The Republican-led NC General Assembly failed to pass a budget for this year; however, after recent negotiations, they came to terms to pass a “mini budget” to address immediate needs and Republican priorities. When it was brought to the floor for a vote, Representative Donny Lambeth (R-Winston-Salem) told lawmakers that the bill was “a step along the path that ultimately leads us to a final budget.”
The 32-page bill, a watered-down version of the original 1,000-page state budget proposed in April, makes major cuts to health care services in the state. This comes not even a month after Congress passed H.R. 1, or the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, which made major cuts to Medicaid, endangering the healthcare of over half a million people in North Carolina alone.
Similar to the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, Republican lawmakers have taken to not funding Medicaid. The Medicaid financing plan, which includes an annual estimate of how much is needed to continue Medicaid services in the state, is also referred to as a “rebase”.
The rebase covers the cost that is sent to companies that provide care to the some three million North Carolinians on Medicaid but the cost also covers programs that were added to the plan last year, including “Tailored” care management plans that are for individuals with developmental and severe mental health disabilities, as well as a new plan for children and their families who are in the state’s child welfare system.
This year, it was estimated that the state would need slightly over $800 million, but the mini budget only allocated $600 thousand. Lambeth said that, currently, “This was the best number we could go with.”
However, Lambeth said the matter of Medicaid spending might require more time spent on it.. “We do think with all the things going on with Medicaid at the federal level, that we’re going to have to actually spend more time, not only on the rebase number and all the other issues related to Medicaid, sometime in the fall.” He said before the vote.
Democrats criticized state Republican lawmakers for rushing through the budget as well as leaving their party out of the process.
“This just came out yesterday,” Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham) said while the House was taking up the bill. “We haven’t had a whole lot of time to digest and have any hearings with public input on it.” Without input from the public or from Democrats, the legislation passed both the House and the Senate.
Stein recently signed the bill into law but said it fell short of what the state needs, referring to it as a “Band-Aid budget.”
“This Band-Aid budget fails to invest in our teachers and students, fails to keep families safe, fails to value hardworking state employees, and fails to fully fund health care. With federal cuts on the horizon, the legislature’s forced $319 million cut to Medicaid will be particularly painful. Despite these serious reservations, I am signing this bill into law because it keeps the lights on,” Stein said in his public message.
“We have so much going for us here in North Carolina, but we cannot just rest on our laurels, do the bare minimum, and expect to continue to thrive. The General Assembly needs to get serious about investing in the people who make this state great.”
