The 2025 legislative session was notoriously unproductive. Only 97 bills became law, a record low for odd-year legislative sessions, sometimes called “long sessions.”
During the long sessions, lawmakers are supposed to iron out the details of a biennial budget. In 2025, they didn’t.
That left North Carolina the only state in the nation without a budget. Without the distraction of a looming election, lawmakers also tend to propose more bills and stick around Raleigh longer in the odd-numbered years. However, many of those bills got stuck in one chamber or another, a consequence of the all-consuming budget battle.
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Now, last year’s homework will become this session’s late assignment. The 2026 “short” legislative session begins April 21.
The will-they-won’t-they budget saga will take center stage, particularly in light of Rockingham County Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger’s recent primary loss.
While in theory, only bills that made it through at least one chamber during the long session can be considered during the short session, in reality, anything is possible.
Lawmakers have hinted at a few non-budget priorities in public comments and legislative committees held since the end of the 2025 session.
Budget and Medicaid could be session priorities
Without a budget, public school teachers, state employees and law enforcement are going without raises. Key infrastructure needs are going unmet. Lawmakers’ proposed district projects have stalled.
Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, are in a standoff over two aspects of the budget — tax policy and a standalone children’s hospital.
Berger is determined to get the last bit of funding for a standalone children’s hospital that he said previous House Speaker Tim Moore agreed to, but Hall isn’t as interested.
And while Berger also wants to continue reducing the personal income tax on the way to elimination, Hall wants to pause for a bit for the state to get its bearings. Right now, the income tax rate is 4.25% and according to the most recent consensus revenue forecast, North Carolina has met the triggers to drop to 2.99% by the 2028 tax year with a moderate surplus.
In a statement, Hall said the surplus showed the success of Republican’s “fiscally responsible policies” since 2011.
“Unfortunately, this surplus revenue will be entirely consumed by a projected billion-dollar Medicaid rebase. This program must be reformed in order to preserve our ability to fund public safety, education and other priorities.”
In order to continue paying for North Carolinians already enrolled in Medicaid, the rebase, North Carolina Medicaid Deputy Secretary Melanie Bush told lawmakers that they need $819 million annually.
Last year, lawmakers passed a mini-budget including $500 million toward the rebase, plus $100 million for administrative expenses.
That’s not going to cut it, Bush said during an interim legislative committee meeting.
Due to reduced federal funding, inflation and increased use, the remaining $319 million is critical, she said. By April or May, they will begin running out of funds, she added.
“There's a difference between running out of funds and being unable to pay our bills,” Bush said. “We would like to pay our bills too, and so that's why we really are asking the General Assembly to move as quickly as possible to get that funding in place.”
With time ticking, getting Medicaid funding passed will likely be one of the first items on the agenda in April. While lawmakers in both chambers agree Medicaid funding is a must, it’s gotten caught up in the budget fight like many other popular policies.
Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch, D-Wake, told reporters that there are “no excuses left” for Republicans not passing a budget after Berger’s primary loss.
“They're asking people to survive on 2023 income, especially our state employees and our teachers, (even though) we have 2026 problems and costs,” she said.
Berger has incentives to go either way. Passing a budget would likely help his fellow Republicans maintain their supermajority in November, said Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper.
But thus far, Berger has stood on principles when it comes to the budget.
“He has essentially no personal incentive at this point,” Cooper said. “It's not about his power. And if he really believes that the current budget is a bad deal, then that makes sense that he would just kind of let it go.”
Property taxes
As North Carolinians experience higher costs at the pump, the grocery store and at the doctor’s office, they’re also getting hit with high property tax reevaluations.
According to a John Locke Foundation analysis, over the past decade, nine of North Carolina’s 10 most populous counties have overtaxed property owners by nearly $3 billion beyond what inflation and population growth justify.
Lawmakers have mulled their options since the 2025 session ended. Berger, for one, said he would file a bill in April to stop all property tax reevaluations for a year while lawmakers consider changes to the law.
That would impact ongoing reevaluations in the Guilford County portion of his district, where assessments are running 40% to 60% higher than before.
In November, voters may get a say on the issue. Lawmakers have tossed around the idea of putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would limit how much property tax rates can increase and include various exceptions.
Cooper said Republicans might hope that a proposed constitutional amendment will turn out voters and help their party brand.
The details will likely be ironed out during the session.
Veto overrides this session?
Last session, Gov. Josh Stein vetoed several controversial bills. While several Democrats voted with Republicans to override a few — and suffered primary losses for it — some remain permanently on the calendar.
Three are efforts to ban diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in state agencies and schools. One would allow 18-year-olds to conceal carry without a permit. Another would opt North Carolina into a federal tax break for contributions to certain educational scholarship programs. And the last would require various law enforcement agencies to work with Immigration & Customs Enforcement, including by authorizing local law enforcement to perform certain immigration duties.
The three Democrats who lost their primaries — Reps. Carla Cunningham, D-Mecklenburg, Nasif Majeed, D-Mecklenburg and Shelly Willingham, D-Edgecombe — have little incentive to stick with their Democratic caucus now.
In particular, it’s possible Cunningham might side with Republicans on the remaining immigration veto override vote, as she has worked with them on that issue before.
However, Cooper doesn’t see the veto math changing all that much. If they wanted to vote with Republicans before, they probably would have.
“They will certainly feel less tethered to the party, but they didn't feel tethered to the party in the first place,” he said. “Again, that's why they lost.”
What’s left over?
The short session may actually be short — after all, lawmakers are antsy to get back to their districts to campaign for reelection, Cooper said.
But lawmakers may or may not find time to address various other issues before the fall.
Dealing with increased energy needs could be one. Duke Energy is asking the Utilities Commission to allow the company to increase electricity rates by 18% over the next two years. A lot of that increased need comes from data centers, said Dan Crawford, North Carolina League of Conservation Voters senior director of public affairs.
He said the environmental community is concerned that legislators might repeal a 2021 law that set a 2050 goal for Duke Energy to reach carbon neutrality. Last session, the 2034 interim goal of 70% carbon emission reduction, which was a part of that law, was eliminated.
Helene recovery remains a major need, as well. Stein requested that lawmakers add $792 million in Helene recovery funding in the budget, focused on economic recovery, affordable housing, private roads and bridges, local government assistance and natural disaster preparation.
Legislative committees have delved into staffing shortages at the Department of Adult Corrections, revisiting math standards, addressing the downstream impacts of SNAP cuts and the implementation of nuclear energy, among other issues.
Finally, the election omnibus bill remains under construction. It’s unclear when the final provisions will be determined, but lawmakers will likely consider an election bill before the 2026 session comes to a close.
This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.