Chris Humphrey: It’s Time to Deliver: My Priorities for the Upcoming Short Session
By Representative Chris Humphrey
North Carolina House of Representatives, District 12
This week, I return to Raleigh to begin the legislative short session. For those unfamiliar, the short session is a period where lawmakers convene to shore up laws, bills, and spending priorities carried over from the long session. Historically, it’s a time for relatively routine work — fixing a grammatical error here, moving a comma there. This short session is a bit different.
Passing a comprehensive state budget is priority number one — and frankly, it should have been done already. Republicans hold solid majorities in both chambers, and with that comes the responsibility to deliver. I have heard your calls loud and clear on this, and I know my colleagues have as well. It is my hope and strong desire that we pass a comprehensive state budget in the coming months.
Now, I want to be clear about something: unlike the federal government, the lack of a state budget does not shut down our state government. Since we cannot print money here in North Carolina, we have provisions in place to keep things running on a “business as usual” basis. The fallout, while real, is not as immediate or devastating as what you see in Washington, D.C. That is not a justification or an excuse for inaction — it is an explanation that is often missed in media reports.
What’s on the Table
Beyond the budget, key priorities include a Medicaid rebase — that’s updating the payment rates the state uses to reimburse doctors, hospitals, and providers for services rendered to Medicaid patients, which hasn’t kept pace with actual costs. Without this action, our rural hospitals are in serious trouble. I also intend to fight for meaningful pay raises for teachers, state employees, law enforcement, and correctional officers – as well as cost-of-living adjustments for our retirees. These are people who gave years of service to North Carolina, and they deserve better than what inflation has done to their paychecks and retirement income.
Also high on my priority list is making sure natural disaster relief funding for western North Carolina is flowing as designed — as is finally getting eastern NC storm survivors the help that was promised to them.
The Bottom Line
There are now more than 11.2 million North Carolinians, and every single one of them — every person, every family — is dealing with real pressures right now. Whether it’s the grocery store, the gas pump, or a shockingly high property tax bill driven by county revaluations, inflation is hitting all of us. The least we can do as elected officials is to get back to work and do the will of the people. That’s exactly what I intend to do.
Respectfully,
Chris Humphrey
North Carolina House of Representatives, District 12
Lenoir, Greene, and Jones Counties
