NC lawmakers target more of governor’s powers, shift charity support

Republican state lawmakers plan to give themselves more power over local government oversight, as well as who is allowed to serve on the governor’s cabinet and in other high-ranking executive branch jobs.

Those changes and more are proposed in a newly rewritten version of House Bill 268, made public Monday night ahead of a vote Tuesday, which also aims to make changes to the recently approved state budget including changes to which charities will or won’t get support from state taxpayers. Among the winners is a charity started by Kyle Busch, the NASCAR star who died of a sudden illness earlier this year, as well as a group that specializes in an alternative therapy for veterans with PTSD.

The bill would also spend tens of millions of dollars on sporting events, including up to $25 million for the World Military Games in Charlotte next summer, and up to $40 million spread over four years to keep a longtime PGA Tour qualifying tournament in Greensboro, as the golf league looks to change up its format.

The bill won initial approval in the Republican-controlled state Senate on Tuesday with little debate, and the vote mostly along party lines. All Republicans voted for it as did a handful of Democrats. It still needs to pass a final Senate vote, likely to be held Wednesday, as well as win approval from the state House — where GOP leaders have agreed in principle to the changes but haven’t yet scheduled a vote.

Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, opposed the bill over provisions that she said were unconstitutional power grabs targeting Democratic Gov. Josh Stein — and particularly one section that could restrict Stein’s ability to hire top leaders of various state agencies.

'It's a violation'

“The [state] Supreme Court has also said that the governor must have enough control to perform his constitutional duty,” Grafstein said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “This provision takes away the governor's control to do that because it can leave us in a position where we have vacant, high-level positions, and the governor is not able to carry out the missions of the executive branch.”

She was objecting to new rules in the bill for Stein’s cabinet members and other top advisors who need approval from the state Senate to hold their jobs. The Senate gave itself the power to veto the governor’s agency heads in recent years, and it has expanded those powers gradually since then.

The new proposal says that if the Senate fails to hold a vote on any of the governor’s picks, by the time the legislature adjourns its session, then those picks will be forced to quit their jobs and also become ineligible to be nominated for any other high-level roles during the governor’s term.

“It is a violation of the separation of powers,” Grafstein said.

No Republicans debated Grafstein on her complaints, nor did they offer any other explanation for why they wanted that change. In the past, Republicans have said it’s a good check on the governor’s power for the Senate to have final say over who he can or can’t hire for top state jobs, similar to how the U.S. Senate approves some presidential nominees.

The North Carolina General Assembly has spent the past decade stripping power from the governor’s office, as Republicans have maintained control of the state House and Senate and while the state has elected Democratic governors. The bill would continue that trend — also tweaking a new law, passed earlier this month as part of the state budget, that targets Stein as well as a fellow Democratic executive branch leader, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.

The budget, as well as the new bill, would eject Marshall and two of Stein’s three appointees from the Local Government Commission, and create a new GOP majority controlling that group. That group is in charge of conducting oversight of cities and counties around the state. It has the power to approve their requests to take on loans for big projects, to demand audits into local spending and even to shut down entire towns by revoking their charter.

The changes — which shift the seats from Stein and Marshall to GOP legislative leaders and Republican State Treasurer Brad Briner — would flip political control of the Local Government Commission. Democrats currently hold five of the nine seats, but the new changes would give Republicans a 7-2 edge.

Spokespeople for Stein and Marshall didn’t immediately provide comment Tuesday.

Called a “technical corrections” bill, the legislation is supposed to be for minor fixes to the budget — correcting typos or references to the wrong state statutes, clarifying what certain pots of money can or can’t be used for, and similar changes of a purely technical nature.

But in practice GOP leaders can put whatever they want into the bill, and this one contains many provisions that substantively change state law, in addition to other smaller fixes.

The bill would also:

• Double the state funding given to the Charlotte Healthcare Coalition, from $500,000 to $1 million. Little information about that group, its members, its activities or its mission exists online, but it’s led by Rep. Carla Cunningham — a former Democrat who recently quit her party and has helped Republicans override several of Stein’s vetoes — according to Cunningham’s LinkedIn profile.
• Cut $1.5 million from the Community Foundation of NC East, a Greenville-based charity, and instead gives it to a different charity called HBOT 4 Heroes, a Durham-based nonprofit that provides hyperbaric oxygen therapy to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. The therapy has federal approval for a number of treatments but not PTSD, according to a Harvard Medical School analysis from 2024, although advocates say it can help.
• Cut $500,000 from a grant to the Police Benevolent Association for a study on PTSD.
• Give $250,000 to the Samantha and Kyle Busch Bundle of Joy Fund, a nonprofit that supports couples struggling with infertility by helping them pay for expensive IVF treatments. Busch died in May at 41, as he was preparing to race in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
• Exempt the State Bureau of Investigation and the State Highway Patrol from having to follow the normal state rules for contracts and other purchases.
• Create a pilot program, starting in Forsyth County, for state DMV officials to make house visits to help people update their driver’s licenses without needing to leave home.
• Boost cybersecurity offerings at Fayetteville Technical Community College with an extra $2.75 million, in addition to a $3.75 million program aimed at helping Cumberland County high schoolers earn college credits through dual enrollment opportunities.