Good morning! ☀️ The state budget is coming! Well … a budget.

House Speaker Tim Moore announced Wednesday that the House’s budget proposal will be filed sometime Monday night. It’ll then go through committees on Tuesday before being voted on on Wednesday and Thursday.

This comes after negotiations between the House and the Senate broke down, prompting Moore to move forward with his chamber’s proposal and put the ball in the Senate’s court.

Here’s what else you need to know about North Carolina politics today from our team and correspondent Stephanie Loder.

– Kyle Ingram

Kelly Daughtry to help lead Republican judicial victory fund

Kelly Daughtry, who dropped out of her congressional runoff last month after former President Donald Trump endorsed her opponent, will now work to help Republican judges get elected in November.

The North Carolina GOP announced Wednesday that Daughtry will serve as the finance chair for its Judicial Victory Fund, which is running a slate of four Republican candidates for statewide judicial offices.

“Ensuring we have conservative judges who follow the constitution and defend the rule of law is critical to the future of our courts,” Daughtry said in a press release. “I’m ready to join that fight.”

Susan Mills, the current vice chair of the NCGOP, will chair the fund.

At the top of the judicial ticket is the Supreme Court race, which pits Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin against sitting Democratic Justice Allison Riggs.

Riggs was appointed to the high court last year by Gov. Roy Cooper after Justice Michael Morgan stepped down to run for governor.

— Kyle Ingram

Senators vote to give themselves say over DMV leader

The state Senate Transportation Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would give the Senate the final word over who runs the state Division of Motor Vehicles.

The committee approved a bill that would require the governor to appoint the DMV commissioner subject to “senatorial advice and consent.” Currently, that person is chosen and appointed by the secretary of transportation.

Republican lawmakers have been critical of the agency’s management in recent years and especially of the current DMV commissioner, Wayne Goodwin, who took office two years ago. Goodwin is a former state insurance commissioner who also headed the North Carolina Democratic Party for four years.

Some Democrats on the committee voted against the bill, which now goes to the Senate rules committee.

—Richard Stradling

DAY CARE CENTERS’ FATE DANGLES ON FUNDING CLIFF

North Carolina is on the edge of the child care cliff, and on Wednesday, more than 60 people from advocacy groups, faith communities and day care centers gathered at Freedom Park in Raleigh and urged lawmakers to take action.

Day care centers statewide relied on stabilization grants provided by Congress to stay open and staffed for working parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Funding from those grants is set to run out at the end of the month. According to a survey of the state’s child care programs, without the grant money:

• 29% of child care centers expect to close.

• 1,535 programs could close.

• 91,660 child care slots would be taken away as a result of programs closing.

The Rev. Rob Stephens, NC Repairers of the Breach organizing committee coordinator, said lawmakers should use some of the state’s projected $1 billion budget surplus to fund child care when the grant money runs out.

Get the full story from Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi here.

MARK ROBINSON TO MOMS FOR LIBERTY: DEI MUST GO

North Carolina’s Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a candidate for governor, on Wednesday told Moms for Liberty he wants to eliminate DEI.

Republicans have already targeted diversity, equity and inclusion, starting with the UNC System, forcing the elimination of DEI programs.

But Robinson wants to go further.

He received cheers from the crowd after he told the conservative group outside of the North Carolina Legislative Building that he wants to end DEI in government and schools.

The campaign for Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, who is running against Robinson in the November, fired back. Get the full story from Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan and T. Keung Hui here.

NC TO DECIDE ON NEW HIGH SCHOOL SUSPENSION RULES

The N.C. Senate education committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would require public schools to allow high school students to appeal suspensions.

House Bill 207, sponsored by Davidson County Republican Sen. Steve Jarvis, follows the suspension of student Christian McGhee at Central Davidson High School in Lexington.

The bill also would let high school students expunge short-term suspensions from their records.

McGhee’s three-day suspension garnered national attention after he addressed his teacher using the words “illegal aliens” and saying they need green cards.

The family filed a lawsuit in May in U.S. District Court claiming a violation of their son’s rights to free speech.

The bill, which has received bipartisan support, heads to the Senate rules committee.

Get the full story from T. Keung Hui here.

That’s all for today. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol news.

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