The Last Dance of Tim Moore and Phil Berger  

When lawmakers adjourned for summer recess in June without acting on Republicans’ top priorities, there was plenty of finger pointing. 

Senators felt the House had moved too slowly in the budget negotiations process. They complained the House wasn’t in session very much and questioned Speaker Tim Moore’s grip over his 72-person caucus.

“The speaker is not going to be back next time,” said Republican Sen. Danny Britt of Robeson County, alluding to Moore’s all-but-assured congressional victory this year after serving a record 10 years as speaker. “That may have changed the dynamic to a certain extent.”

Moore’s response to the pushback: “They know absolutely nothing about what they’re talking about.”

Budget talks between House and Senate leaders have always been divisive. But lawmakers agree this year feels different and has proven unusually contentious, even though Republicans have veto-proof majorities in both chambers. 

Publicly, Moore and Berger have been reluctant to go after one another personally. They’re both attorneys known for digging in their heels during budget talks, but they also carefully message any disagreements so as not to alienate fellow Republicans or embolden Democrats.

Behind the scenes, however, lawmakers, advisers, and political onlookers see a fractured relationship between the two leaders and a widening power imbalance as the root of a highly unproductive year at the General Assembly.

The state is projected to have a surplus of $799 million in the fiscal year that started July 1, in addition to a $188 million surplus forecast for the fiscal year that ended in June. The nearly $1 billion surplus over the biennium gives Republicans the flexibility to cut taxes, send rebates to taxpayers, or spend money on favorite programs. 

But legislators haven’t adjusted the two-year budget they adopted last year—one of the primary purposes of this year’s short session. They’ve been divided over how to spend the surplus, and concerns over a looming budget shortfall in a few years are adding pressure on lawmakers.

Two other Republican priorities have gone unfilled. They haven’t approved a bill compelling local sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration authorities (as they had twice passed previously, but failed to enact due to Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto). And they haven’t provided funding to eliminate the school-voucher waitlist of about 55,000 students, whose parents would like to get $3,360 to $6,722 for private school tuition. 

Lawmakers have enacted 45 bills this year, making it the least-productive short session since Republicans took control in 2011. By this time in 2022, the General Assembly had enacted 75 bills, the next least productive year.

“We would almost have been just as well served to have not spent time in Raleigh this year,” said recently departed Rep. Jason Saine.

The Lincoln County Republican was a top House budget writer and had considered vying for the House speakership in 2025. But the man widely seen as one of the most accessible, optimistic, and upbeat lawmakers in the building grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress as the year went on. He announced in July he was resigning from the legislature to “pursue several unique professional opportunities.” 

Saine said that differences between the House and Senate approach to the budget and personality conflicts between Berger and Moore were to blame for the GOP’s inability to execute on issues on which Republicans universally agree.

“We have failed to some degree, not individually, but as a legislative body,” Saine said.

Budget Fights

Berger and Moore are the longest-serving leaders of their respective chambers in North Carolina history. 

Berger, 72, has led the Senate since Republicans took control of the chamber in 2011. Before that, he served as minority leader for six years and a rank-and-file senator for four. The dry, mild-mannered senator is seen as a workhorse, while Moore, 53, is a more upbeat and energetic front man.

But Moore’s style has at times frustrated Senate Republicans. Since Moore took over as House speaker in 2015, some Republicans have come to see him as an unreliable or inconsistent negotiating partner. 

Berger and Moore’s diminished relationship can most clearly be traced to last year, when the two were engaged in a monthslong budget stalemate.

Berger believed he had reassurances from Moore that legislation allowing for casinos in rural counties would be tied to the budget enactment. But many social conservatives objected to the proposed “rural tourism districts,” arguing expanded gambling was immoral because it would harm those who are already economically vulnerable.

As a budget deal appeared within reach last September, a tweet from Donald Trump Jr. upended things.

“What’s going on in NC?” the former president’s son wrote on Twitter, opposing tying a casino deal to the budget. “Outrageous. Shady back room deals and crony capitalism are not the path to #MAGA!” 

After that, Moore said there wasn’t enough support within his caucus for more casinos. He insisted he would only proceed if most Republicans in his chamber supported it.

In the end, pressure mounted on Berger to agree to a two-year budget deal without expanded gambling. The experience left him deeply frustrated and dealt a blow to the relationship. 

Moore maintains he’s never wavered from his position that a bill must have at least 37 House Republicans (a majority of the 72-member caucus) in support of a measure before he brings it to the floor.

“In a partisan body, if you’re going to have a governing, working majority, you should always have a majority of your caucus in support of something before you send it to the floor,” Moore told reporters in June.

Berger clapped back, “I would suggest that the rule seems to ebb and flow as to what the requirement is over there.”

When budget talks collapsed later that month, the two leaders were quick to lay the blame at the other’s feet. 

Republicans in both chambers supported clearing the opportunity scholarship program waitlist. While Berger wanted to achieve that through a standalone bill, Moore wanted to pair the vouchers with additional pay raises for public school teachers and other spending priorities.

“Folks need to ask [Moore] why [the vouchers are] not funded because we have tried every way that we know how,” Berger said.

Moore said, “The only thing that we were asking is that there be components in there to also put funds to our traditional schools. And we were unable to get that agreement from the Senate.”

