After the General Assembly missed the July 1, 2025, deadline to pass a state budget, Governor Josh Stein proposed a budget in April 2026. Following a few months of discourse between the Governor and General Assembly, a new North Carolina state budget was finally signed into law on July 7, 2026.
Let’s explore the impact of the one-year-too-late $34.4 billion budget for public education, as well as address two of the amendments on our ballots this November.
Teacher Pay
According to an article from EdNC, the new education budget includes an 8% average raise for teachers, with higher raises for new teachers.
This makes the starting salary for teachers an average of $48,000 and leaves behind veteran teachers who have been in the field for years.
To atone for the backwardness of teachers who have worked longer getting less of a raise, the budget provides funding for a one-time bonus for teachers for the 2026-2027 academic year, based on their experience level.
Educators who have been teaching for 15 years or less will receive a $500 bonus, while those who have taught for 16+ years will receive $1,000.
Not much of a bonus, is it? Especially in today’s economy.
Even if we ignore the minimal monetary value of the bonuses, they would only serve as a short-term fix. Teachers, who devote their whole lives to educating the next generations, deserve something that will benefit them in the long run.
These bonuses are almost reminiscent of the small spending bills that North Carolina lawmakers passed throughout the past year — using outdated numbers — to address time-sensitive needs (i.e., disaster relief) as they failed to create a budget.
What’s on the ballot
While the recent budget does address several important issues in public education, such as reinforcing the free and reduced meals programs for low-income students and taking action to improve literacy rates, this means little in the wake of the constitutional amendments that lawmakers have placed on the 2026 midterm ballot.
Let’s make one thing clear: neither of these amendments will lower your taxes. Instead, they will limit the funds that your community has available to address matters that they receive little support from the government for, particularly in terms of public services.
Income Tax Amendment
The North Carolina Constitution already has a cap of 7% on income tax. That being said, the actual income tax rate has been closer to 4% in recent years.
If passed, this amendment will lower that cap to 3.5%.
While this sounds good on paper, you won’t actually be paying less tax. Those who would have the pleasure of doing so are billionaires and wealthy corporations. This amendment would make it even harder to get them to pay what they truly owe in taxes.
If this amendment passes, it will become very difficult for future North Carolinians to change the tax code into something that works better for everyone.
Property Tax Amendment
This amendment would require lawmakers to place a statewide limit on how much communities can increase property taxes.
Fun fact: North Carolina cities get 23.47% of their revenue from property taxes. They get 7.93% of their revenue from the state government.
It is from local sources of funding that communities are able to financially support public services such as schools, libraries, parks, and emergency services. If this amendment were to pass, that support would dwindle into nothing.
This would also cause communities’ disaster relief to dissipate. We’ve seen the impact of tragedies such as Hurricane Helene and COVID-19 over the past several years. Without the cushioning of property taxes in the pockets of communities, mitigating these disasters would become an even bigger nightmare.
Another fun fact: If these amendments are passed, they can’t be reversed easily. They would be added to the state constitution, and can only be repealed if 60% of the NC legislature and 50% of the public votes to do so.
Let me put it in simpler terms.
Think about the Prohibition Era. From 1920 to 1933, the production, sale, and distribution of intoxicating liquor was illegal. This was a result of the 18th Amendment. It took 13 years for the U.S Government to pass the 21st Amendment, which repealed this prohibition of liquor.
If it took the federal government, which has considerably more resources than our state government, to take back a law over something as trivial as the sale of liquor, can you even imagine how long it would take the state government to take back a law that completely changes how our tax system works?
So what can you do?
Use this dashboard from the NC Budget & Tax Center to find out how these amendments will affect the funding of public services in your county.
North Carolina’s health care, public schools, and future depend on the choices we make this November. We urge North Carolinians to REJECT the proposed constitutional amendments.
Aminah Imran is a junior in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill. At UNC, she is a Staff Writer for the Lifestyle Desk at The Daily Tar Heel, UNC's independent student-run newspaper. She also serves as Vice President for the Hussman School Ambassadors Program and a Contributing Writer for Monsoon Magazine, UNC's foremost South Asian-American interest media platform. Following her internship with the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center in 2025, Aminah developed an interest in translating the legal jargon of state policies into accessible language that most North Carolinians can comprehend. She typically focuses on the impact of such policies on public education.
