Proposed Budget Adjustments - Fiscal Year 2023
On May 11, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper introduced budget adjustments for fiscal year 2023. The fiscal 2023 enacted general fund budget, signed into law in November 2021 as part of the 2021-2023 biennial budget, totaled $26.98 billion and the adjustments would increase that amount to $29.28 billion, an increase of $2.3 billion or 8.5 percent. The prior fiscal 2023 general fund certified revenue amount was $28.75 billion, and the Consensus Revenue Forecast May Revision increased that to $30.72 billion, an increase of 6.8 percent. The state is projected to have a beginning unreserved fund balance of $6.8 billion at the start of fiscal 2023. The governor’s budget adjustments allocate $2.4 billion in additional investments to reserve accounts and after recommended adjustments, there would be a general fund balance of $1.5 billion.
Proposed Budget Highlights
The proposed budget adjustments, entitled Building on Success, invests in North Carolina’s families, businesses and communities.
Investing in Communities
- Provides $27.7 million recurring and nonrecurring for new housing development and the rehabilitation of existing units to increase the supply of affordable housing.
- Provides $50 million nonrecurring for down payment assistance for eligible first-time homebuyers. Enhanced assistance is provided for eligible homebuyers who are educators or first responders.
- Invests $20 million nonrecurring for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure grants in low-and-moderate income areas.
- Increases funding by $12.3 million recurring to initiate transitions for eligible adults with mental illness from institutions to community care settings.
Health Care
- Expands Medicaid to provide access to health insurance to more than 600,000 additional North Carolinians. Expansion would not require additional state funding as the federal government pays 90 percent of the cost while hospital assessments and premium taxes paid by health insurance companies cover the remaining 10 percent.
- The expansion is expected to save $71 million in general fund appropriations annually.
Education
- Provides $525.8 million to increase access to a sound, basic education for students.
- Ensures all teachers receive at least a 7.5 percent raise over the biennium and increases the starting pay to $36,600.
- Invests $4.7 million to expand the pipeline of diverse, well-prepared teachers.
- Invests $6 million for schools to adopt a Community Schools model to address out-of-school barriers to learning.
- Removes funding caps and increases funding by $146.9 million for targeted populations including Children with Disabilities, Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Fund, and Limited English Proficiency allotments.
- Invests $89.7 million in early childhood education.
Community and School Safety
- Invests $5 million nonrecurring for a violence intervention and prevention competitive grant program to expand the use of evidence-based prevention and intervention programs statewide.
- Provides $10 million nonrecurring in grants to cover the purchase costs of body-worn cameras for law enforcement agencies.
- Provides $2.5 million recurring to expand evidence-based violence education and prevention programming for at-risk and juvenile justice-involved youth.
- Provides $20 million recurring for schools to support students in crisis and provide school safety and mental health training.
Workforce Investments and Compensation
- Provides over $120 million to address the state’s labor shortage.
- Provides nearly $10 million recurring to expand supports for priority populations (reentry and justice-involved individuals, seasoned workers, people of color, and rural and underserved communities).
- Includes $18.5 million recurring to provide a statewide rate floor in the childcare subsidy program for childcare centers and family childcare homes in lower wealth counties.
- Invests $45 million to address shortages in the state’s healthcare workforce by expanding training in the University of North Carolina system, community colleges, and private colleges and universities.
- Provides $691.6 million recurring and $863 million nonrecurring to increase compensation and provide retention bonuses for all state employees and state-funded local employees and to give retirees a cost-of-living adjustment.
- Funds an additional 2.5 percent across-the-board salary increase for most state employees and state-funded local employees.
- Provides funding for an additional salary increase of 2.5 percent for law enforcement officers and health professionals within state agencies and the university system.
- Provides retention bonuses of either $1,500 or $2,000 for all state employees and local employees, paid in two equal installments to be the most effective at retaining employees.