State Budget

In addition to the federal funding cut threats that public broadcasters across the country are facing, PBS North Carolina could also lose a big chunk of its state funding this year.

Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, is the only state lawmaker who’s been in office since the early 1980s, but the former House speaker is no longer serving as Senate minority leader after his fellow Democrats backed Sen. Sydney Batch for that role instead.

Republican lawmakers want to eliminate vacant jobs across state government this year. But some existing state employees would lose their jobs under the House and Senate budget bills.

The N.C. House voted 93-20 — with from some Democrats — on Wednesday to approve a budget that delays income tax cuts while providing modest raises for state workers and increasing starting teacher pay.

The state House’s budget bill would delay scheduled income tax cuts while giving state employees and teachers larger raises than the Senate is proposing.

The N.C. House began releasing its budget proposal Thursday, and Republicans are planning cuts in what's expected to be a tight budget year.

Senators voted Monday night for the measure that directs $31.4 billion in spending for the next fiscal year that starts July 1. But the House plan would spend $31.7 billion and offers additional teacher and state employee pay raises.

The UNC System Board of Governors allocated $3.7 billion from the General Assembly. This includes investments in faculty salary increases, athletics and rural healthcare.

Federal regulators have given their final approval for North Carolina to begin offering Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of low-income adults on Dec. 1.

Six towns in Dare County have filed a lawsuit to block part of the state budget bill that bans them from regulating a new state-funded affordable housing project led by political donors.