As General Assembly overrides vetoes, Stein calls on legislators to instead pass budget

As the General Assembly reconvened in Raleigh Tuesday morning to override 14 of his vetoes, Democratic Gov. Josh Stein held a press conference, saying the legislature should be focused on passing a budget, not on the vetoes, which he said are a “distraction that divides us.”

“The General Assembly, by focusing on divisive bills that do not move the state forward, and in some instances make our state less safe, like allowing teenagers to carry concealed weapons without any training whatsoever, that is the wrong priority,” he said.

He called out lawmakers for failing to pass a budget by June 30, emphasizing that North Carolinians, including teachers, law enforcement, people who use the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and Medicaid expansion recipients, are all counting on it being passed.

Stein stressed that his budget proposal would be the best solution, as he did earlier this year when he first proposed it, including for teachers.

“Right now, North Carolina’s starting teacher pay is among the lowest in the entire Southeast, lower than every one of the states that border us,” he said. “Just last week, we found out that teachers in North Carolina paid the second most out of pocket for school supplies in the entire nation. We need these investments. My proposed budget raises starting teacher pay to the highest in the Southeast, reinstates master pay, and provides teachers a school supply stipend.”

The governor also said that his budget proposal raises salaries for all state law enforcement agencies, which are facing shortages and recruitment issues. It particularly focuses on correctional officers and youth counselors, who have above-average vacancies, and offers signing bonuses to basic law enforcement training graduates and to out-of-state transfers hired in the state.

Stein also focused on the long list of issues with the DMV in his press conference, saying that employees need better working conditions, more DMV inspectors and examiners need to be hired, and someone like Sarah Morgan, Durham, who was one his guests at the press conference, shouldn’t have to go to the DMV six times in the past two months to get her Real ID like she did.

He also said that the General Assembly hasn’t funded the rebase necessary to continue to fund Medicaid expansion now that President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill Act” has passed into law, and if they don’t fully fund the Medicaid expansion program, they will “cause painful cuts to people’s health care.”

Additionally, Stein said that because of the reconciliation law passed earlier this month, nearly 900,000 North Carolinians are at risk of losing their Medicaid health care coverage.

“Our entire Medicaid expansion program is at risk if the state legislature does not pass a fix to pay for new administratively burdensome work requirements,” he said. “Passing Medicaid expansion into law was a bipartisan victory for North Carolina. Saving it must be as well. The General Assembly must get to work now to fund the traditional Medicaid program and to protect expansion.”

Finally, he stressed that Senate Bill 266, The Power Reduction Act, which he vetoed earlier this month, would cost North Carolina ratepayers up to $23 billion through 2050 due to higher fuel costs, and if the General Assembly were to override it, would only help big corporations, not residential ratepayers.

“It will also undermine our strong clean energy sector, potentially costing us nearly $50 billion in lost investment and more than 50,000 future good-paying jobs,” Stein added.

The General Assembly has been discussing passing “mini budgets” over the next several weeks instead of one regular budget. The governor said that while he understands that some issues, like Medicaid and the DMV, might be included in those, not everything will be, and they need to pass one budget that covers everything.

When asked if he would take any action if the legislature doesn’t come to an agreement on a budget by the end of the summer, Stein said he hopes it wouldn’t be necessary and has confidence they can work together to find a solution.

The post As General Assembly overrides vetoes, Stein calls on legislators to instead pass budget first appeared on Carolina Journal.

The post As General Assembly overrides vetoes, Stein calls on legislators to instead pass budget appeared first on First In Freedom Daily.