_
Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin-in

Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Advertisement

Budget & Taxes

Cary spending money “carelessly,” auditor says

State Auditor Dave Boliek’s team found tens of thousands of dollars in dubious spending by Cary’s government, including $65,653 spent ghostwriting a vanity book for its former town manager. Other questionable expenses include: $37,301 to pay Town Councilwoman Lori Bush’s tuition for a master’s in public policy program at Northwestern...

By Ray Gronberg

July 20, 2026

Boliek reports a deficit — his own

State Auditor Dave Boliek is one of North Carolina’s top watchdogs of local-government finances, but some of his targets might have reason to grumble about rocks and glass houses. His office’s fiscal 2024-25 financials show that it incurred a $904,505 deficit on the year, in part because of the computer...

By Ray Gronberg

July 15, 2026

Rocky Mount, audited again

State Auditor Dave Boliek and his team have found plenty more to criticize Rocky Mount officials about, in a new report on the city’s handling of a utility-billing problem late last year. The fallout included delayed bill payments from a pair of city councilmen, Verb Roberson and T.J. Walker, who...

By Ray Gronberg

July 13, 2026

A win off the field for the Tar Heels and Wolfpack

UNC Chapel Hill and NC State are the big winners from the budget’s reshuffle of the split of the proceeds from North Carolina’s sport-book tax — but they both can lament what could have been. The fiscal 2026-27 for the first time allots the flagships a share of the money,...

By Ray Gronberg

July 8, 2026

Budget upholds JetZero incentives payout plan

The fiscal 2026-27 budget continues the state’s previously announced strategy for supplying up to $450 million in direct appropriations to support JetZero’s plans to build an airliner factory in Greensboro. Now awaiting Gov. Josh Stein’s signature, the bill releases another $133.9 million for the project, on top of the $118.1...

By Ray Gronberg

July 7, 2026

Let the hunt begin: pork and the state budget

Now that the state’s fiscal 2026-27 is out of the legislature and on Gov. Josh Stein’s desk, the search for its inevitable pork content has begun. Rep. Pricey Harrison’s staff has taken the first stab at this and figures there are almost $1.6 billion in one-time earmarks in the spending...

By Ray Gronberg

July 7, 2026

Berger explains delay of tax-loophole bill

Senate Republicans haven’t taken up a House bill that would close a property tax loophole because they want to address local taxation policy more broadly, Senate leader Phil Berger says. “We’ve got members who are looking at that,” he said of House Bill 1042, which has been parked in Senate...

By Ray Gronberg

July 6, 2026

Democrats question budget-bill prediction-markets tax

Democrats are voicing increasing criticism of a budget-bill provision that establishes a 6% tax on the net trading-fee revenue prediction markets receive from sports betting. Sens. Julie Mayfield and Michael Garrett, and Rep. Pricey Harrison, all questioned why legislators would set a lower tax rate than the 23% the state...

By Ray Gronberg

July 6, 2026

Ferry tolls trigger GOP dissent in Senate

Republican Sens. Bobby Hanig and Norman Sanderson say they voted against the budget bill because it requires the N.C. Department of Transportation to institute tolls on all of the state’s coastal ferries. The move is unfair to coastal residents and a threat to the economic vitality of eastern North Carolina,...

By Ray Gronberg

July 6, 2026

Stein OKs revaluation moratorium

Gov. Josh Stein has signed into law a one-year moratorium on the use of the new-for-2026 valuation updates Guilford County and a few other counties were intending to use to assess property taxes. Stein says Senate Bill 889 “provides tax relief for North Carolinians who are feeling pain in their pocketbooks,”...

By Ray Gronberg

June 22, 2026

Tax bill on the move, despite R&D complaints

House and Senate Republicans are poised to pass an omnibus tax bill that will also allow credit unions to broaden their membership base. The compromise version of Senate Bill 595 passed a second-reading vote in the Senate on Thursday, via a 28-14 party-line vote. A third-reading vote is scheduled for...

By Ray Gronberg

June 19, 2026

ABC plans quick-turnaround pricing study

The State ABC Commission has ordered its staff to conduct “a thorough study of minimum baseline pricing” for liquor, with a preliminary report from it due in 30 days, its spokesman says. The move followed liquor- and hospitality-industry complaints that have rolled in since commission Chairman Hank Bauer told brokers...

By Ray Gronberg

June 19, 2026

Legislators want to clamp down on occupancy-tax diversions

House members aren’t about to let the ink dry on a recent state Supreme Court ruling without acting to stop Currituck County and other places from using motel-tax money to fund police, EMS and fire services. On Tuesday the House Finance and Rules committees gutted Senate Bill 484and replaced it...

By Ray Gronberg

June 5, 2026

Pay increases pressuring city and county budgets

Now that the calendar has turned to June, it’s about time for cities and counties across to start passing their budgets. Along with those, in many places, will come raises for police, firefighters and other local-government workers. In some way, shape or form, personnel costs are invariably one of the...

By Ray Gronberg

June 5, 2026

State Supreme Court sides with Currituck Co.

There’s nothing wrong with Currituck County’s decision to use some of its hotel-tax revenue to bankroll police, EMS and fire services, the N.C. Supreme Court says. County leaders have the discretion under state law to decide the summer tourist season in northeast North Carolina — when Currituck’s population basically doubles...

By Ray Gronberg

May 28, 2026

Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin