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Budget & Taxes

NCORR “a disaster from the start,” audit says

State Auditor Dave Boliek’s review of the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency is complete, and it should come as no surprise that he and his staff are sharply critical of its work. In the wake of Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, NCORR “has been a source of hardship” for many...

By Ray Gronberg

November 20, 2025

Auditor sees $386 million in unspent salary money at DHHS

State Auditor Dave Boliek on Tuesday waded into the middle of the Stein administration’s debate with legislators about Medicaid funding, issuing a report that claims DHHS had $386 million in lapsed salaries in fiscal 2024-25. Source-wise, $151 million of that came from state appropriations and $235 million from other sources...

By Ray Gronberg

November 19, 2025

Auditor reports on spend-down of COVID stimulus

As of the end of fiscal 2023-24, about 54% of a $5.4 billion chunk of money that came North Carolina’s way from the Biden administration’s pandemic-recovery stimulus bill had yet to be disbursed, Auditor Dave Boliek’s office says. Its legislatively mandated, biennial review of the State Fiscal Recovery Fund found...

By Ray Gronberg

November 18, 2025

Redistricting complete

State Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, says he’s going to continue running for the First District Congressional seat, following this week’s realignment of the First’s boundaries with the Third District. Approved in party line votes in the General Assembly, the redistricting moved four counties out of the First District into the...

By Ray Gronberg

October 24, 2025

Rebase quarrel continues

House and Senate Republicans opened a new front this week in their finger-pointing about who bears responsibility for their budgetary deadlock, extending it to take in the so-called Medicaid rebase. This, you’ll recall, is the expected shortfall in state support for the program that prompted the Stein administration to order...

By Ray Gronberg

October 23, 2025

Mini-budget addresses NC Promise tuition

Speaking of mini-budgets, the count of those is now three. Legislators have passed and sent to the governor a revised version of Senate Bill 449, which raises out-of-state tuition for the four “NC Promise” schools in the UNC System. The bill cleared the Senate on a 46-0 vote on Tuesday....

By Ray Gronberg

October 22, 2025

Hall: Budget deal unlikely this year

North Carolina’s House-Senate budget deadlock continues, and House Speaker Destin Hall now believes a resolution is unlikely by the end of the year. Calendar 2025 “probably will end without a full-on budget,” Hall said, alluding to the series of “mini-budget” bills the chambers have passed as stopgaps. Hall said he...

By Ray Gronberg

October 22, 2025

Reg reform bill takes effect

Gov. Josh Stein let this year’s regulatory reform omnibus, House Bill 926, become law without his signature. So its removal of UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Asheville and Appalachian State from local land-use controls is now in effect. But as the folks at the N.C. Association of County Commissioners have pointed...

By Ray Gronberg

October 7, 2025

Economic development via mini-budgets

A series of Senate “mini-budget” bills includes money for several economic development deals, some announced, some not. House Bill 358 includes $51 million for a project in Hertford County that would pay for the construction of a “publicly owned dock” and a road to service it that can accommodate “industrial...

By Ray Gronberg

September 23, 2025

UNC campuses, taxed

UNC System leaders are poised to take nearly $6.9 million from UNC Chapel Hill’s state-supplied revenue and redistribute the money to 12 of the state’s other public universities. Winston-Salem State, UNC Asheville and the UNC School of the Arts would also lose small amounts of money ($253,288, $177,831 and $75,894,...

By Ray Gronberg

September 16, 2025

Berger shuffles oversight appointments

Senate leader Phil Berger and his staff rolled out the chamber’s new joint-oversight committee assignments on Tuesday. Perhaps the biggest changes are to the Senate’s representation on the Revenue Laws Study Committee, which is getting some high-level new members despite having been relatively inactive in recent years. Deputy President Pro...

By Ray Gronberg

August 20, 2025

Tourism dollars can create friction

Whoever said taxes don’t go down? In late June, Duplin County agreed to cut its room tax from 6% to 4.5%, which will reduce collections to less than $200,000 annually. Under a state law applicable to the eastern N.C. county, that enabled its commission to dissolve the Duplin County Tourism...

By David Mildenberg

August 19, 2025

Stein signs law revamping N.C. investment oversight

Gov. Josh Stein has signed into law House Bill 506, which revamps the way North Carolina and its treasurer will manage the state’s investments going forward. Stein said the bill — which in its final form passed the Senate 40-0 and the House 113-0 — brings North Carolina into “line with...

By Ray Gronberg

June 16, 2025

House Dems split on energy bill

A 75-36 House vote has put the session’s major energy policy bill back in the hands of the Senate. Senate Bill 266 would do away with the state’s 70% interim carbon-reduction goal, and make it easier for Duke Energy to incorporate the cost of building new power plants into its rates...

By Ray Gronberg

June 12, 2025

Boliek rains on a shower

State Auditor Dave Boliek’s staff estimates that it cost the state $27.4 million for a Texas-based contractor to install and operate a “community care station” in Swannanoa in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The station opened last Oct. 23 at Swannanoa’s Owen Pool, operated for 189 days and provided showers, restrooms, a...

By Ray Gronberg

June 6, 2025

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