Moore and House Republicans have proposed raising average teacher pay 4.4 percent, which is more than the 3 percent already in place this fiscal year. The Senate wants to stick to what has already been enacted.

When it became clear a budget adjustments deal wouldn’t be reached, Moore told reporters, “Perhaps during this summertime with a lot of heat, maybe a little cooling off might be a good thing.”

Yet when lawmakers returned last month, no progress had been made. Moore and Berger hadn’t spoken to one another for weeks, and lawmakers won’t return to Raleigh until September 9. It’s unlikely any breakthroughs will happen in the meantime.

Attack Dogs

Berger’s colleagues were quick to defend him, arguing Moore’s lame-duck status has made him increasingly beholden to the whims of individual legislators. They also slammed Moore and other House members for not holding as many voting sessions.

In an interview on his final day in the building in June, then-Sen. Jim Perry voiced his frustrations most forcefully, calling the budget process “infuriating.”

“It has to be a priority for folks to be here and get work done. I think some of the absences are gamesmanship,” added Perry, who cited personal reasons for stepping down. 

Moore’s defenders note that his father died in late May, which caused some delays, but insisted House negotiators had been hard at work trying to strike a deal and had one within reach.

Ralph Hise, a top Senate negotiator, called the House proposals “completely ridiculous.”

Moore’s colleagues were less forceful in their criticisms of the Senate and instead tried to paint the lack of a budget deal as par for the course.

“This is not unusual,” said Rep. Destin Hall, a Caldwell County Republican who is expected to succeed Moore as House speaker next year. “It takes a while to get these things done. It’s a big, complicated bill. I’m still confident we’ll get it done.”

In the meantime, Democrats are sitting on the sidelines in bewilderment. They accuse Republicans of proving themselves unable to govern. 

“It’s not business as usual,” House Democratic leader Robert Reives said. “This is as big of a divide as I’ve seen in my limited time here, and it’s sad because we’ve got some real needs.”

The Bigger Picture

Berger and Moore say there’s no personal animus between them—they merely disagree on their budget outlook, as they have in the past.

“I don’t know that it’s contentious,” Berger said in late June. “That’s not the word that I would use. I think that we’ve had differences and we’ve always had differences. It’s just that this time we were too far apart to reach a consensus on it.”

“While there are disagreements on a few fine points, it has been a very successful legislative session and things are going in the right direction,” Moore told reporters in June.

Despite the optimism, budget projections show North Carolina approaching a roughly $2 billion fiscal cliff within four years, according to nonpartisan analysts with the General Assembly.

This is in part a result of Republican lawmakers accelerating income tax reductions last year while simultaneously bolstering spending on infrastructure and educational initiatives.

Historically, House Republicans have wanted to spend more money than Senate Republicans, while the Senate has wanted to advance more aggressive tax cuts. Some onlookers see the latest stalemate as reflective of those historic policy differences.

“I don’t think that you can look at what happened this year and say, ‘Well, it’s a personal spat between the two leaders,’” said Pat Ryan, a GOP political consultant who worked for Berger from 2018 to 2022. “There’s enough evidence to point to bona fide policy disagreements.”

But even so, political leaders in both chambers acknowledge this year’s short session has a chillier tone. “I definitely think it feels different this session than usual,” Britt said.

Berger and Moore’s colleagues view the latest stalemate as a reflection of the shifting dynamics that have resulted from Moore’s impending departure and the leverage the Senate has in knowing it will lead the budget process next year. (The two chambers take turns developing a two-year budget for the other to review.)

“There just wasn’t an environment conducive to the types of transactional deals that usually define the House and the Senate in a session,” Ryan said. 

Saine, the outgoing House Republican, said the Senate knows they’ll be drafting a new budget in less than six months. “They were probably negotiating from a little more position of strength,” he said, “simply because the speaker of the House is leaving and then they get to negotiate with a new speaker.”

Moore Calls for a Reset

When lawmakers adjourned for summer recess in June, Moore called for a reset.

While the temperature has since dropped, a budget resolution is nowhere in sight. Last month, Moore said he hadn’t spoken to Berger in weeks. Berger’s office confirmed the two leaders hadn’t spoken. But both sides say not to read too much into the lack of dialogue, as the leaders traditionally don’t speak much to one another during summer recess.

Between now and the November election, there are four days lawmakers could return to Raleigh: September 9 to 11 and October 9. 

But the Senate appears content not to take any major actions until after the election, when lawmakers are scheduled to return November 19 to 22 and December 11 to 13.

Moore is still hopeful a budget agreement or deal to eliminate the opportunity scholarship waitlist can be reached by mid-September, enabling Republicans to declare a victory on a key priority before the November election. 

While the Senate favors a clean bill focused on clearing the voucher backlog, Moore remains insistent on pairing the additional funding for school vouchers with pay raises for public school teachers.

“We ought to take this up while we also enhance, with the surplus, additional funding for the traditional schools,” Moore said. “I think that’s the way to deal with this. I think that we will get there in some manner.”

Bryan Anderson is a freelance reporter who most recently covered elections, voting access, and state government for WRAL-TV. He previously reported for the Associated Press and The News & Observer. You can subscribe to his newsletter here.