ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.C. — North Carolina lawmakers plan to vote on a state budget proposal Thursday.
While Medicaid expansion is back in, casinos are out.
They had become a major sticking point.
Lawmakers are nearly three months beyond their deadline to pass a budget.
Leaders briefly considered removing Medicaid expansion from the budget. and tying it to expanded gambling as a separate bill.
Senate leader Phil Berger said a budget deal was a bigger priority.
"It was just clear that the facts were almost beside the point and the emotion that was permeating every discussion had overtaken," Senate leader Phil Berger said. “It will make infrastructure in rural North Carolina more robust, return over a billion dollars to taxpayers hamstrung by failing Bidenomics, and put student outcomes and parental choice ahead of bureaucracy.”
Lawmakers completed the budget, prioritizing what they said was the state’s most pressing needs.
It includes Medicaid expansion, raises for state workers and teachers, and funding to help implement North Carolina’s voter ID law. Lawmakers said another 600,000 people will get health insurance, with expanded Medicaid.
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