The good and the bad in the state budget
North Carolina’s 366-day drought is over — not a drought of rain, but of a comprehensive state budget.
The General Assembly passed the $34.4 billion spending plan July 2, and Gov. Josh Stein signed it July 7. For the last year, North Carolina had been operating on autopilot.
Most states pass budgets annually. Not North Carolina. We are among 19 states that ordinarily adopt a two-year spending plan and revisit it during the second year. We missed the beginning of that cycle when lawmakers failed to reach agreement in 2025.
State government did not shut down. Recurring funding continued, and lawmakers passed targeted spending bills. But without a comprehensive budget, North Carolina made major decisions piecemeal and postponed others altogether.
That failure matters, but the newly enacted budget must ultimately be judged by what it does next. For Burke County, the budget contains several reasons to be encouraged — and a few that leave us scratching our heads.
THE GOODTeachers receive an average salary increase of 8%, with starting state-funded pay rising to $48,000. That is a substantial and overdue improvement that should help Burke County Public Schools recruit beginning educators.
Western Piedmont Community College is one of two colleges selected for a Nursing Fellows pilot program intended to prepare nurses and nursing instructors, a persistent workforce need.
The new budget directs the UNC Board of Governors to study what would be required to at least double in-person enrollment at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Morganton. Expansion, if it were to happen, could mean more state investment, jobs, students, and economic activity. The school has raised Morganton’s profile as a statewide center for education, and expansion would strengthen that reputation.
Corrections officers will receive an average raise of 15%, based on a new experience-based salary schedule. Elected leaders were right to respond forcefully to the correctional staffing crisis. Officers perform dangerous and demanding work, and vacancies can lead to mandatory overtime, unsafe conditions, and higher turnover. With Foothills Correctional Institution in Burke County, this is a genuine concern for our community.
Other statewide provisions also deserve credit. The budget fully funds Medicaid for the coming year, increases child care subsidy reimbursement rates, supports Hurricane Helene recovery, and provides larger raises for several public safety occupations.
THE BAD
Not every teacher will receive an 8% raise; that’s only an average. The increases are weighted toward the beginning of the salary schedule, while experienced teachers generally receive smaller percentage increases around 6%.
Teachers with at least 16 years of experience will receive a one-time bonus of $1,000. Don’t get us wrong. Additional dollars going to the people charged with educating our future leaders are a good thing. But do the math. For a teacher with 16 years of experience, that amounts to just $62.50 for each year already spent in the profession. For those with longer careers, the effective amount per year is even smaller.
Compare that approach with correctional officers, whose raises average about 15% under a new experience-based salary schedule.
The problem is not that correctional officers received too much in the new budget. It is that lawmakers did not apply the same urgency to retaining experienced teachers.
North Carolina has recognized that prisons cannot operate safely when experienced officers leave faster than they can be replaced. The same principle applies to schools. Raising starting pay may attract new educators, but recruitment alone will not resolve the teacher shortage if veteran educators see little financial reason to remain in the classroom.
Lawmakers also cut about 1,200 state positions and created roughly 450 new ones, leaving state government with 755 fewer jobs overall. Most of the eliminated positions were vacant, but critics argue that many went unfilled because of hiring and pay challenges, not because the work disappeared.
THE UNCERTAIN
The budget also continues North Carolina’s movement toward lower personal income tax rates, while the corporate income tax remains scheduled for elimination.
Tax relief is appealing, and lawmakers deserve credit for maintaining substantial reserves rather than spending every available dollar. But the need to invest in North Carolina does not disappear just because the state collects less revenue.
Burke County is a rural Tier 1 county that relies heavily on state funds for schools, health programs, infrastructure grants, and economic development assistance. Wealthier counties may be able to replace less state support with local revenue. Burke County has less room to do so.
The question is whether the state can continue paying competitive salaries, funding Medicaid, rebuilding Western North Carolina, maintaining prisons and courts, and addressing housing and mental health needs even as recurring revenue declines and costs rise.
This budget gets many immediate priorities right. But after more than a year of piecemeal budgeting, North Carolinians deserved more than a patch. They deserved a credible, long-term plan.
