As Gov. Josh Stein’s first 100 days in office come to a close, his administration has focused on three key areas: Hurricane Helene recovery, a two-year budget proposal and cautiously navigating a Republican-dominated North Carolina General Assembly.

Stein released a budget proposal March 19, which is a recommended budget that the General Assembly will take into consideration before passing the budget themselves. After two years of a Republican supermajority, the General Assembly is heavily controlled by the GOP. Republicans currently hold a 30-20 advantage in the Senate and a 71-49 advantage in the House. This is just one seat short of a supermajority, which gives Stein slightly more flexibility to veto bills. A supermajority means that one party has the ability to immediately override a veto from the governor.

Stein’s 2025-27 budget proposal included tax breaks for lower-income households, scaling back on private school vouchers, more money toward childcare, a 10.7% teacher pay raise and halting tax cuts that are supposed to come next year. Stein recommended spending $33.65 billion in the 2025 fiscal year starting on July 1, 2025 — over a $2 billion increase from what is planned for this fiscal year — and then increasing it by $700 million for the following year. Comparatively, the current 2023-25 budget planned for spending $29.8 billion in the first year and then increasing it to $30.9 billion in the following year. 

One aspect of the proposal that is expected to bring partisan disagreement is the phasing out of taxpayer-funded scholarships, or “vouchers,” for private K-12 education, which Republicans strongly support. House Speaker Destin Hall told reporters March 19 that phasing them out is a “nonstarter.” Stein told reporters March 19 that he is against using taxpayer funds for this because he believes the state needs to “meet the needs of our public school students.”

Stein has also proposed freezing tax cuts slated for next year, arguing it would prevent “fiscal pain” when talking to reporters after he revealed the proposal on March 19. The tax cuts were passed by the Republican-dominated General Assembly as part of the 2023 budget bill, and they are not supportive of the idea of delaying or halting these tax cuts. However, political analysts such as Mac McCorkle, a public policy professor at Duke University, do not think Stein’s budget will pass.

“Stein probably understands that he’s going to need to play defense in the legislature and use his executive authority to play offense more than trying to pass legislation through still pretty strongly Republican chambers,” McCorkle said.

Steven Greene, a political science professor at North Carolina State University, said he agrees and sees Stein’s proposal as more of a suggestion than what will be enacted into law. 

“It’s the Republican budget that is going to be the blueprint, and perhaps going to be modified to whatever modest degree and Josh Stein’s budget is just kind of a counter proposal to try and get people thinking about different ways of doing that,” Greene said.

Greene said this is because there are certain issues that will be too contentious for Republicans and Democrats to find common ground on. 

“You look at something like the private school vouchers, and there’s just strong ideological opposition there, and a great distance between the parties,” Greene said. “When you look at things like who should pay how much of the tax burden in North Carolina, there’s just some really strong differences that I don’t think can be genuinely resolved.”

The latest Elon University Poll released March 27 reveals North Carolinians’ opinion on how Stein has done so far in his first few months in office. He received an approval rating of 44% from a sample of 800 adults, and was only disapproved by 17%. This mirrors former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s approval rating of 48% and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s 46% approval rating in their first few months of office. 

Greene credits Stein’s popularity due to the fact that he is constrained by Republican legislature and has to have modest goals.

While Jason Husser, director of the Elon Poll, added that this early approval is common for North Carolina governors.

“North Carolina governors have tended to have what’s called a ‘honeymoon period’ in which they’re quite popular when they start out,” Husser said. “Stein, also, I think benefits from his party is not the one causing a lot of controversy right now because Democrats don’t have enough votes to pass legislation on their own in Raleigh. Stein’s not the face of a party doing things that might be controversial.”

A significant moment of Stein’s first 100 days came during his State of the State address on March 13 when he addressed both chambers of the General Assembly for the first time. He covered a wide range of topics including teacher pay, public safety, a proposal for a $4 billion education bond to repair old school buildings, the fentanyl crisis and the possibility of providing free community college to students getting certified in high-demand sectors. The heart of his speech focused around Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, and he said the state has offered $35 million in grants to help small businesses affected by the storm. 

Hurricane Helene efforts have been a key focus on Stein’s time as governor so far as he recently signed his first bill into law — the Disaster Recovery Act of 2025 Part 1. The relief bill includes $524 million in total aid for western North Carolina, including $200 million for farmers who experienced crop losses, $100 million to repair damaged roads and bridges, and $20 million for debris cleanup.

McCorkle called the focus on disaster relief a strategic move.

“He’s doing the right thing from a moral point of view and political point of view by focusing on western North Carolina and clean recovery,” McCorkle said. “It is one of the few things that gets beyond partisan divides and has allowed him, early on, to work with the legislature.”

Hurricane Helene recovery efforts have not been met with a positive response from North Carolinians. Forty-six percent of adults said they were very or somewhat unsatisfied with the progress, according to the Elon Poll. Only 26% rated the recovery response from various agencies as good or very good, and 43% said the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response has been very poor or poor.

Greene summed up Stein’s first 100 days as uneventful but emphasized that it’s not entirely a bad thing as Stein has had to play his cards carefully to avoid partisan conflict and find compromise. 

“You know what gets attention? Conflict,” Greene said. “Quietly doing your job and trying to find areas of compromise and working together does not get a lot of attention. This just kind of speaks to the fact that he has tried to avoid high stakes conflict.”

Despite Stein finding some bipartisan compromise with Hurricane Helene efforts, McCorkle said he thinks Stein’s job will start to get harder as he gets further into his term.

“Just by the numbers, a governor like Stein or Cooper and anybody else, they’re going to be playing defense in the legislature and not be able to pass a whole agenda,” McCorkle said. “That would be really surprising if it happened.”

Nia Bedard contributed to the reporting of this story.