. And if they stay in North Carolina, they’re missing out on better salaries that they could earn in our neighboring states. But today we’re beginning to right that wrong. This budget I’m signing delivers the largest raise for starting teachers in nearly *** half *** century. It is also the largest overall teacher pay raise in about 15 years. And when it comes to student outcomes, this budget embraces ideas that work, advanced teaching roles, science of reading expansion, school safety grants, apprenticeships, all ideas that I had included in my budget recommendation because they will improve student achievement. Our kids are, are our future, and no investment is more important than the ones we make in them. This budget delivers for Derek. Captain Derek Simmons is *** shift supervisor at Noose Correctional Institution, who’s worked in corrections for 28 years. He works to provide offenders *** safe environment, *** positive role model, and *** new way of thinking. But where he used to have 28 correctional officers on duty at *** time, he now only has 7 or 8. These vacancies compromise security and strain the officers who remain. Our state is facing similar vacancy challenges across state law enforcement agencies and public safety. In fact, the state highway patrol is currently making do with about 350 sworn vacancies across the department. Vacancies happen when we don’t invest in people. When we don’t pay our hardworking law enforcement officers in *** way that honors the demands of their work. This budget works to make it right with *** minimum of *** 13% pay increase for state law enforcement officers and correctional officers, as well as *** $1750 bonus for local law enforcement officers. Since serving as your attorney general, I have been hearing from police chiefs and sheriffs, many of whom are here today. About their challenge of recruitment and retention. Because as we all know, law enforcement is not an easy job. It’s *** tough job, but it is *** critical one for our communities. When we can’t and when we cannot recruit and retain public spirited officers, North Carolina North Carolina families become at risk. So we have to do everything in our power to support those who keep North Carolina safe. This budget takes important steps forward on public safety. This budget delivers for Joanna. I met Joanna Parker, *** woman from Garner, who was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease but could not afford private health insurance. The best way of managing her condition is through doctor visits, medication, and physical therapy, but she couldn’t afford the out of pocket payments of those services. One urgent care visit could cost her upwards of $900. Her disease prevented her from going to work to earn enough to afford her health insurance. When she finally got Medicaid coverage, she was able to get the necessary treatments, X-rays, therapy and medications that allowed her to go back to work full-time, which is what she always wanted to do. 3 million North Carolinians, more than 25% of our state’s population, get their healthcare through Medicaid. This number, these 3 million people include children, pregnant and postpartum women, seniors, people with disabilities, and working families. Unlike last year’s budget, this one fully funds the Medicaid rebates for the coming year. 3 million North Carolinians and their providers are getting the peace of mind and health care that they deserve. This is *** big win for North Carolina. This budget delivers for TW. TW Randall and his family have lived in their home in Bakersville in Mitchell County for about 20 years. When Hurricane Helene struck, their house flooded, causing damage to the foundation and roof. The Randall family didn’t have anywhere else to go, so they stayed in their home until they got sick from the mold. Then they faced both *** North Carolina summer and *** mountain winter in *** camper without the shelter of their home. TW works as *** manager for the long-term recovery group in Mitchell County. So, while he was facing his own challenges, he was hard at work solving other people’s. Western North Carolina is dotted with stories like the Randalls. People who are hard at work at their recovery, and it is our job as *** state and federal government to match their grit and determination. Western North Carolina, we stand with you. We’re sending you more than $700 million in this budget. This is the 3rd Hurricane Helene recovery package that I have signed since I was governor. This money will fuel temporary housing program, the temporary housing assistance program. It will support local governments. It will help fight wildfires, and it will repair more private roads and bridges. It will also fund more volunteer-driven home repairs like the one that helped the Randalls. It’s also going to unlock matching funds from federal recovery programs. The state of North Carolina is committed to rebuilding Western North Carolina over the long haul, and I am grateful for the legislature’s partnership in this