For years now, state leaders have discussed how to handle declining revenues from the gas tax. And with gas prices sky high at the moment, the problem is likely getting worse as some drivers try to cut back.
One of the most interesting contrasts between the legislature and Gov. Roy Cooper’s budgets involves construction spending. The surplus means there’s up to $1 billion available to build stuff, and the governor and legislative leaders have very different ideas of what they’d like to build.
Prospects for Medicaid expansion seem to be diminishing as the short session wraps up. Senate leader Phil Berger made it clear that his chamber isn’t interested in the Medicaid proposal that passed the House on Tuesday, which he thinks is more of a study than real action.
Hemp growers, distributors and retailers are breathing a sigh of relief after the Senate passed legislation that keeps the industry legal – just 30 hours before its legality was set to expire.
The N.C. House voted 102-6 to move forward with a Medicaid expansion plan, but there’s no guarantee the issue will make it to the governor’s desk before legislators adjourn.
Lawmakers want to dramatically reshape the state government complex with $300 million in construction funding – the first major change in decades.
The pending state budget released Tuesday includes a $112.5 million appropriation for an economic development project in Chatham County that would involve at least $4.8 billion in investment and 1,800 new jobs.
One of the bigger surprises in Tuesday’s budget announcement was what was missing. Despite a $4 billion revenue surplus, legislators decided not to include additional tax cuts or a revenue – even though they’d suggested publicly for weeks that it was under consideration.
If you’re eager to read the budget bill, get ready to spend this evening repeatedly hitting refresh on the legislature’s website.
North Carolina hasn’t had any new constitutional amendments on the ballot since 2018, when voters got to decide on six different changes. House Republicans want to put another one before voters this November, and the bill to make it happen gets its first committee hearing today.
One other key policy item in limbo this week is whether the state will participate in a new federal Medicaid program that would increase reimbursements to hospitals.
The state’s infusion of American Rescue Plan money is starting to trickle down to individual projects, and the result is that small towns across the state are able to tackle some big projects they might not otherwise afford.
After a surprising, narrow defeat on the House floor Wednesday, the future of sports betting looked murky Thursday. And the bill’s chief proponent in the House, Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, said he’s not yet sure of the next steps for the measure.
In a sign that budget talks may be faltering, legislative leaders raised the possibility Thursday that session could wrap up next week without a new spending plan.
The N.C. House chopped hemp legalization out of the Senate’s farm bill Wednesday, a move that rankled the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson.
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