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Budget & Taxes

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

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

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