Both parties should prioritize savings
Prudently and methodically, the General Assembly has spent years building up financial reserves even as critics faulted lawmakers for saving dollars rather than spending them.
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.
Phil Berger said he wasn’t against working with Cooper and Democrats. But he rejected Roy Cooper's notion that the 1990s were the good old days to which North Carolina should retreat as quickly as possible.
Since North Carolina politics became truly competitive, Democrats have tended to outperform their presidential nominees while Republicans have tended to underperform theirs.
The data show that gains in North Carolina student performance were smaller after Gov. Hunt's teacher-pay hike than they were before it.
How could the NC electorate show no stronger level of support for Jim Hunt, a significant political figure since the 1970s, than they do for Scottie McCreery.