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Good evening,

Imagine if you stopped updating the family budget for two years. Now imagine you just kept spending, using last year’s numbers, and hoped everything would work out.

That’s essentially what the North Carolina General Assembly just did.

For the first time in at least 30 years ([link removed]) , lawmakers let Thanksgiving arrive without ratifying a new biennial budget. In fact, they didn’t even send a budget to Governor Josh Stein’s desk. No bill to sign, no bill to veto, nothing at all. For a legislature with one job it absolutely must do, this is a remarkable kind of failure.

The General Assembly may pursue any number of policy objectives when it convenes—cutting or raising taxes, redrawing political districts, reforming public education, or even proposing constitutional amendments. But only one task is constitutionally required every two years: enacting a state budget. Article III ([link removed]) , Section 5 ([link removed]) of the North Carolina Constitution makes this explicit. The Governor must prepare a comprehensive budget, but it becomes law only when the General Assembly enacts it. Without legislative action, the State simply cannot have a lawful, up-to-date biennial budget.

This year, lawmakers failed to meet that fundamental obligation.

Yes, the House and Senate have competing visions for how to spend and fund their versions of a $32.58 billion General Fund budget. And spirited debate is not a problem—debate is healthy. It sharpens ideas, exposes assumptions, and often produces better policy.

But debate is only productive if it leads somewhere. Here, negotiations have broken down entirely. Insiders now suggest that North Carolina may not see a new state budget until sometime in 2026. And this is hardly surprising when you consider that since Labor Day, the General Assembly has met for a total of just seven legislative days.

A legislature that has convened for seven days since Labor Day cannot credibly claim it is straining under the weight of difficult work. It can only claim it has chosen not to do the work.

Some observers have pointed to the Budget Stability and Continuity Act, passed as part of the 2016 state budget, for the explanation. That law wisely ensures North Carolina never faces the brinksmanship and shutdown drama that routinely paralyzes the federal government. It acts as a permanent continuing resolution—an important safeguard for taxpayers. What its authors did not anticipate, however, was that the security it provides would remove nearly all urgency to conclude negotiations. In short, the safety net became comfortable enough that both chambers stopped climbing.

Let me be clear: this is not the John Locke Foundation urging state government to spend more money. In fact, our research staff has argued ([link removed]) the opposite for months. If the House and Senate would agree to spend $32 billion—rather than their previously agreed-upon $32.58 billion—they could almost certainly reach a compromise far more quickly. The problem is not a shortage of revenue; it is the insistence in both chambers on spending every available dollar up to the full growth rate of population plus inflation. They don’t have to do that. The state can spend less than that and still operate effectively, while also increasing teacher pay and reducing pressure on future revenue needs. Doing so requires setting priorities and acknowledging that not every spending request should be approved. After all, that is how we ended up with a $500 million taxpayer-funded endowment for NCInnovation
([link removed]) in 2023—a venture-capital-style nonprofit that should never have been in the state government’s portfolio to begin with.

We can remain appropriately skeptical of the size and scope of state government and of taxpayer-funded programs. But even while maintaining that skepticism, we can acknowledge this reality: it is extraordinarily difficult to run programs, recruit staff, or retain employees when you are nearly halfway through the fiscal year using budget numbers that have not been updated in two years. School districts—dependent on the state for much of their funding—cannot confidently plan staffing levels, respond to enrollment changes, or adjust salaries. State agencies, whether we agree with their missions or not, are operating in the dark.

This is not how a competent government should function.

The remedy isn’t complicated: voters must demand a General Assembly that treats passing a budget not as optional homework, but as the basic proof it can govern.

You can read more about North Carolina’s budget here ([link removed]) , here ([link removed]) , and here ([link removed]) .

