North Carolina would face a new state constitutional limit on government spending growth, if lawmakers and voters approve a proposal filed Monday in the state House. House Bill 146 is titled the Taxpayer Protection Act.
The 2021 long legislative session was the longest in North Carolina history, lasting from January 2021 into March of this year. During the session, lawmakers faced many complex issues, such as dealing with the ongoing pandemic, passing a biennial budget, and redrawing voting district lines for the next decade. While those issues dominated the headlines,...
When it comes to managing North Carolina’s finances, the conservatives in charge of the legislature are in tune with prevailing public sentiment.
A bill filed in the North Carolina Senate on the traditional April 15 tax deadline day would make tax and spending limits a part of the North Carolina Constitution, if voters approve it in 2022. Sens. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick; Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus; and Warren Daniel, R-Burke, are sponsors of Senate Bill 717, Taxpayer Bill of...
A decade of fiscal responsibility and sustainable government could be squandered unless North Carolina taxpayers build some financial guardrails in the state constitution. A report by the John Locke Foundation says a tax and spending limit needs to be enshrined in the constitution to strengthen the economy, protect taxpayers, and limit growth of government spending....
Legislative leaders removed some of the guesswork for the legislative short session starting May 16 by announcing they agreed to a $23.917 billion spending plan for the 2018-19 state budget. Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, held a teleconference with reporters Monday, May 7, to discuss a $356.7 million budget...
General Assembly budget writers have a monumental challenge this year that they haven’t faced in the past four. A Democrat in the governor’s mansion. “I think there is zero chance that any budget passed by the General Assembly the governor won’t veto, and that we would have to ultimately override,” said Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell,...
DURHAM — Governors’ initial budget proposals rarely resemble the spending plans that finally pass the General Assembly. Early reaction to Gov. Roy Cooper’s proposed $23.5 billion General Fund budget suggests that this tradition will continue. Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, wasted no time in criticizing the plan Cooper rolled out Wednesday at Durham Technical Community College. “If...
The following editorial was published in the November 2016 print edition of Carolina Journal: North Carolina’s office of state controller reported a General Fund surplus of nearly $1 billion in its final report on the 2015-16 fiscal year. As we’ve noted earlier, this surplus is a direct consequence of growth-oriented tax reform and simplification, prudent...
The Republican-led General Assembly in the just-ended 2016 short session maintained spending restraint, created and enlarged fiscal safeguards in case of an economic downturn, granted more income tax relief, moved toward merit pay raises for state employees, resolved coal ash cleanup disputes, and eliminated some health care regulations. Although the $22.34 billion 2016-17 General Fund...
The General Assembly’s so-called short session may be brief indeed, as legislative budget writers have announced an agreement on a total General Fund spending level before either body has put its budget together. Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, and Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, announced on Wednesday that they plan to hold spending for the 2016-17 fiscal...
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