Senate budget proposal lacks transparency and falls short on critical public investments

RALEIGH (April 16, 2025) – The N.C. Senate’s newly released budget proposal falls well short of our state’s needs and was released without adequate transparency, public input, or time for meaningful review. Rather than advancing economic opportunity for all North Carolinians, the Senate has chosen to continue its harmful attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, eliminating the Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses and stripping the NC Human Relations Commission of key duties—among them, “to promote equality of opportunity.”

This is just one example of how the Senate’s budget proposal is fiscally irresponsible and fails to adequately invest in critical priorities such as education, health care, criminal justice reform, and consumer rights.

Our state constitution guarantees that all 1.5 million public school students have the right to a sound, basic education. Yet the proposed budget continues to violate this right, with lawmakers choosing to fund corporations instead of classrooms and early childhood programs. At the same time, proposals like Medicaid work reporting requirements defy common sense and are expensive for the government to administer without improving health outcomes.

Taxpayer dollars should fund essential government functions like our court systems. The proposed increase of criminal court fees to start at over $200 will lead to more people facing penalties for their inability to pay—penalties like debt-based driver’s license suspensions, probation violations, and even incarceration. This is an unsustainable way to fund our courts, placing the burden on the backs of those who are most vulnerable.

This budget also includes a dangerous corporate giveaway to Duke Energy that shifts financial risk for the largest construction projects from the utility’s shareholders onto North Carolina families, who are already suffering under skyrocketing energy bills. Not only is this bad policy, but a plan to restructure utility regulations warrants a standalone bill and reasonable debate rather than including it within the budget.

Budgets are moral documents expressing our collective priorities. They should remove barriers to economic mobility, not perpetuate them. As budget negotiations move to conference, we call on our legislators to proceed with transparency and to center the needs of those with low incomes and those from marginalized communities.