County Advocacy Hub

Weekly Update Legislative Brief

April 26, 2024
Notable Activity

Legislators returned to Raleigh this week to formally commence the 2024 Legislative Short Session, though public business was light. Over the next few months, legislators will work to adjust the 2024-2025 budget passed last year and take up legislation leftover from last year’s long session as well as new and emerging policy issues. Filing deadlines for new legislation during short session are as follows:
- May 1 for bills recommended by interim study and oversight committees.
- May 2 for bills directly and primarily affecting the 2024-25 budget or bills affecting state or local retirement systems.
- May 7 for local bills.
On Wednesday, Governor Cooper released his 2024-2025 budget proposal. Highlights of the governor’s $34.5 billion budget include:
- $2.5B public school capital bond on the ballot in November 2024.
- $322.7M to raise teacher pay by an average 8.5%.
- $56.8M to remove the 13% funding cap for children with disabilities.
- $40M in additional funding to those eligible low-wealth counties that have limited capacity to generate local revenue to support local schools.
- $745.2M for child care and early education programs including $200M in childcare stabilization grants to offset the expiration of federal COVID funds.
- $251.8M to raise state employees pay by 5%.
- $20M from the multi-state opioid settlements to the Division of Public Health for overdose prevention, the purchase of naloxone, and to improve opioid treatment access.
- $11.6M from the multi-state opioid settlements to the Division of Mental Health to be allocated within the allowable uses of the Opioid Abatement Fund, including overdose prevention and response, the purchase of naloxone, and to improve opioid treatment access.
- $3M to address the increased need for emergency drinking water supplies resulting from emerging contaminants, such as PFAS.
- $3M to NCACC to provide guidance and technical assistance to counties in the administration of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds.
- Eliminate the required county match for the Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) grant program and prioritize those projects that a county provides some funds to the service provider’s required match.
All appropriations and documents related to the governor’s 2024-25 recommended budget can be found here.

The governor’s proposed budget will likely have very little influence on the republican super-majority led General Assembly. Budget chairs at the General Assembly will aim to craft a budget for approval by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. Last week, the Office of State Budget and Management released a report indicating lawmakers will have more than $1 billion more to work with than what was budgeted for the 2024-25 budget last year. Those additional funds could go toward big-ticket priorities such as teacher and state employee raises, Medicaid, an expansion of private school vouchers, and additional funding for childcare programs currently set to lose funding as federal COVID dollars expire.

Legislation Filed This Week of Interest to Counties

House Bill 905 Disabled Veteran Motor Vehicle Tax Exemption — Exempts motor vehicles owned by a veteran who has a 100% disability rate from local taxation.

House Bill 913 DOJ to Study LEO Certification/Onboarding — Directs a study and report with recommendations regarding law enforcement certification and onboarding in North Carolina and other states.

End of Session Report

The North Carolina General Assembly adjourned on October 25, 2023, to convene one day a month until April 24, 2024, capping off the long session of this biennium. The Association has released its final end of session report that outlines the major legislative happenings, the details of the state budget, and major developments with impact to counties during the long session. The full report is available here.

View the NCACC End of Session Report

Budget Reports

Overview of 2023-24 State Budget and Impact to Counties

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.

View the NCACC 2023-24 State Budget Report

2023-2024 Legislative Goals

Every two years, in the months preceding the long session of the North Carolina General Assembly, NCACC begins a grassroots process to develop our Association’s legislative goals, which guide our advocacy efforts at the state and federal levels of government. The process is designed to maximize participation by counties, build consensus among counties, and achieve a unified message on county priorities. View the 2023-2024 Legislative Goals.

The importance of participating in the legislative goals process cannot be overstated. When policymakers hear the same message from all 100 counties throughout our diverse state, the voice of each individual county becomes amplified. Counties are stronger together and our common purpose is enshrined in NCACC history and our vision statement, which states: “Empowering 100 counties to work together for the betterment of one state.”

General Assembly Calendar

General Assembly Visitor Info

2023 County Map Book