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Budget & Taxes

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

Stein and the legislature

Gov. Josh Stein’s approach to dealing with legislators is winning praise from the top Republicans in both chambers of the General Assembly. Both House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, and Senate leader Phil Berger both say Stein’s doing more outreach than his predecessor, former Gov. Roy Cooper. Stein “has communicated more...

By Ray Gronberg

April 4, 2025

All about DAVE

For Senate leaders, Wednesday was all about Dave — Boliek, the state auditor, and DAVE, the legislation President Pro Tem Phil Berger is personally sponsoring to further task the auditor. Given Berger’s involvement, it was no surprise that the Senate’s new Regulatory Reform committee quickly endorsed the so-called DAVE Act,...

By Ray Gronberg

April 3, 2025

Senate bill filings and housing

This week’s Senate bill-filing deadline brought forth hundreds of new or recycled legislative proposals, including quite a few that address the shortfall of housing that business groups like the NC Chamber have called out. In the interests of brevity, let’s look at just a couple of the housing-related bills. Sens....

By Ray Gronberg

March 28, 2025

Treasurer’s investment revamp filed

State Treasurer Brad Briner’s said on numerous occasions that he thinks the state needs to move away from the “single fiduciary” model for managing its investments. Now, there are bills pending to operationalize this. House Bill 506 and Senate Bill 709 are substantively identical, and may even be literally so...

By Ray Gronberg

March 27, 2025

Stein seeks money for DMV staff, office additions

Gov. Josh Stein is asking legislators to take a stab at addressing the Division of Motors Vehicles’ problems by hiring more license examiners and opening a few more license bureaus. His budget request for the 2025-27 biennium seeks a recurring appropriation of $2.6 million over the next two years to...

By Ray Gronberg

March 21, 2025

Pensions

State Treasurer Brad Briner’s and Gov. Josh Stein’s aides are at odds about the governor’s 2025-27 biennium budget request, which Briner’s team sees as shortchanging the state’s pension system. Via a news release, Briner said he was “disappointed the governor is proposing for only the second time in 83 years to not fully...

By Ray Gronberg

March 21, 2025

Stein’s budget

Gov. Josh Stein’s suggested budget for the 2025-27 biennium is out, and even though it’s dead on arrival in the GOP-dominated legislature, there are still things to learn from it. These start with its economic outlook, which posits that wage growth and consumer spending in North Carolina are both going...

By Ray Gronberg

March 20, 2025

REINS Act would change regulatory approvals

House members have advanced a bill that would require explicit General Assembly approval of any state regulation that’s likely to have an economic impact of $1 million or more in any given year. Legislative approval would supplement, not supplant, the existing process that now ends with the state’s Rules Review Commission,...

By Ray Gronberg

March 19, 2025

Transylvania looking to boost Ecusta redevelopment

There’s a move afoot to set up a rural development authority in Transylvania County to facilitate the redevelopment of the former Ecusta Mill site near Brevard. But the idea comes with a twist, namely that instead of using existing law that allows some counties to set up such an organization...

By Ray Gronberg

March 12, 2025

Senate seeks repeal of interim carbon-reduction goal

Senate leaders are pushing forward a bill that would eliminate the 2030 “interim goal” of a 70% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from North Carolina’s power plants. The proposal is embedded in Senate Bill 261, which would also give power providers more latitude to seek permission to pass on to...

By Ray Gronberg

March 12, 2025

SEANC battling crypto bill

One thing that I’ve skated past in previous coverage of House Speaker Destin Hall’s proposal to allow the state treasurer to invest cash in crypto ETFs is that the State Employees Association of North Carolina opposes the bill. SEANC lobbyist Flint Benson told members of the House Commerce committee last...

By Ray Gronberg

March 10, 2025

Crypto update

The thing about speed humps is, once they’re in the rear view, you can hit the gas. So it seems for House Bill 92, House Speaker Destin Hall’s proposal to give North Carolina’s treasurer permission to invest a portion the state’s cash reserves in cryptocurrency ETFs. It cleared House Commerce...

By Ray Gronberg

March 6, 2025

Digital assets

One of House Speaker Destin Hall’s flagship pieces of legislation hit a speed bump in the chamber’s Commerce and Economic Development committee after two of the panel’s Republicans voiced qualms. House Bill 92 would allow the state treasurer to invest up to 10% of the excess cash in some of...

By Ray Gronberg

March 5, 2025

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