North Carolina public school teachers and higher education employees hoping to get a pay raise will have to wait. Perhaps until January. Gov. Roy Cooper, at a Friday, Nov. 7, Executive Mansion news conference, announced a veto of four mini-budgets, including measures giving preK-12 teachers a…
The 2019 session of the N.C. General Assembly began Jan. 9, both in the House and the Senate. The session ended on Halloween, which was Wednesday, Oct. 31. Lawmakers left without a budget, failing to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, which came in June. To date, Cooper has…
Rep. Jeffrey Elmore, R-Wilkes, said one of his teaching colleagues inadvertently took a pay cut. Elmore is the House Education K-12 Committee co-chairman and the only public school teacher in the General Assembly. He said Thursday, Oct. 31, his friend increased the contributions to her retirement…
The House passed a franchise tax cut and expanded film grants despite an attempt to shoot down the expansion of film grants. Rep. Larry Pittman, R-Cabarrus, tried to strip the film tax credits from Senate Bill 578. In the spirit of Halloween, he likened them…
A corporate tax cut expected to pass at the end of the General Assembly’s session surprisingly wound up on the cutting room floor. The House Finance Committee killed a franchise tax reduction bill Wednesday, Oct. 30, even though Republicans, who hold…
Republican lawmakers are forcing their Democratic colleagues to choose between sustaining Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget veto or securing higher teacher pay raises. On Wednesday, Oct. 30, Republicans introduced a mini-budget in the House Education Appropriations Committee covering teacher pay raises. A conference report to Senate Bill…
The vape tax disappeared by the time its mini-budget made it to the House floor. The House Finance Committee sprung an amendment that would tax e-cigarette and vapor products on Senate Bill 557 in committee, Wednesday, Oct. 30. The amendment…
State legislators have sent a tax on vaping to the House. The House Finance Committee amended a mini-budget, Senate Bill 557, Wednesday, Oct. 30, to raise the tax on vaping and send part of the tax revenue toward the Tobacco Use…
One of the most significant documents in N.C. public education is being kept under lock and key. The WestEd report is supposed to restart proceedings in the Leandro court case. After 25 years, the dispute over education opportunities hasn’t found a conclusion. …
Both political camps have to be willing to accept redistricting reform that doesn’t maximize their partisan interests but at least reduces their downside risk while giving voters more intelligible and competitive electoral districts.
