Opinion
Fiscal cliff or political posturing?
Stein and company’s fearmongering is highly premature and irresponsible.
Video
Carolina Journal’s Donna King assesses NC budget stalemate
Donna King, Carolina Journal editor-in-chief, discusses the latest developments in North Carolina’s state budget debate. King offered these comments during the June 14, 2024, edition of PBS North Carolina’s “State Lines.”
Opinion
A rebate to taxpayers? Let’s pay down debt instead
Some legislators have proposed that the General Assembly send some tax money back to us. That sounds like fun. I have another idea: Use whatever money is in mind to pay down state debt. State debt currently stands at $8 billion. This would not change the state balance sheet. It would reduce the chance of...
Video
Carolina Journal’s Donna King assesses changing NC budget surplus numbers
Donna King, Carolina Journal editor-in-chief, discusses the potential impact of a smaller North Carolina state budget surplus than officials had projected. King offered these comments during the May 10, 2024, edition of PBS North Carolina’s “State Lines.”
Opinion
Give it back
Last week the non-partisan Fiscal Research Division of the North Carolina General Assembly forecast yet another $1 billion+ surplus in anticipated tax revenues for the 2024–2025 fiscal year. That’s on top of the $400+ million in surplus collections for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. The news, the latest in a decade-long run of tax revenue surpluses,...
News
State Senate to propose 10-year, $12 billion alternative to bond package
State Senate leaders will propose spending $3 billion over the next two years on capital and infrastructure projects. That money is part of a larger 10-year, $12 billion “cash” plan tied to the Senate’s budget. Senators teased the capital plan as they announced a 2 p.m. Monday news briefing about their 2021-23 budget proposal. Senate...
News
Legislative leaders tout half-billion-dollar state surplus
North Carolina should end the budget year more than a half-billion dollars above revenue projections, and House and Senate Republican leadership swiftly credited their tax-cutting, and regulatory-relief policies for the positive budget news. The General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division and the Office of State Budget and Management released a consensus report Thursday projecting 2016-17 tax...
Opinion
Surplus and Scarcity Go Hand in Hand
Scarcity and surplus seem like opposite concepts, and they are often confused. But surplus is not the opposite of scarcity, and a surplus good is not the opposite of a scarce good. There's no paradox here: take Christmas trees, for example. Fresh-cut Christmas trees, an icon of the holiday season, are a highly desirable consumer item, at least through Christmas Eve.
