From the desk of Senator Joyce Waddell

Budget Impacts- March 2020

Joyce Waddell

Charlotte, NC- Smaller state agencies are seeing minor impacts from the budget stalemate, some of which are prompting them to shift money around to keep bills paid. The Office of Secretary of State was supposed to get an extra $211,000 for rent. Both the governor's proposed budget and the General Assembly's proposed budget would have resolved that challenge.

The Secretary of State's office is also missing out on $91,000 for data storage and cyber security measures and $61,000 for new financial analysis software. The Department of Insurance is waiting for an estimated $1.3 million in budget funding. The majority of that is a $700,000 allocation for a new data analytics system "to better and track fraud claims”. Another $550,000 would pay for a new phone system for the agency's Consumer Services Division, and $60,000 would allow the department to hire a new building code inspector.

But some state agencies are seeing no impact from the budget stalemate. The Department of Labor, Office of State Auditor and Office of State Controller all said their operations are unaffected by the lack of a budget. And the Department of Transportation got its budget needs covered through a mini-budget, so it's also not seeing impacts.

"North Carolina is missing out on much because of not having passed a budget. As a legislative body, we must work together, and accept comprises to do the business of which were sent to the general assembly to achieve. The passage of the budget is one of the most important things that must happen and it is hoped that when we return to Raleigh, this will be a first agenda item." Said Senator Joyce Waddell.