North Carolina House Bill HB1153

North Carolina 2025-2026 Regular Session

Caption

House Bill 1153

Summary

House Bill 1153, titled the Budgeting Accountability and Transparency Act, would change the State Budget Act to require more public notice and participation before either chamber votes on the Current Operations Appropriations Act or a conference report containing a budget substitute. Before those budget adoption votes, each chamber would have to provide at least one week for virtual public comment through a General Assembly portal, hold at least one in-person public hearing, conduct at least three nonvoting committee meetings to debate the budget, and distribute the budget bill and committee report to all legislators at least five legislative days in advance. The bill also creates a new rule making certain budget-request communications public records once the Current Operations Appropriations Act becomes law. Documents received from State agencies and from individual legislators to legislative employees or other legislators that document requests for provisions or funding in the budget would lose confidentiality, while attorney-client privilege and work-product protections would remain intact. In addition, the bill appropriates $250,000 in recurring General Fund money beginning in 2026-27 to the Legislative Services Commission to operate the public comment portal and support the required hearings and related staffing.

Impact

HB1153 would amend Chapter 143C to add procedural requirements for adopting the state budget and Chapter 120 to make certain appropriations-related communications public after enactment. It would affect the House and Senate budget process by imposing notice, hearing, and committee-meeting obligations before final budget votes, and it would expand public access to budget-request documents while preserving core legal privileges. The bill also creates a recurring appropriation to fund the new transparency infrastructure.

Sentiment

Based on the bill text and available context, the measure appears to be framed positively around transparency, accountability, and public participation in budgeting. There are no recorded committee transcripts or votes in the provided materials, so no formal opposition or support is documented here. The overall tone of the bill is reform-oriented and aimed at opening the budget process to greater public scrutiny.

Contention

The main points of potential contention are procedural and confidentiality-related. Supporters are likely to favor the added public comment period, hearings, and disclosure of budget-request communications, while opponents may view those requirements as burdensome, time-consuming, or disruptive to the legislature’s budget process. The confidentiality provision could also draw concern from legislators or agencies that prefer to keep budget negotiations and requests private, although the bill expressly preserves attorney-client privilege and work-product protections.