It took months of haggling, but a new state budget has been passed and signed into law by Gov. Beverly Perdue. Joe Coletti, the John Locke Foundation’s fiscal and health care policy analyst, assesses the budget’s main components, including nearly $1 billion in tax hikes on everything from cigarettes, beer, digital downloads, and personal and corporate income. He also explains areas that have taken cuts and weighs in on how state employees fared. Then we turn to health care. As politicians and pundits debate the future of health care in America, they often ignore the input of one group of experts: physicians. Dr. Brent Ellmers of Dunn recently shared his concerns about the Obama administration’s health care reform ideas during the Americans for Prosperity ‘Hands Off My Health Care’ tour. You’ll hear highlights from his remarks. Next, the Democrats who run the General Assembly turned to $990 million a year in new tax hikes to help pay for all the programs they wanted in the new state budget. Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, explains why he and his colleagues would have chosen a different budget strategy that would have avoided tax hikes. That’s followed by a discussion about North Carolinians who remain very concerned about forced annexation and eminent domain abuse. Advocates have pushed in recent years for amendments to the state constitution to address the abuse. They say that document should offer more protection of people’s property rights. A recent panel discussion inside the State Capitol explored property rights issues. You’ll hear from Wake Forest University political scientist John Dinan, former N.C. Appeals Court Judge John Tyson, N.C. Property Rights Coalition founder Kieran Shanahan, and property rights attorney Emmett Boney Haywood. And finally, with local elections coming up this fall, we check in with Michael Sanera, the John Locke Foundation’s local government analyst. He discusses the highlights of JLF’s new voter and candidate checklist, which provides guidance on how the philosophy of freedom, free markets, and individual responsibility can be infused into local policies and actions.