Legislative Update from Rep. Iler — May 20, 2025
Last week at the North Carolina General Assembly was all about the state budget and multiple individual budgets. The budget chairs worked on their different areas in preparation for the final House budget this week.
The Senate had sent over their budget bill, and we in the House had three weeks to finalize our version. I met frequently with the other Transportation Appropriation chairs, while the General Fund areas such as Health and Human Services, Justice and Public Safety, Agriculture and Natural Resources met with their unique chairs and the central staff. The Transportation budget is separate from the General Fund budget and is supported primarily by the motor fuels tax at the pump and DMV fees. The General Fund budget is supported mainly by state income taxes and sales taxes.
The central staff refers to fiscal research and bill drafting experts, without which we would not be able to get our budget done. They work long hours providing us with technical language and numbers so we can make informed decisions on budget items.
Finally, on Thursday we presented the budget draft to the House Appropriations Committee on Transportation, as did all the General Fund appropriations committees. The staff presents the budget draft, and we took amendments from the committee. We voted on the package to be sent to the full House Appropriations Committee, and it passed.
This week we anticipate meeting on Tuesday with the full House Appropriations Committee to present the entire budget, vote on more amendments, and vote the full package out of committee. The next two days we will be voting on the House floor to pass the budget bill and send it back to the Senate for their approval. It is always different from the budget bill they passed, so it will go to a conference committee to iron out the differences. After the conference committee finishes their work, we are expected to vote in both chambers on an identical bill. This will take several weeks in June with a target date of June 30th.
A highlight of the week involved travelling back to Raleigh on Saturday to see Ocean Isle Beach Town Administrator Justin Whiteside receive his certificate of fellowship as a graduate of the N.C. Institute of Public Leadership (IOPL) on the N.C. State campus.