3 CAPITOL BRIEFS NORTH CAROLINA REPORT John Cooper Connect C After months of discussion and negotiation, a state budget compromise was finally enacted at the end of last year. After a strong bipartisan vote in both the NC Senate and NC House, Governor Cooper signed the budget into law. This is the first complete state budget signed since his election as Governor in 2016. The budget spends a total of $25.9 billion in FY 2021-22 and $27 billion in 2022-23. The compromise proposal contains raises and bonuses for teachers and state employees, commits $6 billion to the infrastructure fund for capital projects and to pay down debt, and allocates $1 billion for broadband expansion. The budget also makes several changes to the tax code including increasing the standard deduction to $25,500, cutting the personal income tax rate from 5.99% to 3.99% by 2027, increasing the child tax deductionby$500perchild, andeliminatingthecorporate tax rate by 2030 with reductions beginning in the year 2025. The budget funds all state agencies, including the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA). In the NCDA budget, the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission will receive total of $5 million dollars over two years, which must be used to fund a research collaboration with NC State University to study nematode mitigation. NCDA will also receive $154,000 to be used by their Agronomy Division for two permanent nematode technician positions. In 2022, the North Carolina legislature and our court system has been busy discussing redistricting, the map-drawing process which will determine our maps for State House, Senate, and Congressional districts for the next ten years. The legislature passed its maps last November along party lines, with all Republicans voting for the maps and all Democrats voting against. The maps are not subject to a veto according to our state Constitution, but they were immediately challenged in court by Democrat-led groups. On December 8, the North Carolina Supreme Court granted an injunction which moved the primary election from March 8 to May 17 and suspended the candidate filing deadline until further notice. Some candidates were able to file before the deadline was suspended, but many are still waiting to file. On January 11, a three-judge panel of Superior Court judges unanimously voted to uphold the maps. However, on February 4 the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the lower court and ruled the maps were unconstitutional. Their determination was based on new interpretations of several sections of the North Carolina Constitution, and it sets a new precedent for redistricting in the state of North Carolina. The vote fell along party lines, with all four Democrat Justices voting to strike the maps and all three Republican Justices voting to uphold them. The Court’s order gave the legislature two weeks to submit new maps to the Superior Court and directed the Superior Court to make a final determination by February 23. The Supreme Court also allowed the Democrat plaintiffs to submit their own maps to the Superior Court for consideration. The same three-judge panel of Superior Court judges reviewed the new maps and issued a ruling, using a special master who is a redistricting expert to help analyze. There may still be outstanding questions to be answered by the Courts before the maps are finalized.
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