Our take on bills filed this session by NC General Assembly
The 2025 legislative session is in full swing.
Legislators’ priorities have been sent to the bill drafting division to be written out in legislative language and given bill numbers, and the deadline to file those bills has passed. The real study and negotiation of the session begins. All bills will go through the committee process, and those that make it through will be voted on.
We are in a budget-crafting year so in addition to bills that outline policy proposals, the House and Senate will each put out a budget proposal, just as the Governor has.
We've been tracking all the bills filed this session and wanted to share with you our take on:
- Bills that have the potential to fund a better future
- Bills that make people’s lives easier today
- Bills that advance an important goal for NC but by design fall short
- Bills that will block progress for people and communities
For more information, take a look at all the legislative briefs that we have put together for the 2025 session.
Bills That Make a Better Future in NC Possible
These bills prioritize communities over corporations and the wealthy. They offer a vision for North Carolina in which the programs and services that help us all thrive are fully funded, and our budget process is open and transparent. An important part of this vision is a tax code that raises adequate revenue while ensuring we all pay our share — so those with lower incomes no longer contribute a higher percentage of their income, like they do now.
HB303 and SB233: Make corporations pay what they owe
This bill would keep the corporate income tax rate at 2.25 percent, making sure that corporations pay what they owe.
HB178 and SB294: Budgeting Accountability and Transparency
This bill would provide greater transparency around the budget development process and require opportunities for public input and time for legislator review.
HB180: Fiscally Responsible & Sustainable Budgeting
This bill would require the state to produce projections on what is necessary to keep current services in place for a growing population in the face of rising costs.
HB459: Income Tax Rate Reduction Trigger Mods
This bill would push back the start of tax triggers that reduce the personal income tax rate to begin in 2030. In the near term, it would ensure the state has funding for rebuilding after hurricanes and immediate funding needs given federal funding freezes and cuts.
SB440: Governor’s budget proposal
While the legislature has yet to introduce a budget proposal, the Governor’s budget proposal has been filed as SB440. An important policy decision in the Governor’s proposal is to pause both the personal and corporate income tax rate cuts, keeping them at current levels. This is essential for ensuring that North Carolina policymakers can meet their responsibilities to maintain current services, address emerging needs, and respond to federal funding chaos. It should serve as the foundation for any legislative proposal.
Bills that Make People’s Lives Better Today
These bills aim to tackle the most pressing issues North Carolinians are facing and want to see their policymakers act on. In their design, these bills provide people with critical supports to navigate and get ahead in an economy that is rigged to benefit the wealthy few.
HB48 / SB732: NC Economic Progress and Well-Being
HB353: Fair Minimum Wage
This bill would increase the state’s minimum wage to $18 an hour gradually through 2031, then adjust the wage rate based on inflation.
HB181: Tax Relief for Working Families Act
This bill provides a boost to working families by creating a generous and fully refundable targeted tax cut that delivers positive benefits in health, education, and well-being.
Note: Several other proposals build on the success of the federal tax credit. These proposals are more modest but still important in making clear the value of targeted tax cuts with a track record of helping families get ahead.
- HB339: Economic Security Act: 5% refundable (and a lot of other things like min wage, paid leave, etc.)
- SB211: Reenact the Earned Income Tax Credit: 5% refundable
SB641: Reenact Child Tax Credit
This generous and refundable child tax credit proposal would lift a substantial number of North Carolina kids out of poverty by providing a tax credit of $1,900 for kids 6 and under and a $1,600 tax credit for kids 7-18.
SB395: Disaster Eviction Moratorium
This bill gives the governor power to put a temporary eviction moratorium in place through Executive Order during a declared state of emergency, and to use available state and federal funds to provide rental assistance.
SB564: Public Safety through Food Access Act
This bill would ensure that all people eligible for Food & Nutrition Services and Work First benefits who have been convicted of a drug felony are no longer denied benefits after serving their sentence, if they complete a substance abuse treatment program.
SB608: Revise Various Laws / Work 1st Cash Assistance
This bill would ensure that the state’s Work First program provides adequate income support, reaches pregnant women in need, removes limits on assets that are needed to stay connected to work, and aligns with federal law on time limits in the program.
HB420: Sound Basic Education for Every Child
This bill would fund every child’s sound basic education in public schools across North Carolina.
Bills that aim to advance an important goal for NC but fall short in design
These bills aim to address problems with policy responses or urgent needs in communities, but they fall short of designing a solution that will actually fix the problem.
HB48: Increase UI Max Benefit/2025 UI Tax Credit
While this bill does present a long overdue increase in benefits, it doesn’t fix NC’s flawed formula for calculating benefits, and it delivers employers an unnecessary tax cut.
HB47: Disaster Recovery Act of 2025
This bill delivers much-needed and long-awaited support to Helene-impacted communities, but it doesn't include any new money for rental assistance, despite the eviction crisis in Western North Carolina, or provide grants or forgivable loans to help small businesses reopen.
HB142: Implement Zero-Based Budgeting
This bill would require state agencies to go through a labor-intensive and likely expensive process to present budgets that achieve “the most cost-effective performance of the state agency.” It also mandates justifying each budget item as if it were being funded for the first time. While efficiency is important, the bill overlooks the importance of program quality and the need for clear, shared goals for funding. SB126, the Senate version, is an improvement because it limits the number of agencies required to complete the process at any one time — potentially reducing administrative costs — but it still fails to address the need for clearer shared goals to fund programs that promote well-being and opportunity state-wide.
Bills that will block progress for people and communities
These bills create significant barriers to opportunity for people and communities and to progress for our state as a whole.
SB474: DAVE Act
This bill sets up a copycat agency to the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in North Carolina, which would review agency functions and vacancies for elimination.
SB403: Medicaid Work Requirements
This bill would require NC DHHS to adopt work requirements if federal proposals consider it, which could put the health care of 1.4 million North Carolinians at risk.
HB11: No Tax on Tips, Overtime, Bonus Pay
This bill would exempt tips, overtime, and bonus pay from income tax. It would reach very few workers, and it could result in employers moving more workers to tipped wages, a volatile source of income that’s subject to high levels of discrimination and abuse.
HB14: Gambling Losses Tax Deduction
This bill would allow gambling losses to be deducted to lower income that is taxed, which will lower the revenue collected from gambling.
