North Carolina General Assembly · 2025–2026 session
Showing 1489–1512 of 2,338 bills
Introduced by Terence Everitt
This bill allocates $7 million in state funding to advance train infrastructure development in North Carolina by providing $1 million to each of seven proposed rail corridors for engineering studies and feasibility assessments. The funds support routes like Asheville to Salisbury, Charlotte to Washington D.C., and Raleigh to Wilmington, with annual reporting requirements to the legislature.
Transportation & Infrastructure
Introduced by Bobby Hanig
This bill increases funding for North Carolina's Small County School System Supplemental Allotment by raising the dollar amounts that eligible small county school districts receive based on their student enrollment (ADM). The bill appropriates $20,961,180 in recurring state funds to support these increased payments, effective July 1, 2025.
Education
Introduced by Steve Jarvis
This bill eliminates North Carolina's Certificate of Need (CON) requirements for most counties, keeping them only in counties with populations under 100,000 that have at least one functioning hospital. It also creates a new category of ambulatory surgical facilities that can opt out of CON requirements if they meet certain criteria and maintain minimum charity care standards.
Healthcare
Introduced by Julie Mayfield
This bill allows certain mid-sized residential apartment buildings (5-32 units, up to 75 feet tall) in North Carolina to be built with a single stairway exit instead of multiple exits, provided they meet specific safety requirements like fire-resistant construction, automatic sprinkler systems, pressurized stairwells, and limited travel distances to exits. The Building Code Council must adopt permanent rules based on these standards.
Introduced by Allen Buansi
This bill appropriates $1 million per year for the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium to the Department of Health and Human Services to strengthen North Carolina's Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. The funding will support nine additional regional ombudsman positions and operational expenses to help the state meet national standards for protecting residents in long-term care facilities.
Introduced by Todd Johnson
This bill removes the 10% cap on satellite annexations (noncontiguous land areas) for the Town of Stallings and the Village of Marvin. Currently, North Carolina law limits how much noncontiguous land a municipality can annex, but this bill exempts these two municipalities from that limitation, allowing them to annex larger noncontiguous areas.
Local Government
Introduced by Caleb Theodros
This bill establishes a Clean Energy Workforce Development Program to train North Carolinians for nuclear energy and small modular reactor jobs through grants to schools, apprenticeships, scholarships, and veteran initiatives. It also directs a study on creating Nuclear Innovation Zones to streamline nuclear energy development and adds tax credits for clean energy manufacturers.
Environment & Energy
Introduced by Norman Sanderson
This bill appropriates $3.3 million in state funds to the Town of Cape Carteret for a single fiscal year to construct a new building that will house the town hall, police headquarters, and emergency operations center.
Taxes & Budget
Introduced by Thomas McInnis
This bill prohibits foreign governments designated as adversarial by the U.S. State Department from purchasing, leasing, or holding interests in North Carolina agricultural land and land within a 75-mile radius of military installations. Any such transactions would be declared void under the law.
Agriculture
Introduced by Benton Sawrey
This bill establishes a new Genetic Counselors Licensure Board in North Carolina and creates a licensing system for genetic counselors. The bill defines the qualifications for licensure, the board's powers and duties, the scope of genetic counseling practice, disciplinary procedures, and fees for licensure and renewal.
Introduced by Allison Dahle
This bill repeals North Carolina's current ban on gender-affirming medical procedures for minors and state funding restrictions for these procedures. It establishes a new Gender-Affirming Rights Act that declares gender identity decisions as fundamental rights, requires healthcare providers to complete training on LGBTQ cultural competency, and prevents local governments from imposing stricter regulations than state law allows.
This bill eliminates the requirement that audiologists, audiology technicians, and audiology assistants hold dual licenses (both an audiology license and a hearing aid dealer license) to fit or sell hearing aids in North Carolina. It also requires hearing aid sellers and audiologists to disclose to customers in writing that locked hearing aids can only be serviced at specific facilities, and establishes record-keeping requirements for these sales.
