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Budget & Taxes

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

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

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