RALEIGH, N.C. — State organizations across North Carolina are more than a month into their new fiscal year, but they are running without a new budget plan and it's having an impact on employees. 

State agencies rely on the state legislature to create and pass a two-year budget plan to get their funding. Republican leaders are still negotiating the final budget proposal, meaning these agencies are running off of last year’s plan.

That means there are no new raises or benefits for these state employees.

Shawn Gross and Dr. Michelle Aurelius are two employees of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Their roles are vastly different, but both say their work boils down to a central idea: helping some of North Carolina’s most vulnerable populations.

Gross is the director of residential services at the Murdoch Developmental Center.

He says their job is to support and care for "approximately 300 people who have severe and profound intellectual and developmental disabilities.”

Gross has been there for almost two decades.

It isn’t how he used to see his career path, but Gross says it’s a special place filled with special people.

“I must say that I didn't really anticipate spending my entire career here. But you do. You fall in love with the people and the mission of the center, you know. We work really hard to make sure that the people who live here have rich and meaningful lives, and we deliver on that,” Gross said.

Dr. Aurelius is the chief medical examiner for North Carolina.

Her job is multifaceted, with an administrative side and a hands-on aspect.

“I have the honor to tell the stories about how and why people die by putting the pieces of the puzzle together. A part of that is performing examinations such as autopsy examinations or external examinations, and creating death certificates and reports, and talking with families,” Aurelius said.

Both of their paychecks, benefits and budgets come from the state budget, and when the new fiscal year began in July, they continued working off of the previous budget.

Unfortunately, that means some of last year’s problems carried over.

Like many other businesses, NCDHHS is seeing staffing shortages across the state.

Both the department and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner have a 26% vacancy rate.

Gross is also working with shortages.

“We have approximately 704 direct care staff, although we have currently 247 vacancies. And so, we have 457 staff that are providing outstanding care,” Gross said.

Despite shortages, the work can’t stop.

There are still those 300 people needing care and support at Murdoch, and families across the state are looking for answers to their loved one’s death.

The lack of a new budget, and the inability to plan for what that budget will be, will have an impact. 

Aurelius says they need to be able to respond quickly when called.

“When we can't do that and we are not paying our experts with the appropriate salary, when we don't have options to keep them here because they don't have a competitive wage or when the workload is too much because we have too many vacancies, they leave. And who suffers? It's North Carolinians, the families left behind,” Aurelius said.

It’s not just a plan that’s needed, it's wages and benefits that make employees want to stay and do the hard work, Gross said.

“I've seen it happen where there's just fewer, fewer people looking for those careers in direct care,” Gross said. “We have to do things, you know, financially, to compensate people for the merit of their work and to try to recruit and retain those, those staff that that are dedicated and committed.”

Legislative Republican leaders have said it will be closer to early to mid-September before they have a final budget plan negotiated.

In the meantime, they’ve said the previous budget is in place, making sure that no agency or department is running without funding.