The North Carolina Chamber serves as the voice for businesses large and small in this state, and when it endorses or opposes legislation, state lawmakers from both parties take notice.
To provide an update on the NC Chamber’s advocacy efforts in 2025 and what’s ahead in 2026, president and CEO Gary Salamido joined the WUNC Politics Podcast.
Salamido also weighed in on the ongoing battle between House and Senate Republicans over scheduled income tax cut triggers and the broader budget stalemate, and provided an update on the Chamber's new program to help small businesses access affordable employee health insurance.
This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
What do you see as some of the biggest wins for the NC Chamber's legislative agenda?
"We lifted the cap on (public-private partnerships, including for toll-funded road construction projects), so now we can do more in our transportation sector for a growing state. We need to make those investments. Having public-private partnerships to make those is really important. We did some good work on energy. One of our chief competitive advantages here is reliable, affordable, accessible, diversified energy, and that continues to be something we focus on. We made some good progress there and on helping our military get discounted access to tuition this year within the UNC system."
Is there any legislation that your group is advocating for this session that didn't quite make it across the finish line?
"On the side of a competitive, legal climate, there's an initiative that's going on around the country now that we're really concerned about. It's about third parties, non-interested parties, investing in litigation, and that hurts the consumers. It hurts the businesses. It creates uncertainty when third parties come in and try to get a return on investment on litigation. So we'd like to see that prohibited here in North Carolina."
Are there other major legislative goals that are still pending?
"We really have to take a look at child care — reforms in child care, the regulatory network, how we pay for it, the public-private partnerships that can exist there.
"Housing is a big issue, and that's housing all along the spectrum. It's a real deterrent to work. Teachers, service workers, policemen, firemen — all those people should have the opportunity to live in the communities they serve. Right now that's just not available along any dimension. We did a housing study out of our foundation, which looks county by county at what the needs are. We're about 700,000 units short of that right now, and it could be a $4 billion positive economic impact to the state — if we can figure out the permitting reforms that are necessary, take a good look at our property taxes and see what those are doing to inhibit the kind of growth that we need in the availability of housing."
What's the Chamber's view on the current budget stalemate? Is North Carolina's status, as the only state that didn't pass a new budget this year, something that potentially impacts our business climate?
"The good news is we have a budget because a few years ago, they put (a law) in place to say, if they can't agree on the policy of the budget, then the previous year's budget will be in place so that things can function and move along. I don't really think it's a budget issue as much as it's a policy disagreement, or differences on how we spend the new revenue that we have coming in. ... We're confident they'll find a way and they'll work it out."
What's your view on the disagreement over scheduled income tax cuts? Is there an economic advantage to keeping those rates dropping?
"We've seen the tax rates continually become more competitive and go down, and we've seen revenues go up. We've never been a fan of triggers. Triggers are not certain. We want simple, concise, easily understandable, predictable tax code. And so the triggers are not that, whether that was a trigger on the corporate rate, whether it's a trigger now on the personal rate. As long as we stay competitive and they're predictable, we'll continue to grow revenue, and then the revenue debate will go on. So I think we're really in a good spot right now."
Listen to the full conversation on the WUNC Politics Podcast.
