I’ve been writing a newspaper column since 1986. During that time, I’ve had occasion to criticize the policies of six North Carolina governors: Jim Martin, Jim Hunt, Mike Easley, Beverly Perdue, Pat McCrory, and Roy Cooper. None has seen fit to have me flogged. An ancestor of mine, William Pendley, wasn’t so lucky. Some years...
N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper signed three bills into law Thursday, Dec. 9, but also vetoed three bills. Getting the veto stamp were House Bill 220, Choice of Energy, and Senate Bill 725, Prohibit Private Money in Elections Administration, which would have banned private groups from funding local elections offices in North Carolina. The issue came...
While laying the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will employ thousands of construction workers for a time, the real payoff will come from permanent jobs and income gains derived from gas access and lower-cost electricity.
The past six years have brought significant change in North Carolina government and policy. Conservatives tend to like the budget restraint, tax cuts, school choice initiatives, and other reforms that the Republican-led legislature and former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory enacted. Progressives tend to dislike them. When it comes to the organization of state government, however,...
The list of 10 nominees released Monday for the UNC Board of Governors includes several names that’ll be familiar to political junkies. Among them is Bob Rucho, the former Mecklenburg County state senator who led the Republican Senate’s tax reform efforts and retired last year from the General Assembly. Rucho also headed the Senate’s redistricting...
Former Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, has been working privately with members of the state’s Republican General Assembly majority to cancel the 2016 elections, Carolina Journal has learned. It’s a revival of an idea Perdue first mentioned four years ago, as her single term as governor wound down. “I got a lot of grief...
John Hood on Obamacare Supreme Court decision's impact on N.C.; legislators debate overriding Gov. Perdue's budget veto and changes to death penalty law in N.C.; legislators on need for more regulatory reform; Becki Gray on the short legislative session
Perdue and Cooper did the wrong thing. They defended a lousy policy because it is their president’s policy. Now it’s their lousy policy, too.
The best economic-development policy is not to focus on individual recruitment prospects but rather to improve the overall business climate.
There’s a big difference between incrementalism and gimmickry. Someone ought to advise Gov. Beverly Perdue of the distinction.
RALEIGH - The state Senate barely passed a measure that will institute a lottery in North Carolina after many years of holding out, while neighboring states had gradually adopted their own games. The majority of Democrats who wanted it were only able to win approval because two Republicans opposed to the lottery were absent: Sen. Harry Brown of Jacksonville and Sen. John Garwood of North Wilkesboro.
