The General Assembly is moving the goalposts again, making big fiscal changes and taking more of the Governor’s powers after the state budget news cycle seemed to have ended.
The FY2026-27 budget process didn’t actually end when Senate Bill 257 became law. Two follow-on bills – House Bill 56 and House Bill 268, both styled as “technical corrections” – moved hundreds of millions of dollars and rewrote dozens of policy provisions in the weeks after. We’re talking about $89 million in completely new spending, $114 million in increases to existing spending, and $23 million in cuts to previously approved spending.
These bills also making meaningful changes to the Governor’s appointment authority, the composition of the Local Government Commission, and the powers and independence of various state agencies, ranging from the Office of the State Fire Marshal to the State Bureau of Investigation and the State Highway Patrol.
For a complete, searchable database of all changes, view our tracker below.
For our executive summary, keep reading.
Changes to state agency funding
$7,243,985 associated with the Samarcand Training Academy moved from the Department of Public Safety to the State Bureau of Investigation. The SBI also saw new 13% raises for some of its employees, an increase in the number of positions exempt from the State HR rules, and the authority to opt out of the Department of Administration’s oversight on procurement, contracts, and real property acquisition/leasing. Notably, the State Highway Patrol received similar exemptions from DoA oversight in these corrections.
A $1,090,000 reduction in the Great Trails Fund, which provides matching grants to local governments and nonprofits for trail projects. The biggest beneficiaries of that reduction are Baptist Children’s Homes, a Christian foster care and adoption nonprofit (+$500,000), the Samantha and Kyle Busch Bundle of Joy Fund, which helps pay for infertility treatments (+$250,000), and the Town of Hope Mills (+$100,000).
$3,123,000 to Mountain Area Health Education Center, partially funded by cuts to the Healthcare Workforce Programs Expansion fund and partially funded by additional cuts TBD by the Office of State Budget and Management and the UNC Board of Governors.
Two Highway Patrol construction projects had their authorized construction cost ceiling raised by a total of almost $11 million: the Highway Patrol Auditorium increased by $4.4 million, to a total of almost $64 million, and the Highway Patrol Training Center increased by $6.3 million.
Changes to nonprofits and local communities
$1,000,000 in additional funding for the Charlotte Healthcare Coalition, bringing their total state grant to $1,500,000. WRAL identified the leader of this organization as Carla Cunningham, one of several House Democrats who voted to override Governor Josh Stein’s vetoes on DEI bills, anti-immigration bills, and Duke Energy’s clean energy targets. Cunningham left the Democratic party in April after being defeated by Rev. Rodney Sadler in March.
$2,500,000 to Camp Grier, a Presbyterian outdoor camp in McDowell County.
$1,000,000 to Book Harvest, Inc., a Durham-based literacy nonprofit.
$1,000,000 cut from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a program that mails an age-appropriate book once per month to children, regardless of income, from birth to age five.
$500,000 taken out of the Riverwalk Project in Fair Bluff and reallocatedto Boys and Girls Homes of NC, a religious nonprofit with ties to majority leader Brenden Jones.
$400,000 more to Care Ring, Inc., for a total appropriation of $900,000. Care Ring is a Mecklenburg County-based health clinic that focuses on providing care to the un- or under-insured.
$200,000 increase to Southeastern Healthcare of North Carolina, Inc., for a total appropriation of $700,000. Southeastern Healthcare is a social-health agency focused primarily on seniors and headquartered in Raleigh.
Economic boosters
There are three big changes tied to economic activity in North Carolina:
$25 million for support of the 2027 Military World Games.
$15 million for the Film and Entertainment Grant Fund.
$10 million to the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation intended to help land a PGA Tour Agreement. The funds are contingent on the Foundation landing a PGA Tour agreement to bring a championship-series golf event to Greensboro, and the bill contemplates another $30 million in state dollars over the next three years if the arrangement holds.
Policy changes
We’ve discussed a few significant policy changes above that affected the SBI and the State Highway Patrol. Here are some others:
The State Senate gains major new power over the Governor’s appointments. One change is essentially a “pocket veto.” If the Governor presents an appointee to the Senate, and the Senate does not act to approve them, the appointee is automatically rejected–and barred from reappointment for the rest of the Governor’s term.
The Governor loses two appointments to the Local Government Commission and faces additional oversight on the remaining appointment. The Secretary of State (currently Democrat Elaine Marshal) loses their ex officio seat on the executive board. The reapportioned authority is split between the General Assembly and the State Treasurer (currently Republican Brad Briner).
IOLTA, a program that typically funds legal aid work, faced an enormous reduction in funding capacity, with a new, $2 million cap on total legal aid grants imposed as part of the state budget, a reduction of about $10 million compared to the last disbursement cycle. The technical corrections increased that cap to $2.5 million.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal picks up new authority over internal human resources, gains $1,253,491 for new positions, and gains authority over five budget codes (that is to say, funds) immediately, with pending authority over any fire marshal-related functions in four additional codes. The effect of this is to increase the fire marshal’s independence from the Department of Insurance.
The Department of Labor gains exemption from the Department of Information Technology’s procurement oversight.
The State Treasurer and the Commissioner of Labor each appoint two members to the board of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina; the technical corrections reduce their obligation to appoint residents of economically distressed counties.
Healthcare administration
NC Health Works, the state’s contractor-run Medicaid administration system, had its reimbursement ceiling for county administration expenses increased by $31.9 million to cover the federally-mandated community engagement (work) requirements and 6-month eligibility redeterminations required under H.R.1.
The Child Care and Development Fund Block Grant received an additional $60 million in federal dollars.
Minutiae
Some of the most curious changes in the corrections are very small and very specific.
HB 56 included the authority for the Town of Claremont to establish a maximum building height of up to 125 ft; HB 268 repeals that provision. HB 56 also removed a single parcel of land from Kernersville’s corporate limits; HB 268 repeals that provision, and instead clarifies that Kernersville may not exercise Extraterritorial Jurisdiction over that parcel, assigning zoning authority to Forsyth County instead.
The bottom line
A “technical corrections” bill sounds like something that fixes typos. They do that. But they also moved tens of millions of dollars, shifted power among agencies, and amended
