State Government | 2012 Archive

RALEIGH — State lawmakers are pushing to inject more fiscal discipline and better forecasting into Medicaid budgeting to end a series of annual overruns that have required tapping into the state’s General Fund. The shortfall was $200 million two years ago and $600 million last year.

RALEIGH — Four candidates are squaring off in the May 8 Republican primary for the right to challenge incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Elaine Marshall in the November general election.

Natural gas exploration using hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, may be moving forward in North Carolina. The General Assembly is ready to authorize it.

RALEIGH — Not only did Henry McKoy give no indication that he planned to leave; he also did not acknowledge that Secretary Keith Crisco asked for his resignation. Moreover, McKoy insisted that he and Crisco would answer questions from Commerce employees during a conference call with staff sometime next week.

RALEIGH — The Economic Outlook Rank is a forecast based on a state’s current standing in 15 equally weighted policy variables, each of which is influenced directly by state lawmakers. Some of the variables examined are top marginal personal and corporate income tax rates, property tax burden, sales tax burden, estate/inheritance tax, state minimum wage, and right-to-work laws.

RALEIGH — Both Rep. Bill Cook and real estate broker Jerry Evans describe themselves as fiscal conservatives and say government is too intrusive. And both say residents want new blood in the legislative seat held for nearly three decades by Democrat Marc Basnight, the former Senate president pro tem.

RALEIGH — Rep. Stephen LaRoque, R-Lenoir, believes the ruling against the General Assembly’s annexation reforms will not survive an appeal. Meantime, Republican leaders could introduce a law that would repeal nine annexations now under way.

RALEIGH — When Bill Faison decided to forgo running for re-election to the state House and run for governor, few would have predicted that his heavily Democratic district would provoke so much interest from Republicans. The GOP contenders think newly drawn district lines are cause for hope.

RALEIGH — North Carolina owes the federal government $2.8 billion the state borrowed to pay unemployment benefits since the depths of the Great Recession. Fergus Hodgson, John Locke Foundation director of fiscal policy studies, says the Tar Heel State has dug a particularly large fiscal hole for itself. He discussed the issue with Donna Martinez for Carolina Journal Radio.

We’ve fallen pretty far down the slippery slope of abusive government. Let’s start climbing.

RALEIGH — The arrangement under which high state government officials serve as officers of a nonprofit to which they, as state employees, attempt to funnel taxpayer funds has raised some eyebrows.

RALEIGH — As of March 28, eight North Carolina counties and 10 municipalities were listed as principals in the North Carolina General Assembly Lobbying Directory. The local governments are sprinkled among more than 660 lobbyists and 700 principals registered to lobby on behalf of businesses, industries, and advocates for and against specific causes and issues.

RALEIGH — The three Republican candidates say they are for limited government, smaller state budgets, reduced taxes, and eliminating federal intervention and environmental regulations that are destroying the beach-and-tourism economy of House District 6.

RALEIGH — As a system, UNC Health Care and Rex Healthcare reported nearly $250 million in community benefit in 2010, compared with WakeMed’s $180 million. WakeMed officials counter that UNC hospitals are located in Chapel Hill, not Wake County, so much of UNC’s uncompensated care benefits people outside of WakeMed’s service area.

Using public cost as an excuse for intruding on the rights of private individuals is a common temptation. It must be resisted.

RALEIGH — A senior official in the North Carolina Department of Commerce launched a scheme in November to direct more than $2 million in federal funds to a small Raleigh-based nonprofit organization that he chaired last year. Henry McKoy failed to disclose the relationship on his statement of economic interest.

CHAPEL HILL — Nearly 700 placard-waving people filled the East Chapel Hill High School auditorium March 27 and still more were turned away due to crowding. Fifty of the 90-plus people who signed up to speak at the public hearing testified during the lively three-hour proceeding.

RALEIGH — North Carolina would boost economic growth and wealth creation by replacing its existing income tax with a new "flat-rate consumed income tax." That's the prescription the John Locke Foundation's top economist offers in a new Spotlight report.

RALEIGH — Federal officials say they want states to protect employment information while it is protected by an embargo, but they haven’t offered specific guidelines. The government has hired Sandia National Laboratories to review security procedures for federal data.