- "So we're getting to a crisis mode," NC Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler.
- “The longer we go without a budget and without a serious conversation about desperately needed resources, the harder it will become to prosecute cases like this one,” NC Secretary of State Elaine Marshall said.
State leaders continue to lament the lack of a state budget in North Carolina, saying that unless something is done very soon, some departments and agencies may be facing a crisis, such as Secretary of State Elaine Marshall’s office.
She expressed her frustration, much like she did at last month’s Council of State meeting.
“This is no longer a challenge; it is a risk,” Marshall said in January about her agency’s situation. She said she started asking lawmakers for help in August 2023, as her agency’s workload had doubled since 2017 while staffing levels remained largely unchanged.
The General Assembly has operated without a full biennial budget since July 1, 2025, relying instead on mini-budgets and a 2016 state law that allows most existing budget spending levels to continue indefinitely. In June, the Senate passed a $5.4 billion stopgap funding measure that the House declined to take up in its entirety, opting instead for separate spending packages.
She described a recent case her office handled at Tuesday’s Council of State meeting, which was affected by not having a new budget in place.
The Buncombe County District Attorney’s office had asked Marshall’s office to be a special prosecutor for a notary fraud case involving two lawyers and a notary to cheat unsuspecting people out of their homes. The multi-year investigation concluded on Feb. 25, when a Superior Court judge sentenced Attorney Robert P. Tucker II, 63, of Asheville, to 48-70 months in prison. He was convicted of felony Obtaining Property by False Pretenses and Conspiracy to Obtain Property by False Pretenses.
“Our investigators determined that the convicted attorney conspired with the other defendants to scam houses from victims by filing false documents in deed records and court filings,” she said. “As a result of this scheme, the victims lost their homes. This attorney took terrible advantage of a homeowner who formerly worked for the sheriff’s office and was showing signs of dementia when he was cheated out of his family home.”
The other attorney and the notary have pleaded not guilty and will be tried later.
Marshall said her office promotes the financial security of all North Carolinians and put in many long hours and made sacrifices in cases, such as this one, noting that fraud cases like these are a growing problem in the state, which highlights the need for more funding from a new budget.
“The longer we go without a budget and without a serious conversation about desperately needed resources, the harder it will become to prosecute cases like this one,” she told Council of State members. “My agency was essentially trying this case without any resources. We reallocated an attorney from another priority, which meant those duties fell further and further behind. These are highly complex situations. Without additional assistance, and personnel, and time, these kinds of needed prosecutions may not happen in the future, which is not right for the victims.”
Marshall is not alone in voicing her concern about the lack of a new state budget.
Troxler: “We are getting to a crisis mode”
Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler told members that the biggest issue facing the agriculture industry right now in North Carolina is the disappearance of farmland, noting that according to American Farmland Trust’s calculations, the state is set to lose about 100,000 acres of farm and forest land a year.
“The question is, when do we hit the tipping point when production increases can’t keep up with the lack of natural resources?” Troxler said. “So, I’ll be making a big push at the legislature for additional funds for farmland preservation. And because we haven’t had a budget in two years, there’s never been any one-time money added to the $5 million return. Just to put that in perspective, this year we have requests for $47 million in property easements and 114 applications. We already got more than the $5 million taken up in matches for protecting military bases. So we’re getting to a crisis mode, and I would appreciate any help that you [Gov. Josh Stein] and your administration can help us to obtain those funds.”
Causey: We need more staff to investigate insurance fraud
Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey told members that even though his department is a self-funded agency by the Insurance Regulatory Fund, which comes from taxes that bring in about $1 billion a year to the General Fund, they still need to add 18 to 24 additional sworn law enforcement officers just to keep up with the amount of fraud they have to investigate.
Stein: announcement on budget concerns coming next week
Stein, a Democrat, who has been at odds with the General Assembly for not passing a budget, told Carolina Journal exclusively after the Council of State meeting that he plans to make an announcement on the situation next week.
“I’m going to propose some truly critical needs that need to be addressed that cannot wait for next year’s budget,” Stein told CJ. “My big fear is that they will say, well, we’re coming into the short session, we’ll just pretend like Fiscal Year 25-26 never happened, and we’ll just do next year’s. There are some critical needs that are unaddressed that they must reckon with, and so we will be bringing those next week.”
The General Assembly is expected to return to Raleigh for the short session on April 21.