The long-awaited North Carolina state budget is now subject to conversations between Speaker of the House Destin Hall and Senate Leader Phil Berger, who have met several times this week to iron out lingering differences.
Asked this week what those include, Hall, R-Caldwell, pointed to discussions about how the state could land a Major League Baseball expansion team, some capital projects, and funding for the NC Children's hospital.
That project is a joint initiative between Duke Health and UNC Health that would see a 500-bed freestanding children's hospital built in Apex. It is expected to cost about $3 billion.
The General Assembly previously allocated $320 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the NC Children's hospital, part of the state's 2023 budget. That agreement was set to include a third year of ARPA funding for the children's hospital, money that was included in the Senate's initial budget proposal last year but not in the House's.
The budget framework Berger and Hall announced earlier this year includes a compromise, with the NC Children's project slated to receive an additional $208 million in ARPA funds in the upcoming state spending plan. That included $105 million that the 2023 spending plan earmarked for the hospital, as well as $105 million that had originally been intended for clinics that would have been part of a partnership between ECU Health and UNC Health.
The question now is, will the children's hospital receive additional state funding in the final version of this year's budget?
Berger raised the possibility at the May press conference announcing the framework. He left the door open again when asked about it this week.
"I think it's a fair question as to whether or not there would be some additional money that may be authorized by the General Assembly, but that quite frankly hasn't been brought up in the conversation that he and I have had thus far and certainly has not been decided," Berger said.
Hall seemed to cast an initial sense of skepticism toward the idea when asked about it Tuesday.
"We don't have unlimited dollars, and are there other state-supported hospitals across the state that need capital funds? The answer to that's obviously yes," Hall said.
Members of the House Republican Caucus are concerned about rural hospitals in the state, Hall added, and have some interest in using state funds to support those facilities.
"At some point, you have to look to see, 'OK, we've given several hundred million dollars to this hospital in Apex. Is that enough?' And maybe we need to look at, especially, the rural parts of the state and their hospitals," Hall said.
