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Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Budget & Taxes

Senate Bill 382

Senate Bill 382, which is now heading to the governor’s desk, may not have much to say about hurricane relief but it’s underscored a clear strategy difference between the parties on how to handle the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Democrats like Gov. Roy Cooper and Buncombe County Sen. Julie Mayfield...

By Ray Gronberg

November 21, 2024

Child-care challenges

North Carolina continues to leave money on the table by failing to get its child-care house in order, a new report from the N.C. Department of Commerce argues. Issued on Oct. 23, the “Empowering Work” report notes that the labor-force participation rate of “prime-age” parents of young children declined in...

By Ray Gronberg

October 29, 2024

Some hurricane-related tax relief

House Bill 149, the Helene relief bill, includes a section that’s designed to give people and businesses affected by the hurricane a bit of breathing room on the taxes. One part of that offers a waiver of interest on underpaid state and local taxes of various sorts, including individual income...

By Ray Gronberg

October 11, 2024

The NC Chamber’s legislative scorecard

The N.C. Chamber on Thursday released its annual legislative scorecard, which rates General Assembly members on their votes in support or opposition of bills the group deems important to North Carolina’s business community. It probably doesn’t come as news to anyone by now that this mostly rewards Republicans and penalizes...

By Ray Gronberg

September 27, 2024

Shooting straight dice

Rep. Keith Kidwell, R-Currituck, got an 88% score and the “jobs champion” label despite introducing two bills, House Bills 32 and 393, that the Chamber considers “anti-business.” HB 32 requires a business to credit customers if they don’t show up for scheduled service appointments, and HB 393 is an appliance lemon law....

By Welcome

September 27, 2024

Monday veto-override votes

The Senate conducted veto-override votes on Monday, in the process turning three bills into law and sending two more to the House for final action. Consecutive 27-17, party line votes completed the legislative journeys of House Bills 155, 556 and 690. With six senators absent (three from each party), the...

By Ray Gronberg

September 10, 2024

Two appointments confirmed in Senate

The Senate unanimously confirmed two key appointments by Gov. Roy Cooper during its first voting session of the year Tuesday.

By Ray Gronberg

February 8, 2023

Bill would ban ‘cashless’ businesses

Some businesses have recently started to require customers pay with credit or debit cards – no cash allowed. Rep. Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, and several other House Republicans aren’t fans of the trend.

By Ray Gronberg

January 30, 2023

Grants fund industrial cybersecurity, other courses

To meet employers’ needs in a modern job market, community colleges are trying to go well beyond traditional career readiness offerings like plumbing and welding. But high-tech programs aren’t cheap.

By Ray Gronberg

January 25, 2023

Sports betting fight brews

After a near miss last year, sports betting legislation could be among the first hot topics to come up as the long session cranks up.

By Ray Gronberg

January 25, 2023

GOP leaders call for tax cuts this year

More tax cuts will likely be on the agenda this session, Senate leader Phil Berger said. Berger said in his opening day floor speech that “we must further reduce taxes,” and he gave more details to reporters later Wednesday.

By Ray Gronberg

January 13, 2023

A look at NC’s earmarks in omnibus spending bill

The $1.7 billion “omnibus” federal spending bill sailing through Congress this week includes an estimated 7,200 earmarks (or pork spending, if you prefer) totaling about $15 billion, according to The New York TImes.

By Ray Gronberg

December 27, 2022

Auditor finds most federal COVID funds unspent

How much of the state’s $5.4 billion federal COVID recovery funding windfall has been spent so far? Only a fraction of it, the office of State Auditor Beth Wood found in a report released this week.

By Ray Gronberg

December 22, 2022

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