Legislative leaders released highlights of a $24 billion spending plan for 2019-20 while girding for a budget battle with Gov. Roy Cooper. Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, held a news conference with legislative budget chairmen Tuesday, June 25. They…
Legislative leaders are calling Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget bluff. Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, are refusing to release a state budget prepared by negotiators from both chambers until the Democratic governor presents a counter offer. …
Senators opposing North Carolina’s onerous certificate-of-need laws have no plans to stop pushing reforms. “I am still committed to CON reform, and we will make it happen,” Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, told Carolina Journal on Friday, June 21. “We look forward to…
House Bill 389 could soon become law. The Senate/Higher Education Committee on Wednesday, June 5, approved the bill, introduced in the Senate as S.B. 296. It passed the House, 88-24, April 16. The bill heads to the Senate Commerce Committee.
The N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control system — created in 1937 in the wake of the repeal of Prohibition — for the past 80-plus years has remained mostly static. But this may soon change, as lawmakers have offered several proposals to repair the broken, outdated system. …
The Senate’s proposed biennial General Fund budget includes the largest pay raises for state employees in more than a decade, but doesn’t include a cost-of-living increase for state retirees. Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and top appropriations chairmen held a news conference Tuesday, May 28, to…
In 2011, Thom Tillis, Phil Berger, and the Republican leadership in the N.C. General Assembly removed the 100-school school cap included in the 1996 law that authorized the creation of charter schools, which are tuition-free public schools that have more freedom than district-run public schools. Removing the cap, along with…
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the folks on Jones Street. After a week of subcommittee meetings, full appropriation consideration, input from the finance side, two rare Friday sessions, and two full days of debate, on Friday, May 3, the House passed its $23.9 billion General…
A pair of bills representing steps toward reforming the way North Carolina governs alcohol are on the House calendar for Tuesday, April 16. The bills easily passed the House Rules Committee on Monday and should face little opposition. One bill would give a boost…
In 2011, a then-new Republican majority in the N.C. General Assembly was alarmed at an expensive new trend in local government. Residents in Wilson, Salisbury, Mooresville, Davidson, and Morganton were being hit with higher taxes and even electricity and water rates as their cities were bleeding money. Why? To…
