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Growth putting pressure on DOT project rankings

A decade and a half on, some legislators are having second thoughts about the system they and former Gov. Pat McCrory ushered in to take some of the politics out of funding road projects. The state’s prioritization system is shortchanging local-level projects and also pushing “P3” initiatives — toll roads...

By Ray Gronberg

February 6, 2026

DOT favors double-deck plan for I-77 in Charlotte

N.C. Department of Transportation officials say they’re “moving forward” with the idea of building a deck atop part of Interstate 77 in Charlotte to add express toll lanes to the highway. Radical though it may be, DOT says the proposal seems the “least impactful design alternative” for some of the...

By Ray Gronberg

February 6, 2026

Rep. Paré criticizes Wake property tax decisions

Rep. Erin Paré, R-Wake, a co-chair of the House select committee on property taxes, has been hammering local governments in her county for letting their tax burdens rise. Recent Twitter posts from Paré have singled out tax increases affecting residents of Zebulon and Wendell, eastern Wake suburbs that aren’t in...

By Ray Gronberg

February 5, 2026

Duke avoids setting new power-load record

Following up on yesterday’s item about Duke Energy’s storm-related pollution waivers, the company says the load on its network didn’t set a record during Winter Storms Fern (ice) and Gianna (snow). The January 2025 record load was almost 37.3 gigawatts and this time around, loads “peaked just shy” of that...

By Ray Gronberg

February 5, 2026

Senate launches its own property tax panel

Senate leader Phil Berger is following House Speaker Destin Hall in setting up a select committee to deal with rising property tax rates. Unlike Hall, Berger has decided that the Senate’s review won’t be bipartisan. His office announced the appointment Tuesday of an all-Republican panel to conduct the Senate’s review....

By Ray Gronberg

February 4, 2026

Duke obtained more pollution waivers before storms

Duke Energy sought and received the U.S. Department of Energy’s permission to break air-pollution limits if necessary during the recent winter storms if that’s what it took to keep the lights on. The rulings from Energy Secretary Chris Wright came after Winter Storm Fern (the ice storm predicted for the...

By Ray Gronberg

February 4, 2026

Small reactors lack economies of scale, legislators hear

When it comes to building nuclear reactors, a consultant’s advice to legislators is easily summarized: Go big or go home. Elaborating, the Joint Legislative Commission on Energy Policy heard testimony on Tuesday that said small modular reactors can’t match the economic efficiency of the large ones utilities like Duke Energy...

By Ray Gronberg

February 4, 2026

Feds finish audit of CATS security process

Federal officials have given Charlotte Area Transit System a month to remedy 18 problems they identified in a review of the system’s safety planning. These bear mostly on process questions, not on such details as the number of security personnel CATS has guarding its stations, trains and buses. “The audit...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

School vouchers: More used in blue counties

Two UNC Charlotte professors have published a study that suggests K-12 school vouchers aren’t as heavily used in the places where they’re likely the most politically popular. Writing in the Journal of School Choice, professors Samatha Schuerman and Jason Giersch say they found “a significant negative association” in usage here...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

State-pension investment returns improve

North Carolina’s public retirement-system investments earned an estimated 13.3% return in calendar 2025, just under the average for well-stocked peer investment funds. It “was a very strong year,” said Kevin SigRist, chief investment officer in State Treasurer Brad Briner’s office and such the head of the new N.C. Investment Authority....

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

Wolfspeed gets feds’ OK for Japanese investor

Durham-based Wolfspeed says federal regulators have given permission for a Japanese company to take an equity stake in the chipmaker. The decision came from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and stems from Wolfspeed’s Chapter 11 restructuring last year. One of the company’s largest creditors going into...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

State pension fund sets request for legislative support

Trustees of the state’s largest public-employee pension plan have confirmed that they’ll ask legislators for a 2026-27 employer contribution equivalent to 17.49% of covered salaries. The decision in effect means that the state would contribute just under $3.5 billion to the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System — TSERS —...

By Ray Gronberg

February 3, 2026

Insurance Dept. sees no fraud in Rockingham Co. dispute

North Carolina’s Department of Insurance closed the books on a complaintalleging that Rockingham County officials illegally asked the county’s insurance to pay for their defense against a libel lawsuit. “We received a complaint related to the Rockingham County commissioners. We reviewed it and closed it because of no evidence of...

By Ray Gronberg

January 30, 2026

State Health Plan rolls out first “preferred providers”

State Health Plan trustees have approved “preferred provider” contracts with the clinic networks of UNC Health and two other groups, State Treasurer Brad Briner’s office says. The move is part of the plan’s cost-control strategy and addresses the primary care needs of its members. Follow-on decisions will address speciality, maternity...

By Ray Gronberg

January 30, 2026

Tillis, Budd and Noem

The hold-ups of federal Hurricane Helene recovery subsidies are figuring in U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis’ public condemnations of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “She’s not even handling the other part of her job,” Tillis told reporters this week after being asked whether he has confidence in the former South...

By Ray Gronberg

January 29, 2026