RALEIGH — Regulation costs already reach at least $3.1 billion annually in North Carolina and might stretch to as much as $25 billion. A new John Locke Foundation Policy Report focuses on a tool designed to "rein in" state regulatory overreach. That tool is a state-level Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny, or REINS, Act.
RALEIGH — State regulations cost North Carolina at least $3.1 billion and as much as $25 billion each year, according to a new economic analysis compiled for the John Locke Foundation. The $3.1 billion figure combines $1.275 billion in state fees and budget appropriations, along with $1.831 billion in private-sector compliance costs.
RALEIGH — While Duke Energy is passing higher costs to ratepayers because state law forces it to purchase renewable energy, the utility also claimed $62.8 million in tax write-offs in 2014 for its own investments in green power projects.
RALEIGH — The House on Tuesday approved a Senate bill that would extend the state’s 35 percent renewable energy tax credit — set to expire at the end of 2015 — by one year to allow several major solar farms to hook up to the power grid. Over five years, the solar companies could collect as much as $183 million in tax credits. Senate Bill 372 now heads to Gov. Pat McCrory.
RALEIGH — The study by Strata Policy determined that higher costs resulting from North Carolina’s renewable energy use limited the average family’s potential income growth by $3,870, cut electricity purchases by industrial customers by nearly 14 percent, and will continue to penalize commercial consumers, “posing potential threats to the competitiveness of North Carolina's commercial business base.”
RALEIGH — Taxpayers in every income category will save tens of millions of dollars because of state tax reforms enacted in North Carolina in 2013. In addition to benefits for every income group from last year’s reforms, the conservative-led N.C. General Assembly is also responsible for a 2011 states sales tax rate reduction. Combine the 2011 and 2013 reforms, and lower- and middle-income households will enjoy annual savings of $682 million. Dr. Roy Cordato, John Locke Foundation vice president for research and resident scholar, discussed a report on the impact of recent state tax reforms with Donna Martinez for Carolina Journal Radio.
RALEIGH — Taxpayers in every income category will save tens of millions of dollars because of state tax reforms enacted in North Carolina in 2013. Combining 2013 reforms with a 2011 sales-tax decline pushed by the Republican-led General Assembly, lower- and middle-income households will enjoy annual savings of $682 million, according to a new John Locke Foundation Spotlight report.
RALEIGH — Affluent North Carolina residents who put solar panels on their rooftops are being subsidized by lower-income customers because of the state’s renewable energy subsidies and regulations, the president of Duke Energy North Carolina told a legislative panel Tuesday.
RALEIGH — House Public Utilities and Energy Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Hager, R-Rutherford, said he was surprised to see how deeply entrenched “green” corporate welfare has become in North Carolina, which also played a role in his failed attempt to usher House Bill 298, the Affordable and Reliable Energy Act, through the committee process.
RALEIGH — The Senate bill would cap state-mandated utility generation of renewable energy at 3 percent of total use, and eliminate the mandate and its subsidies after 2023. The House alternative would allow the mandate to rise to 12.5 percent and then end in 2021. The support of House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, is uncertain.
RALEIGH — A handful of House Republicans dealt a stunning blow to state Rep. Mike Hager’s bill to phase out slowly North Carolina’s subsidies, tax credits, and purchase mandates propping up renewable energy companies. Six Republicans voted against the Affordable and Reliable Energy Act in Hager’s committee Wednesday, helping to sink it on a 13-18 vote.
