BY MILES LAYTON

EDENTON — State Rep. Ed Goodwin, R-Chowan, gave a wide-ranging talk Monday evening to members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Edenton Bell Battery, offering a candid look at the ongoing state budget stalemate, the shrimping industry fight in Raleigh, and the latest debates over Medicaid funding and redistricting.

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Goodwin, who represents Chowan County and much of northeastern North Carolina, spoke for nearly an hour to a full room of local Sons of Confederate Veterans members. The Republican lawmaker did not shy away from criticizing his own chamber’s counterparts, saying that disagreements in the General Assembly have left North Carolina without a finalized budget for months.

“Why does the state not have a budget yet? Well, it’s always something going on,” Goodwin said. “The House is fine with this. The Senate will not approve it.”

He added that negotiations broke down over two issues — “tax triggers” and a proposed statewide children’s hospital. “The Senate refuses to negotiate on tax triggers and the proposed children’s hospital stall in the budget,” he said. “They don’t want to have anything to do with it.”

Goodwin claimed that some of the Senate’s proposals resembled federal policies under President Joe Biden. “They want it to reflect something like Joe Biden did,” he said. “Now if you go back and see if you can remember anything about Joe Biden — did he really know what he was doing? I don’t know why they do this, but they do.”

Shrimp Industry Controversy

In one of the evening’s most animated segments, Goodwin revisited what he called “a fight like was beyond what it should have been” over the state’s shrimping industry.

“You all heard about what happened with the shrimp and everything, right?” he asked. “The Senate wanted it to be done their way, and the big rich boys that have monster yachts and go out in the ocean and catch the fish — they paid them off to do away with the shrimpers close in on the waters.”

He said that would have effectively eliminated North Carolina’s inshore shrimping operations, replacing them with imported seafood. “You know where most of your shrimp comes from?” Goodwin asked, before one audience member replied, “China.”

“China, all the way,” Goodwin said. “Do you know how they grow their shrimp in Vietnam? Human waste. Guess how they grow it in China? Human waste. So if you’re in a restaurant and it says, ‘Good shrimp from China,’ you need to call the waitress over and say, ‘I’d like to change my thing.’”

Goodwin said he helped lead opposition to the proposal. “I was the one that started it and wrote a bill on it,” he said. “We got in all kinds of trouble, but they couldn’t say we were not right.”

He also mentioned a North Carolina shrimper who has a statewide contract with the UNC System.

“He has the contract in the UNC system for every cafeteria in every university and school,” Goodwin said. “That’s when it really hit. Everybody said, ‘Why has that guy got such a better shrimp than anybody else?’ I said, ‘Because of where he catches them.’”

Budget Impact and Pay Raises

Despite the impasse, Goodwin said the House had still approved measures that provided pay raises and bonuses for public employees. “Teachers get an 8.7% increase over the biennium,” he said. “Law enforcement — 13% average pay raises plus bonuses. State employees — 2.5% increase across the board. Retirees get a cost-of-living bonus.”

He said the House remains “committed to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse,” even as talks with the Senate continue. “Does that sound like somebody that doesn’t want to do the right thing?” he asked. “That’s what we do in the House, not the Senate.”

Goodwin also emphasized Medicaid stability, saying, “Lawmakers have invested $600 million this year to sustain the program into 2026.” He added, “North Carolina is in good shape. I do have some concerns about it, but it’s in good shape.”

Redistricting and Lawsuits

Shifting to another topic, Goodwin spoke about the ongoing redistricting battles, saying that court challenges have become routine. “We have to do this every so often, every so many years,” he said. “We have to go out there and fuss and fight, go to court, and have protests of people coming in at night and banging drums and all this kind of stuff.”

He argued that the process follows federal guidelines and dismissed claims of unfairness. “Every time we get on TV, somebody is talking about, ‘Look what they’ve done now.’ But we haven’t,” Goodwin said.

He criticized what he described as “liberal judges” interfering with maps. “You know that judge is not going to be overseeing a map and it affects him and he’s going to vote for his map,” he said. “They’re not going to do that.”

Goodwin also referenced multiple lawsuits filed against the state’s congressional map by “left-wing groups.” He accused Democratic officials in other states of gerrymandering for political gain, saying, “Gavin Newsom is attempting to mid-decade a redraw in California to eliminate up to five Republican seats.”

North Carolina law, he said, explicitly allows mid-decade redistricting — and prevents the governor from vetoing maps. “Guess who set that up for the current governor not to be able to do that?” Goodwin asked. “Roy Cooper.”

A Candid Tone

Throughout the meeting, Goodwin mixed humor and blunt talk with legislative detail. At one point, he recalled how he handles aggressive lobbyists.

“They’ll come to your office and knock on the door,” he said. “So I have an ace in the hole — I reach into my pocket and pull out my retired federal agent badge and tell them, ‘You’re not supposed to be in this office. Get out.’”

He also spoke about state employees’ frustrations despite new raises.

“I bet when I go back in a week and a half, two weeks, the hallways will be full of teachers complaining,” he said. “That’s the way it is there all the time.”

Goodwin closed by emphasizing his commitment to fiscal oversight.

“One of the things we’ve been working on for a long time is cutting that waste, fraud, and abuse, and making sure we know where the money is going,” he said. “If we don’t know where it’s going, we need to find out when it’s coming back.”