County Advocacy Hub

Following a summer long negotiation between the House and the Senate, a budget deal has been struck. The General Assembly plans to spend $29.8 billion in FY 2023-24 and $30.9 billion in FY 2024-25. With considerable shortages of teachers and state workers, this budget has prioritized salary adjustments by giving most state employees a 7% pay raise across the biennium. Teachers will also receive an average pay raise of 7% in that same time period, while starting teaching pay will increase by 11% to $41,000 in FY 24-25. Additionally, this budget agreement grows the Rainy-Day fund balance by $125 million for a total of just under $5 billion and cuts taxes by $1.2 billion over the next two years. The budget also invests billions of dollars in capital and infrastructure projects, including water infrastructure and K-12 public school capital infrastructure, throughout the state. The budget includes more than 2,000 special provisions, and NCACC urges counties to search the budget document for their counties and municipalities. Once enacted, counties can search for direct grants at www.osbm.nc.gov/directed-grants-database. 

In addition to making financial investment in county priorities, the budget also makes various policy changes impacting counties, including the modification of a General Assembly commission to expand the commission’s oversight of, and ability to investigate, local governments and local officials (Section 27.10); and gives the Secretary of DHHS broad authority when realigning LME-MCOs (Section 9G.7a.)  

To read the full NCACC report on the state budget, click here.