Business & Labor
Introduced by Natalie Murdock
This bill removes or significantly reduces mandatory minimum sentences for firearm felonies, impaired driving convictions, and drug trafficking offenses. It allows judges more discretion in sentencing by creating exceptions to mandatory minimums, particularly for first-time offenders who meet specific criteria such as completing substance abuse treatment and not using violence.
Criminal Justice & Public Safety
Introduced by Kandie Smith
This bill provides tax relief to disabled veterans by gradually increasing the home property tax exemption from $45,000 to $500,000 in appraised value, allowing pre-qualification for this benefit, exempting primary vehicles owned by 100% disabled veterans from property tax, and reimbursing local governments for 50% of resulting tax revenue losses. It also establishes a $10 million grant program for veteran housing, infrastructure, and employment initiatives.
Introduced by Mujtaba Mohammed
This bill increases criminal penalties for assault by strangulation in North Carolina. It upgrades assault with serious bodily injury from a Class F felony to a Class E felony, assault with physical injury by strangulation from a Class H felony to a Class G felony, and maintains assault by strangulation as a Class H felony. The changes take effect June 1, 2025.
Introduced by Gladys Robinson
This bill prohibits corporal punishment (physical pain inflicted as discipline) in North Carolina public schools statewide, effective in the 2025-2026 school year. It allows physical restraint and reasonable force in limited circumstances and requires schools to report data on corporal punishment use by student demographics.
This bill modifies the ballot language that North Carolina counties use when asking voters to approve a one-quarter percent sales tax. The change adds language clarifying that tax revenue can be used for any public purpose, rather than leaving the permitted uses unstated.
Elections & Voting
Introduced by Patricia Cotham
This bill appropriates $474,680 in state funding over two fiscal years to Mecklenburg County municipalities (Matthews, Pineville, and Mint Hill) to establish a pilot program that pairs mental health professionals with police officers to respond to mental health-related emergencies and crisis calls.
Introduced by Kevin Corbin
This bill establishes the AI Academic Support Grant Program, which provides funding to North Carolina public school units in grades 6-12 to contract with Khan Academy for use of Khanmigo, an AI tool that helps teachers develop lesson plans and supports students with comprehension. The bill appropriates $10,060,560 in recurring funds for the 2025-2026 fiscal year and requires schools to evaluate the program's effectiveness annually.
Introduced by Joyce Waddell
This bill allows law enforcement officers in North Carolina to retire with full, unreduced benefits after completing 25 years of service, rather than having to wait until age 50 or 55. It applies to officers in the state and local government retirement systems, with changes taking effect January 1, 2026.
Introduced by Jim Burgin
This bill changes the rules for how many health insurance contracts North Carolina awards to manage Medicaid coverage in future renewal cycles. After the initial round of contracts, the state would award up to 4 contracts to provider-led organizations (instead of up to 12) and would guarantee contracts to all qualified applicants if fewer than 4 apply.
Introduced by Sophia Chitlik
This bill reduces North Carolina income tax rates for most taxpayers starting in 2025, with an additional income tax exemption for certain essential workers including firefighters, police officers, teachers, child care workers, and emergency personnel. It also appropriates $165 million annually to provide subsidized child care for families where at least one member works in these qualifying professions.
Introduced by Michael Lee
This bill modifies North Carolina's definition of 'neglected juvenile' to clarify that parents allowing children to engage in independent activities without constant adult supervision is not considered neglect. The bill specifies that activities like walking to school, visiting nearby stores or parks, staying home alone for reasonable periods, and playing outdoors are acceptable if a reasonable parent would consider them safe based on the child's age, maturity, and abilities.
Social Services & Welfare
This bill creates multiple programs to expand childcare access in North Carolina by using state-owned property for childcare facilities serving state employees and first responders, requiring new state building projects over $5 million to include childcare centers, and directing studies on childcare at community colleges and UNC campuses. It also establishes a workgroup to streamline childcare licensing requirements.