Opinion
A Case For Competitive Neutrality
If tax breaks for in-state muni bonds were struck down as unconstitutional, it probably would not have a huge effect in dollar terms. But an important principle would be upheld.
Opinion
You Can Do It, Governor
Veto the bill, Gov. Easley. Fayetteville, the tire industry, and the North Carolina economy will survive.
Opinion
The New School Choice Movement
People can learn about innovative ways to improve education during a March 6 meeting in Raleigh.
Opinion
Standing on the Promises of Law
The cause of combatting corporate welfare has taken two brutal punches in recent days. But by far the more painful one came from a North Carolina court decision that imperils constitutional safeguards.
News
Bills Seek to Protect ‘Work Product’
RALEIGH — A decision last year by a North Carolina appeals court judge preventing government lawyers from concealing much of their work prompted legislators to approve a new law this year that overrides that verdict. But government lobbyists didn’t stop there. They introduced bills that would have allowed state and local agencies to withhold many forms of documentation that have historically been considered public information.
Opinion
No. 865: Easley’s Legacy: Taxes and Secrecy
The Easley administration has little time left to repair its legacy of hoisting taxes and a curtain of secrecy around government.
News
Commerce Settles Public Records Case
RALEIGH — In what is considered a first for state government, the Department of Commerce agreed this week to pay lawyers' fees in order to settle a public records lawsuit that was brought against it. The state agency led by Secretary Jim Fain (who was also named as a defendant) paid plaintiffs Carolina Journal and the North Carolina Press Association $7,500 for their legal expenses related to a suit they filed in January.
Opinion
One Case Ends, Another Begins
On the same day that the NC Institute for Constitutional Law filed suit against the Dell incentives, the US Supreme Court bungled another case involving abuse of government power.
Opinion
Luger Not Loaded This Go Round
The NC Department of Commerce chose not to retain a UNC-Chapel Hill professor to evaluate its main tax-incentives program. Surely this had nothing to do with managing the state’s PR.
Opinion
Keeping It In the Red Zone
Gov. Easley's modest proposal for a cap on state debt has pro-spending interests seeing red — primarily because they want to see North Carolina government more in the red in coming years.
Opinion
No. 810: A New Era of Corporate Welfare in North Carolina?
Dr. Dennis Rondinelli believes that soaring costs and dubious benefits of corporate welfare, such as the Dell deal, will haunt North Carolina for years.
News
Federal Incentives Ruling Will Stand
RALEIGH — The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati last week declined to reconsider a decision by its own three-member panel of judges, who in September struck down certain targeted tax credits as unconstitutional. The next stop for the case — which has drawn major national attention — appears to be an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The State of Ohio and the City of Toledo had petitioned the full 12-member court to rehear the case after the panel declared that economic development incentives given to DaimlerChrysler violated the interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
