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Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Budget & Taxes

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

Buncombe jail in arrears to former inmates

Buncombe County jail inmates haven’t always gotten back from the county Sheriff’s Office the money they arrived with, or the money friends and relatives provided for them to use while they were in custody. A probe by State Auditor Dave Boliek’s office found that the jail hadn’t returned, all told, $19,272 to...

By Ray Gronberg

May 22, 2025

A housing compromise in the works?

One of the co-sponsors of the House’s omnibus housing-development bill says he worked out a deal to scale back the proposal to set statewide by-right residential density minimums. House Deputy Majority Whip Jake Johnson, R-Polk, said House Bill 765’s density minimums would now “only apply to the counties with populations...

By Ray Gronberg

May 12, 2025

Tales from the crypto

House members have approved and sent to the Senate a bill that would allow North Carolina’s treasurer to place up to 5% of the state’s investments into cryptocurrency-based exchange-traded funds. Wednesday’s 71-44 vote on a scaled-back version of House Bill 92 followed a 24-minute floor debate that saw opponents maintain...

By Ray Gronberg

May 1, 2025

The push to crossover has begun

But it remains to be seen whether one of the session’s potentially most significant and controversial pieces of legislation, House Bill 765, will make it through the chamber by the (nominal) May 8 deadline. This is the bill that would revamp the state’s land-use laws, to address housing shortages by...

By Ray Gronberg

May 1, 2025

N.C.’s investment kitty, checked

State Auditor Dave Boliek reports that the state treasurer’s office was managing $172.8 billion in cash and investments for the state at the end of 2024, just as Brad Briner was taking over from former Treasurer Dale Folwell. This is the fruit of a statutorily mandated check whenever the treasurer’s...

By Ray Gronberg

May 1, 2025

Poll finds opposition to part of Senate energy bill

A Michigan-based interest group says a poll it commissioned found widespread opposition to the idea of allowing companies like Duke Energy to bill customers for the cost of new power plants while they’re still under construction. Opposition to “construction work in progress” provisions like the one embedded in Senate Bill...

By Ray Gronberg

May 1, 2025

The Senate’s budget, unveiled

The Senate’s budget proposal for the 2025-27 biennium is going to include $638 million in additional funding for the new children’s hospital UNC Health and Duke Health intend to build, Senate leader Phil Berger says. Counting prior appropriations, that would raise the state’s total contribution to the project to $855...

By Ray Gronberg

April 17, 2025

Berger and the budget

The Senate will release its draft of the budget for the 2025-27 biennium Monday night, Senate leader Phil Berger says. Leadership in the Senate and the House has agreed that the budget can grow by 2.75% in fiscal 2025-26 and 2.25% above that in fiscal 2026-27, Berger said. For reference,...

By Ray Gronberg

April 11, 2025

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