Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, used Gov. Roy Cooper’s own words to urge him to sign a $23 billion General Fund budget, reminding him the N.C. Constitution gives more power to the General Assembly than the executive branch. Flanked by large posters — one with…
Certificate-of-need reforms were left out of the final budget compromise passed by the General Assembly. But backers aren’t giving up on curtailing or ending the regulation that forces medical providers to get permission from the government to make major new investments. Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, successfully inserted a phased-in…
Distillers in North Carolina aren’t quite ready to extend their arms in a celebratory toast, but they’ve certainly opened the bottle and dropped some ice in the glass. Senate Bill 155, omnibus legislation loosening rules on North Carolina distillers and brewers, is headed to the House Finance Committee. The…
Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican legislative leaders seemed to be discussing two different documents when they spoke to reporters this week about the General Assembly’s budget conference report. Cooper lashed out at legislative Republicans on Tuesday, calling their compromise $23 billion spending plan possibly “the most fiscally irresponsible budget I…
Most sports fans enjoy the competition and entertainment. In recent years, they have been forced to endure left-of-center political messaging as well. John Locke Foundation Senior Vice President Jon Pritchett and Duke University professor Ed Tiryakian discussed the impact of the left’s “hijacking” of the sports industry during a presentation…
Former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory says Roy Cooper, his Democratic successor, is repaying his trial lawyer campaign contributors by hiring them for expensive, politically motivated lawsuits against the GOP-led General Assembly. In a wide-ranging interview with Carolina Journal, McCrory also accused Cooper of massive firings of people hired during McCrory’s…
Kory Swanson, John Locke Foundation president and CEO, discusses changes to the federal Dodd-Frank financial regulations. Swanson offered these comments during the June 16, 2017, edition of the N.C. Channel’s “Bottom Line.”…
Sen. Andy Wells, R-Catawba, wants know how much state taxpayer money agencies are spending for unintended purposes. During debate Thursday on House Bill 403, Wells joined other senators in criticizing the nearly $1 billion in reserve funds held by the seven state-designated Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations. The LME/MCOs administer regional services for mental…
Patients deserve better access to both life-saving and life-preserving health-care treatments. Which means physicians, hospitals, and other health care facilities should be able to invest in their communities to address unmet patient demand for critical services such as kidney dialysis units, cost-effective surgery, neonatal intensive care units, nursing homes, and much, much, more.
A jarring supply of opioids is flooding North Carolina. Sen. Tom McInnis, R-Richmond, said if all of the opioid pills prescribed in the past 12 months were counted, “every man woman and child would have a bottle of 100 in their hand. This is an excessive amount of these very,…
