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Budget & Taxes

Every UNC university with athletics subsidizes it

Not a single one of the UNC System’s schools is able to pay for intercollegiate athletics with just the revenue its teams bring in — and they’re all subsidizing their programs in some way from the academic side of the house. With sports-related expenses likely to rise, the situation calls...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2026

Lottery and online games: Big growth, low return

The N.C. Education Lottery’s fastest-growing new offerings also generate the lowest rate of return for North Carolina’s schools, State Auditor Dave Boliek and his team say. Online “digital instant games” account for all the growth in lottery revenues from fiscal 2023-24 onwards, Boliek’s team says in a new performance audit....

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

Major cities to get more LGC scrutiny

Touting it as a major shift, State Treasurer Brad Briner and his aides say they’re going to subject North Carolina’s largest cities to the same level of financial oversight as its smaller ones. “Financial concerns should be taken seriously regardless of the size of the local government,” Briner says. They...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

Boliek has questions for N.C. Housing Finance

State Auditor Dave Boliek says the Local Government Commission should more closely scrutinize the borrowing requests it fields from the N.C. Housing Finance Agency. Boliek briefly held up but ultimately joined other commissioners in supporting the agency’s latest request, permitting it to issue up to $1.25 billion in revenue bonds...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

Appeals courts split on prediction-market sports betting

Former North Carolina U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry may think prediction markets like Kalshi aren’t handling sports bets in the traditional sense, but a panel of West Coast judges appointed by President Trump disagrees. Ruling on Friday, Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ryan Nelson and two of his colleagues...

By Ray Gronberg

September 21, 2026

North Carolina sports wagering in the spotlight

The return of its sports-betting market makes North Carolina a state to watch among those that have legalized gambling, the online publication SportsBoomsays. June’s total of $589.6 million in total wagers — a figure that includes sportsbook promotional offers — was 36.1% higher than it was a year ago. North...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Avery town used an unlicensed contractor for park work

Officials in Newland, a town of about 715 people in Avery County, gave $418,658 in maintenance work to a contractor who wasn’t properly licensedfor the job, State Auditor Dave Boliek says. It also looks like the contractor defied a stop-work order Avery County officials slapped on a park-repair project after...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Chamber report calls for repealing franchise tax

A new report commissioned by the NC Chamber contends state leaders should repeal North Carolina’s franchise tax on business net worth, arguing that it punishes innovative start-ups that have yet turn a profit. The tax is expected to raise $851.2 million in fiscal 2026-27, according to the state budget. That’s...

By Ray Gronberg

August 27, 2026

Auditors: CATS riders jump fares as often as not

As of late 2025, about 45% of the people who ride Charlotte’s buses and trains weren’t paying the CATS system’s fares, State Auditor Dave Boliek and his aides say. This costs the system between $5 million and $6.5 million a year in revenue, they say, basing both findings on the...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2026

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

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