Esse quam videri,

Donald Bryson
CEO
John Locke Foundation

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More from Locke

1) 🐘🐘🐘 North Carolina is about to have a new largest party ([link removed])
* For the first time since the Reconstruction era, Republicans are expected to surpass Democrats as the largest political party by registration in North Carolina.
+ The Democratic share of the electorate has been declining for decades, a trend that accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s…
+ While the number of registered Republicans has gradually increased since the late 1960s.
* The rapid rise of unaffiliated voters is a key factor, as this group surpassed Republicans in 2017, and Democrats in 2022.
+ This has been fueled by structural changes, such as allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in either party's primary since the mid-1990s.
* Despite Republicans achieving the largest party status, the impact on future voting behavior is limited because:
+ The former bloc of "Jessecrats" (registered Democrats who voted Republican, named after Sen. Jesse Helms) has largely disappeared.
+ Unaffiliated voters are not monolithic, containing both "shadow partisans" (who consistently vote for one party) and "partisan floaters" (who are not committed to either party).
+ Due to the large and complex unaffiliated electorate, North Carolina is expected to remain a volatile and competitive, though slightly red-leaning, state for the foreseeable future.

You can get the full picture here ([link removed]) .

2) 🚌🚌🚌 Want to pick your own traditional public school in NC? Move ([link removed])
* A 2025 report by the Reason Foundation ranked North Carolina one of the worst states in the country for promoting open enrollment in traditional K–12 public schools.
+ Open enrollment allows students to choose a public school other than the one to which they are assigned based on their residential address.
+ North Carolina has no statewide policy on open enrollment, and received a national ranking score of 0/100, tying for last place.
+ The lack of choice affects the three-quarters of K–12 students who attend traditional public schools in the state.
+ Despite the lack of policy, a Carolina Journal poll ([link removed]) in January 2025 showed strong public appetite, with 72% of respondents supporting the concept of open enrollment.
+ The report also found that more than 1.6 million students in 20 states used open enrollment to choose their public schools…
o And participation was greater in states with stronger open enrollment laws.
* Oklahoma continues to be a national leader for open enrollment, thanks for its strong laws, which require all districts to offer both cross-district and within-district transfers.
+ Oklahoma’s laws also prohibit discrimination against transfer students, require districts to publish transparent data on capacity, and allow families to appeal rejected transfer requests.
* In 2025, North Carolina lawmakers did introduce a bill that would have required within-district open enrollment statewide, which would have significantly improved the state's ranking.
+ The open enrollment legislation was later watered down to a study bill, which passed the House, but remains stalled in the Senate.
+ Although a study bill would be a small step in the right direction, it is ultimately unnecessary.
+ States like Wisconsin and Florida are clear examples that already demonstrate the benefits and logistical feasibility of effective open enrollment.

You can read the full report here ([link removed]) .

3) 🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳 How socialism nearly starved out America’s first settlements ([link removed])
* Early American settlers quickly discerned the true consequences of socialism, most of them fatally.
* The story of the first Thanksgiving is bound up with the move from socialism to free enterprise.
+ The very first English settlements in America, Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth (1620), initially adopted socialist principles.
+ Jamestown originally held land as a collective asset, where output was shared equally regardless of work contributed.
o This led to widespread laziness, with settlers "shirking" from work and neglecting fishing and growing food, resulting in a cruel famine that killed most of the population.
+ In 1614, Governor Sir Thomas Dale began assigning three-acre plots to settlers for their own use.
+ The move to private ownership instantly improved productivity "at least sevenfold," leading to a transformation from "starvelings" to entrepreneurs energetically growing profitable crops like tobacco.
* The Pilgrims at Plymouth also adopted a system where everyone shared in the work and the produce, resulting in similar problems of famine and a high death toll.
+ In desperation, Governor William Bradford assigned a parcel of land to every family for their own use, moving away from collective enterprise.
+ This change made "all hands very industrious," resulting in much more corn being planted and a quick shift from famine to "plenty."
* The abundance following the move to private property and free enterprise in 1623 is what made the first Thanksgiving celebration possible.

You can read the full article here ([link removed]) .

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