What's In the 2026-2027 State Budget

By Theo Nollert · July 1, 2026

Well, it finally happened: after more than a thousand days, the North Carolina General Assembly is voting on a budget. So what’s in it?

There’s a lot to unpack. We can’t cover it all in one post. But here’s some of what grabbed our attention–and should grab yours. Below, you’ll find information about the biggest expenditures, the biggest cuts, and what kinds of policies and laws have been bundled into the budget.

General Assembly rules prohibit amendments to conference reports, and the majority party has issued this budget as a conference report, meaning it will receive a single yes-or-no vote and then, if passed, head to the Governor’s desk. He’ll have ten days to veto it. If he doesn’t, it will become law with or without his signature.

Big Ticket Items
At the end of the day, you can see what a government cares about by looking at where it spends money and where it makes cuts. Here’s what we saw in this budget
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https://carolinaforward.org/news/2026-2027-budget-toplines/