Sen. Natalie Murdock on the good, the bad, and the very ugly in North Carolina’s new state budget | NC Newsline

As you’ve probably heard by now, the North Carolina General Assembly has finally voted to expand the state’s Medicaid program – thereby making affordable health insurance available to more than a half-million uninsured people. It was a long overdue action that will save numerous lives and struggling hospitals and create thousands of jobs in our state.

Unfortunately, the process for passing the new law was anything but smooth. Not only did it take way too long, but the expansion was attached to a new state budget that’s packed with all manner of deeply problematic new laws. Recently, in order to get a better handle on these developments, NC Newsline sat down for a special extended conversation with Senator Natalie Murdock of Chatham and Durham Counties.

In Part One we discussed the Medicaid expansion victory and the less-than-noble process in which it came to fruition. In Part Two of our conversation, we delved into several other topics with which state lawmakers have been dealing in the waning weeks of the 2023 legislative session – some productively and some not so much — including state tax policy, education funding, childcare, maternal health and state election law.