House lawmakers passed their two-year spending plan on Thursday, making some unusual allies and enemies in the process.

The measure received initial approval Wednesday with a 93-20 vote and a final procedural thumbs up on Thursday. All Republicans and most Democrats present supported the bill.

Despite the relative unity within the House, intraparty drama is brewing over the two chambers’ approach to state taxes.

For the 2027 tax year, the personal income tax rate is on track to drop from 3.99% to 3.49%, based on revenue forecasts. These tax cuts were the result of a compromise the two chambers reached through the 2023 budget. This year’s House plan, however, raises revenue targets that the state would have to hit for the 2027 cut to kick in, potentially unraveling the anticipated reduction to 3.49%.

House leaders said they made the change to reflect inflationary pressures and economic uncertainty. A leading conservative political organization and Senate leaders accused House Republicans of pushing for an effective tax increase.

Club for Growth, an influential D.C-based political group that helped elect U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, threatened to pull their support from any House Republicans who back the budget.

"Anyone who votes for the S.B. 257 tax increase should expect to be held accountable on election day, and kiss their political future goodbye," president David McIntosh said in a statement, adding that the organization’s political arm would withhold any future endorsements from lawmakers who supported the plan.

House leaders said they’re not afraid of the group.

“I’ve been here 11 years. I’ve gotten a few threats over my career, and I’m still here,” said GOP Rep. Donny Lambeth of Forsyth County, the top House budget writer.

Rep. John Bell of Wayne County, the House rules committee chairman, called the Club for Growth statement “a very inappropriate threat.”

House Speaker Destin Hall noted all Republicans in attendance backed the bill and is appreciative of his members’ unwavering support. “The entire caucus stayed a yes on this, and there was really no backing up at all. I don’t think any of our members even questioned where they were going to be on this budget,” he said.

Even House Democratic Leader Robert Reives defended his GOP colleagues.

“I don’t know how folks that are billionaires in some other state, or in some cases, some other country, are going to tell us what we need to do for our citizens in North Carolina,” Reives said. “What everybody has acknowledged except for the Senate is one truth: We don’t have enough money to pay for the stuff we’re supposed to pay for right now.”

Hot takes

Sen. Ralph Hise, a Mitchell County Republican and lead budget negotiator, said he and the House are further apart than on any budget he’s seen since coming into office in 2011.

“I’ve never gone into a conference process feeling like we were further apart than we are at this point,” Hise said. “It starts with renegotiations of things with settled budgets years ago.”

He added, “The concept of raising taxes on the people of North Carolina is not something I thought we’d ever see Republican majorities support.”

Bell said his Senate counterparts “are going to have to go home and answer to their constituents on why they supported such a bad product.”

Senate leader Phil Berger quipped back, “We didn’t support the House budget.”