_
Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin-in

Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Advertisement

Budget & Taxes

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

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

Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin