NC lawmakers return to Raleigh this week. Here’s what that means for Medicaid and teacher pay

The General Assembly returns for a “short session,” a legislative calendar that’s intended merely for tweaks, but will instead feature a lengthy to-do list of unfinished business and potential surprises.

To celebrate the return of the North Carolina General Assembly, here’s a quick pop quiz.

1. The Republican-controlled legislature failed to pass a budget when it was due last July, leaving several vital programs, including Medicaid, facing uncertain financial futures. Will the Republican leadership ever pass a budget ever again?
2. Teacher salaries in North Carolina are among the lowest in the nation and, because there’s no budget, are now failing to keep pace with rising cost of living. Will the state legislature do anything about it?
3. The state’s Medicaid program faces an urgent $319 million shortfall, leaving families and providers unsure if they’ll face brutal and imminent service cuts. Will the legislature finally heed the alarms that have been blaring since last summer?
4. Three Democrats just lost primary elections after siding with Republicans last year on pro-ICE and anti-LGBTQ legislation. Will they enact their vengeance this week and help Republicans pass a bill that will make it easier to carry a concealed weapon?
5. What will the most powerful Republican in the state do in his final legislative session after this power couldn’t keep him from losing his own primary to a popular hometown sheriff?

The answer to each of these questions is a resounding…Maybe?

The General Assembly returns to Raleigh this week for a “short session,” a legislative calendar that’s intended merely for tweaks, but will instead feature a lengthy to-do list of unfinished business and potential surprises.

Republicans control both the NC House and the NC Senate, but House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell,  Watauga Counties) and Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Guilford, Rockingham Counties) were unable to overcome their differences last year and pass a budget. North Carolina is the only state in the nation operating without a full budget.

The lack of a budget prevents the state from giving raises to teachers or state employees, stalls spending on vital infrastructure projects, and delays many road and bridge repairs.

Both Berger and Hall suggested they had little intent on backing down in their standoff, and Berger lost his primary election in March, adding a wrinkle that could take time to iron out. 

Here is a glimpse of what to look for this week and through the rest of the legislative short session. Hall posted on X that he expected votes right out of the gate on Tuesday.

Teacher pay

State law includes provisions that keeps the state running even without a new budget, but those expenditures do not include raises for teachers and state employees, crucial members of the state infrastructure whose expenses are rising even if their pay is not. For teachers, the lack of a raise has amounted to a pay cut. 

North Carolina already ranks near the bottom of the country in teacher pay.

Public school teachers statewide have scheduled a massive protest at the legislature on May 1, and thousands are expected to attend and demand action.

Hall has expressed a desire to make North Carolina public school teachers the highest paid in the South, but he and Berger remain far apart on the issue.

Medicaid

Last summer, Gov. Josh Stein and state health officials warned the legislature that without new funding, the state’s Medicaid program faced a $319 million shortfall and would run out of money this spring.

In October, both the House and Senate passed separate bills to fill the funding gap. The votes were unanimous in both chambers. Not a single lawmaker voted against either bill.

But Hall and Berger could not resolve their differences on this issue either, and a final version never passed and the gap was not filled. Without additional funding, Medicaid could soon face severe cuts that could strip some of the most vulnerable North Carolinians of their insurance. 

Republicans have expressed doubt that the program needs that much money or that there is any dire fiscal cliff approaching. In hearings this month ahead of the official start of the short session, Republicans said that waste and fraud in the state Medicaid program is the real problem. NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson has prosecuted fraud committed by providers, but there is little evidence that Medicaid enrollees themselves are engaging in widespread fraud.

Dr. Devdutta Sangvai, the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, says the state’s Medicaid program will run out of money at the end of May. 

Political retribution?

Republicans have a supermajority in the Senate and don’t need Democrats to override any vetoes by Stein, a Democrat. But in the House, Republicans have a mere simple majority and they do need at least one Democrat to buck their party and side with them.

Last year, three Democrats did just that. NC Reps. Carla Cunningham, Shelly Willingham, and Nasif Majeed all voted with Republicans to override Stein vetoes. And all three lost their primary elections in March.

Cunningham, the only Democrat last summer who voted to override Stein’s veto of a bill that forces sheriffs to cooperate with ICE, lost to her opponent, the Rev. Rodney Salder, by 48 percentage points, in large part because Stein endorsed Sadler and because of comments Cunningham made on the House floor about immigrants.

“If you ask me to line up behind another group of people to raise awareness about their plight, I unapologetically say no,” Cunningham said. “All cultures are not equal.”

While she lost the election, she will hold the seat until January. That’s a long time and a lot of votes left to cast.

Soon after her election loss, Cunningham said Democrats were right to be concerned about her.

“Let them be worried,” Cunningham told the radio station WBT this month.

“I’m going to look at what’s good and I’m going to look at what’s bad and I’m going to weigh it. And then that’s how I determine how I vote. They’ll know when I know,” she said.

The Berger effect

Berger, who has run the Senate and controlled the direction of the legislature for 15 years, lost his primary election to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page by 23 votes. But like Cunningham, he isn’t going anywhere until after New Year’s Day. 

Will his lame duck status make him more willing to compromise with Hall or will it cause him to dig in even deeper? The House has passed a bipartisan budget, the Senate passed its version on mostly party lines. 

Before he lost his election, Berger told the News & Observer that he had no intention of backing down in his fight over the budget. 

The lack of a budget has created a statewide funding gap of $1.4 billion, Stein’s office says.