News

One indebted county gets reprieve, but others around state facing financial catastrophe

North Carolina will make sure Tyrrell County won’t default on its debt, but the intervention buys just one year.  Tyrrell County borrowed millions to build a reverse osmosis water plant and a new water tank to support its state prison in the late 2000s. But the N.C. Department of Public Safety shuttered Tyrrell Prison Work...

Julie Havlak
News

Critics warn against plan to allow city-owned broadband systems

The North Carolina League of Municipalities is making a push to allow local governments to build broadband infrastructure and lease it to private internet service providers, but critics warn the plan would harm taxpayers’ pocketbooks. The league tried and failed to get the same concept through the North Carolina General Assembly as part of the...

Johnny Kampis
News

N.C. retains AAA bond rating even with tax cap amendment on ballot

A constitutional amendment capping the state’s top income tax rate at 7 percent didn’t seem to spook national bond-rating agencies, state Treasurer Dale Folwell said. The three agencies recently reaffirmed the state’s AAA bond rating. Folwell made the announcement about the bond rating Wednesday, July 11. He noted North Carolina is one of only 13...

Dan Way
News

Fate of municipal sales-tax option uncertain

A Republican-sponsored bill in the General Assembly could allow the first ever municipal sales taxes in North Carolina. House Bill 900, sponsored by Reps. Stephen Ross, R-Alamance, and Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, would allow a municipality to hold a voter referendum on the adoption of a sales and use tax of 0.25 percent. The bill’s stated purpose is...

Will Rierson

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