I’ve typed this sentence so much I’m surprised the keys haven’t fallen off my laptop: North Carolina is STILL the only state in the country with no state budget. The new ETA? April or later. 

This isn’t some legislative formality that Republican legislators have failed to finish– it’s a crucial process that has real consequences for North Carolinians if it doesn’t get done. 

No budget means no funding for Medicaid– the program that supports over 3 million North Carolinians with accessing affordable health care. This funding is important as ever since Medicaid was severely cut by Congressional Republicans last summer. 

No budget also means that teachers across the state are continuing to work without raises. As we covered in a previous memo, North Carolina is currently ranked 50th in school funding. The starting pay for a teacher in North Carolina is $41k. You drive across the border to Virginia, and the starting pay increases to $51k. We shouldn’t be this far behind our neighbors. 

Gov. Josh Stein proposed a budget back in March of last year. The Republican-controlled General Assembly had until July 1 to pass their version and send it to the Governor’s desk. It’s now mid-January, and Republicans still can’t get an agreement across the finish line. 

Republicans control a majority in the House and the Senate, they control the legislative agenda, and they ultimately control the details of the budget. And despite all of this control, they can’t get the job done.  

They’ve had every opportunity to do so. In fact, they were scheduled to return to work on Monday, but Republican leadership– Destin Hall in the House and Phil Berger in the Senate– told lawmakers to stay home. Hall and Berger weren’t even in the room. Monday’s House and Senate sessions lasted less than two minutes each. Two minutes. 

You know who did show up? Educators from across the state, who stood outside the General Assembly, calling on legislators to do their job. They weren’t alone– teachers from more than 50 North Carolina schools staged a walkout on Wednesday to draw attention to school funding issues. These educators are planning actions every month until the NCGA finally passes a budget that fully funds our schools. 

Working in education is already one of the toughest jobs out there. Now they’re having to devote their time to getting legislators to do their jobs too. 

Not passing a budget is a choice– it’s a choice to underfund our schools. It’s a choice to threaten people’s health care. It’s a choice to sit still while everyday people are fighting tooth and nail just to make ends meet. 

If Republican legislators worked half as hard as our educators, who knows how far our state could go. Let’s urge them to work a bit harder in 2026.