In a press conference on Monday, Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, accused the Republican-led General Assembly of returning to session with the wrong priorities, including not passing a full budget, redrawing the state’s congressional map, and not increasing spending on public safety and mental health.
Stein said he sent a letter to lawmakers last week detailing the steps he believes the General Assembly should take.
“House bill 307 was a step forward. But as I said when I signed that bill into law, it did not go far enough,” Stein told media. “Just as I proposed in my March budget, I’m calling on the General Assembly to fund my $195 million public safety package to protect North Carolinians from violence and from fentanyl and the opioid crisis. That money would provide law enforcement with pay increases and recruitment and retention bonuses. We count on law enforcement for our safety. We need to put our money where our mouths are to address staffing shortages and get more well-trained cops on the beat.”
The governor also said that the state should spend more on mental health services, pointing to the deadly shooting in Southport and the death of Iryna Zarutska on the light rail in Charlotte. In both cases, authorities believe the assailants were suffering from serious mental illness.
medicaid rebase conflict
Stein called on lawmakers to “reverse cuts” to North Carolina’s Medicaid and mental health funding. However, House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, calls Stein’s claim a “manufactured crisis,” accusing the governor of using the issue for political theater. He pointed to Stein for refusal to move his Oct. 1 deadline to fully fund North Carolina’s Medicaid rebase.
Earlier this year, Stein warned that without additional funding for the Medicaid rebase or a delay in the deadline, Medicaid reimbursement rates would be reduced, potentially forcing health care providers to lay off staff and limiting access to care. The General Assembly passed a mini-budget in HB 125, allocating $600 million, mostly funding the rebase. That bill, signed by Stein on August 6, also cut $18.5 million from the behavioral health system, $15.6 million from psychiatric inpatient and crisis beds, and $10 million from the mental health task force.
In his comments, Stein noted that nearly 40% of the state’s psychiatric beds remain empty due to staffing shortages, arguing that an additional $15 million would make salaries for health care technicians more competitive. Stein called on the legislature to fully fund Medicaid through a clean bill.
“The legislature knows as well as I do that the cuts that went into effect on Oct. 1 are harming people and the damage will worsen over time,” he said. “Both chambers agree that more funding is needed, both chambers agree on the amount of funding that is needed, and they have yet to appropriate it. It is a shameful abdication of their responsibility.”
Hall and the House’s Health Appropriations chairs stated that Stein’s decision to adhere to the October 1 deadline risked care for patients, and that other administration options are available avoid Medicaid shortfalls. Those include redirecting lapsed salary funding from NCDHHS and other agencies or utilizing $18 million through an intergovernmental transfer involving Local Management Entity/Managed Care Organizations (LME/MCOs).
“Governor Stein’s arbitrary Medicaid cuts are unjustifiable, clearly intended to manufacture a crisis,” Hall said in the press release. “The legislature has given funds to sustain Medicaid well into 2026. This breathtakingly cynical move ignores years of precedent where the rebase has been supplemented even later in the fiscal year.”
They added that lawmakers invested $600 million to sustain the program into 2026, and the House overwhelmingly passed another $192 million in Senate Bill 403 to fund the Medicaid rebase.
“Last year, the legislature approved $377 million for the Medicaid rebase in November 2024, clear proof that Stein’s October 1st deadline is unfounded,” the release said. “Lawmakers will deliver additional Medicaid funding, when necessary, but will not be forced into rubber-stamping Gov. Stein’s unproven rebase number.”
discharge petition on medicaid rebase
Set against that backdrop, during Tuesday morning’s Senate session, Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, announced that Senate Democrats filed and signed a formal discharge petition to bring Senate Bill 403, Additional Medicaid Funds and Requirements, to a vote.
The discharge petition seeks to bypass stalled committee consideration and force a floor vote on the bill. The legislation passed the House with bipartisan support on September 23 and sits in the Senate Rules Committee.
However, a press release from Grafstein claims that SB 403 provides nearly $690 million in recurring dollars to ensure Medicaid is fully funded.
“SB 403 will not provide $690 million in Medicaid funding, because HB 125 already provided $600 million,” Brian Balfour, senior vice president of the John Locke Foundation, told Carolina Journal. “SB 403 would merely increase the amount from $600 million to $690 million, so they are filing a discharge petition to force a vote for an increase of $90 million.”
Balfour also pointed out there there is $38.5 M in recurring and $45.4 M in nonrecurring funds provided in SB 403 for FY 25-26 to pay for contracts needed to operate the state’s Medicaid managed care program.
“Interestingly, SB 403 also calls on the state budget office to eliminate vacant positions across state agencies to achieve savings of $19.7 million, and specifically says DHHS needs to eliminate vacant positions to find additional savings of $32.6 million,” he added.
Grafstein noted that all 20 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus signed the petition, but it would need two-thirds, or 34 senators, to move forward.
stein on new congressional maps
In Monday’s press conference, Stein also commented on the then-proposed new congressional map before the state legislature. The Senate approved the map on its third reading Tuesday morning in a 26–20 vote, sending it to the NC House by special messenger.
“Last week Senator Berger and Speaker Hall announced that they will be manipulating North Carolina’s congressional maps for partisan advantage even more than they already have,” he said. “I’m extremely disappointed by this cynical power grab. I understand that the Republican legislature is abusing its power to take away yours. In our representative democracy, voters are supposed to choose their representatives, not the other way around. They are doing long-term damage.”
He noted that NC-1 was a competitive district that a Republican representative would most likely win, but current US Rep. Don Davis won because the people chose him.
“Now the Republican legislature is trying to take away the ability for the people of that district to make their own independent choice by rigging the system so much that it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for Representative Davis to win,” the governor said.
Stein called on the legislature to focus on passing a full state budget.
“There are only two states in this country that have not do not have a budget,” Stein said. “There’s only one state in the country where both chambers and the General Assembly are represented by the same party. That’s North Carolina, one of only two states in the country that doesn’t have a budget. They are failing the people of North Carolina by not having a budget that invests in our people and invest in our future.”
The post Stein criticizes GOP over redistricting, budget inaction appeared first on Carolina Journal.