work. There are other ways that this budget delivers. The General Assembly heeded my request to fund Sunbucks for next summer. This keeps kids fed through the hungriest part of the year when they are not at school. They agreed to restart the state’s Healthy opportunities pilot, which helps Medicaid beneficiaries maintain access to healthy food, transportation, stable housing, ultimately improving their health outcomes and saving taxpayer dollars. They also agreed to remove the data center sales tax exemption for electricity so that you and I will no longer be subsidizing their energy consumption. The budget funds the community colleges, propel NC and Apprenticeship NC to connect more people to good paying jobs and high demand careers that can support *** family. It allocates $100 million to childcare subsidies so that more parents can find childcare that they can afford, especially in our rural communities. And it funds the places we all love, like Zoo Asia and our state parks, allocates $50 million to preserving our state’s farmland. It continues to strengthen the state’s cybersecurity efforts and the DMV, which has already seen *** reduction in wait times of about 85%. It provides funding for *** new Fayetteville veterans home. It makes significant investments in testing for and treating PFOS and other forever chemicals, so that North Carolinians can trust the water they drink from their tap. When we work together across our differences, and when we put our people first, we can get good things done for the people of North Carolina. These investments we’re making today will move our state forward. They will point the way forward as well, where we need to keep going because we are not there yet. The truth is, North Carolina, we’ve got *** lot of catching up to do because there have been years of chronic underinvestment in state and public services. The largest starting teacher pay raise in history still does not invest enough in our veteran teachers. The biggest correctional officer raises in our state has seen in years, does not move us out of the bottom 10 states in the country. The historic state trooper raises that we’re excited about, move starting pay from forty-ninth to forty-first in the country. If I told y’all we were forty-first, you would not be proud. But it is *** heck of *** lot better than forty-ninth. Nurses and other state employees are going to make less money in real dollars today than they did 2 years ago when we last passed *** budget, because of inflation. And too many essential behavioral health investments have been left on the table by the General Assembly. For those who lose their job through no fault of their own, there are no increases for unemployment benefits, an area where we are lagging far behind neighboring states. And the budget fails to sustain our NC career work centers, our NC Works career centers for those who are seeking employment. Short-sighted. Furthermore, the legislature is continuing to pay wealthy people to send their children to unaccountable private school at the same time our public schools have been chronically underfunded. And while the budget pushes out further tax cuts beyond this year, which is *** good thing, It nonetheless maintains future reckless pre-programmed tax cuts for corporate shareholders and the wealthy. Meanwhile, it failed to enact my working family’s tax cuts, they would have put more money into people’s pockets, people who need it. We should be prioritizing the people of North Carolina, not big corporations. North Carolina’s got *** good thing going. We really do. And if we want to remain *** top state where families want to raise their families, where people want to raise their families, where businesses want to invest, we have to continue to invest in the state, in our people. This commitment cannot be *** one-time effort. It has to be something that we do over *** period of years. But here’s the good news. I know that we can do it. We just did today, move this state forward in *** meaningful way. We’ve shown that we can work together and deliver for the people of North Carolina. So let’s celebrate this milestone, and then let’s keep pushing. Come next spring, I will be ready and eager to work with the General Assembly on next year’s budget, so we can continue this progress we are making today. Let’s keep building on our momentum so that in North Carolina, we create *** state that is safer, stronger, and more prosperous with real opportunity for every single person. I wanna thank you all for being here and I’m now gonna invite forward first, Southeast Regional Teacher of the Year, Hannah Moon. And then we’re gonna hear from North Carolina Department of Public Safety Secretary Jeff Smyth, and North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections Secretary, Leslie Desms. Thank you, Ms. Moon.