North Carolina’s state budget fight is entering its second month. While Republican leaders in the General Assembly and Democratic governor Roy Cooper remain far apart on ending it, the lack of a new state budget is holding up progress on an important issue for rural parts of the state. With so much focus on how the budget standoff will play out, it’s unlikely that any more bills will be passed this session. John Coggin is the Director of Advocacy at the NC Rural Center. “Yeah we don’t expect