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Budget & Taxes

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

Trustees want $25M in admin cuts at UNC Chapel Hill

Trustees at UNC Chapel Hill have given Chancellor Lee Roberts and his team orders to find $25 million in administrative spending cuts and a green light to start laying off people if necessary to meet that. The move comes at the urging of the board’s Budget committee and its chairman,...

By Ray Gronberg

January 26, 2026

Agencies point out errors in auditor’s lapsed-salary report

State agencies say N.C. Auditor Dave Boliek’s lapsed-salary report is riddled with errors that exaggerate how much money is actually available for legislators to reallocate. These include but go beyond the report’s inclusion of 619 unfunded slots in the state Commerce Department. As previously reported here, many of those are...

By Ray Gronberg

January 20, 2026

Senate negotiators reduce ask for NC Children’s

N.C. Senate budget negotiators appear to have given up on securing $638 million for the proposed NC Children’s Hospital in southern Wake County. Instead, their focus is now on securing $103.5 million for the project’s financing, part of a previous authorisation in 2023 to spend approximately $320 million. UNC Health...

By Ray Gronberg

January 19, 2026

Loophole in property tax exemption costing counties

House Speaker Destin Hall’s property tax committee may embark on a side quest, as it’s hearing complaints about a court-opened loophole that can allow some apartment-complex owners to claim an exemption from local taxation. The concern comes from the N.C. Association of County Commissioners and the Self-Help Credit Union and...

By Ray Gronberg

January 15, 2026

State property tax exemptions costing $2.1B a year

State law already exempts about 12% of all real estate in North Carolina from property taxes, legislative staffers told House Speaker Destin Hall’s tax-reform panel on Wednesday. That amounts to $222 billion in assessed value, out of $1.8 trillion total. All told, the exemptions cost local governments around the state...

By Ray Gronberg

January 15, 2026

Roxboro: Praised for raising property taxes

The Local Government Commission has given Roxboro’s government permission to borrow $922,542 to buy five police cars, a fire truck, a garbage truck and an asphalt roller for street repair. Now, this would ordinarily be newsworthy only in Roxboro, but the LGC sign-off comes amid House Speaker Destin Hall’s push...

By Ray Gronberg

January 7, 2026

Boliek briefs legislators on lapse-salary report

State Auditor Dave Boliek has promised legislators they’ll have his office’s full report on state-agency lapsed salaries next week, after his aides incorporate the responses from each of the departments and programs it covers. Appearing before a joint oversight panel on Tuesday, Boliek also urged them to use the data...

By Ray Gronberg

January 7, 2026

House panel opens review of property tax policy

House Speaker Destin Hall’s marching orders to the legislators he’s assigned to review North Carolina’s property tax system raise the possibility of amending the state constitution to provide relief to taxpayers. That includes looking at the Constitution’s “uniformity requirement,” which is commonly read to mean that all types of property...

By Ray Gronberg

December 18, 2025

Fiscal Research sees a cloudy economic picture

Legislative staffers are expecting pretty much all the state’s key economic indicators to slow in fiscal 2026-27 — just in time for next year’s mid-term elections. Their reckoning, based on numbers obtained from Moody’s Analytics, is that the average unemployment rate in North Carolina for the upcoming fiscal year will increase...

By Ray Gronberg

December 10, 2025

Hall sets up House examination of property taxes

House Speaker Destin Hall has formed a special committee to examine and counter the rise in local-government property taxes. Reps. Julia Howard, R-Davie, Erin Paré, R-Wake, and Mitchell Setzer, R-Catawba, will co-chair the House Select Committee on Property Tax Reduction and Reform. The idea, Hall’s office says, is to “develop...

By Ray Gronberg

December 10, 2025

Briner sees too much volatility in crypto market

State Treasurer Brad Briner and his team are keeping an eye on the digital-assets market, but Briner doesn’t yet see it as something that North Carolina’s retirement funds should invest in. “We have not found their risk and return to be a compelling match for what we’re trying to do...

By Ray Gronberg

December 5, 2025

Potential new town gets favorable LGC opinion

Local Government Commission members voted 6-2 to say they think a new town in Alexander County could be financially viable if legislators allow it to incorporate. But the required advisory opinion about the potential incorporation of Bethlehem came with caveats. One of those, written into its opinion, is that the...

By Ray Gronberg

December 3, 2025

Briner’s team sells $6.4M in Israeli bonds

Back in October, state investment managers sold off $6.4 million in Israeli government bonds. Now, pro-Palestinian activists are claiming this as a victory for their boycott and divestment campaign. “We feel very confident that this decision represents the power of people’s voices from across the state who have called attention...

By Ray Gronberg

December 2, 2025

N.C. retirement system holdings up 10%

North Carolina’s retirement system ended the Sept. 30 fiscal year with $139 billion in assets, an 10% increase from a year earlier. The N.C. Investment Authority reported that the retirement fund had an investment return of about 11%, reflecting “a robust market and strategic decisions.” The retirement funds aim for...

By Ray Gronberg

November 23, 2025

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