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGov. Josh Stein says he will sign North Carolina’s $34 billion state budget, saying it delivers on key priorities for the state despite what he described as “flaws” with the legislation.Stein’s announcement comes after the General Assembly approved the spending plan following more than a year of talks. The budget includes major investments in teacher pay, state employees and law enforcement.While acknowledging the proposal is not without flaws, Stein said lawmakers incorporated several of his top priorities into the final agreement.”It delivers for North Carolinians,” Stein said, pointing to funding for education and other key initiatives.One of the budget’s centerpiece provisions is a teacher pay package that supporters say provides the largest raise for North Carolina teachers in nearly half a century.Find exactly what the budget contains hereRepublican lawmakers also praised the budget, saying it makes historic investments in public education while increasing pay for state employees and law enforcement officers.The budget advanced through the legislature despite criticism from some Democrats, who argued lawmakers had too little time to review the more than 600-page proposal before voting. Opponents also questioned the budget process, saying it limited public input.Stein said that while he has concerns about parts of the legislation, the overall package reflects meaningful progress and includes priorities his administration pushed for during negotiations.With Stein’s signature, the budget will take effect and fund state government operations for the coming fiscal year. Keep up with the latest news and weather by downloading the WXII app here.BUDGET DETAILSWatch: NOWCAST streaming newscastsNAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Watch NOWCAST TV | Local News | National | News We Love |TRENDING\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tRALEIGH, N.C. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Gov. Josh Stein says he will sign North Carolina’s $34 billion state budget, saying it delivers on key priorities for the state despite what he described as “flaws” with the legislation.<\/p>\n
Stein’s announcement comes after the General Assembly approved the spending plan following more than a year of talks. The budget includes major investments in teacher pay, state employees and law enforcement.<\/p>\n
While acknowledging the proposal is not without flaws, Stein said lawmakers incorporated several of his top priorities into the final agreement.<\/p>\n
“It delivers for North Carolinians,” Stein said, pointing to funding for education and other key initiatives.<\/p>\n
One of the budget’s centerpiece provisions is a teacher pay package that supporters say provides the largest raise for North Carolina teachers in nearly half a century.<\/p>\n
Find exactly what the budget contains here<\/a><\/p>\n Republican lawmakers also praised the budget, saying it makes historic investments in public education while increasing pay for state employees and law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n The budget advanced through the legislature despite criticism from some Democrats, who argued lawmakers had too little time to review the more than 600-page proposal before voting. Opponents also questioned the budget process, saying it limited public input.<\/p>\n Stein said that while he has concerns about parts of the legislation, the overall package reflects meaningful progress and includes priorities his administration pushed for during negotiations.<\/p>\n With Stein’s signature, the budget will take effect and fund state government operations for the coming fiscal year. <\/p>\n Keep up with the latest news and weather by downloading the WXII app here<\/a>.<\/p>\n BUDGET DETAILS<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Watch: NOWCAST streaming newscasts<\/a><\/p>\n NAVIGATE: Home |<\/a> Weather |<\/a> Watch NOWCAST TV |<\/a> Local News |<\/a> National |<\/a> News We Love |<\/a><\/p>\n TRENDING<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Josh Stein signs North Carolina’s $34 billion budget Good morning everybody. Here today we have teachers, law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,150,321345,259501,321346,321344,4515,526,10502,179986,2143,451,33204,321348,4381,46192,2077,12830,3,2256,152771,321349,207488,8857,6369,99899,75753,321347,61887,6589,121084,321343,452,453,2986,2394],"class_list":["post-749215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-budget","tag-budget-negotiations","tag-budget-plan","tag-budget-process","tag-budget-sign","tag-democrats","tag-education","tag-education-funding","tag-fiscal-year","tag-general-assembly","tag-headlines","tag-josh-stein","tag-key-priority","tag-law-enforcement","tag-lawmaker","tag-legislation","tag-negotiation","tag-news","tag-north-carolina","tag-nowcast","tag-overall-package","tag-pay-raise","tag-public-education","tag-republican-lawmakers","tag-spending-plan","tag-state-budget","tag-state-employee","tag-state-employees","tag-state-government","tag-stein","tag-teacher-pay","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-weather","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}