Gov. Roy Cooper has appointed Jessica Holmes, former chair of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, as interim North Carolina State Auditor. Holmes will serve the remainder of outgoing State Auditor Beth Wood’s term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2024.
A former North Carolina state senator joins the growing list of candidates for the 2024 Republican nomination for state auditor.
UPDATED, 8:46 a.m. Republican John Alexander may have kept his seat in Senate District 18. The most recent count from the state elections board shows Alexander defeating Mack Paul by roughly 2,500 votes. Gov. Roy Cooper will have some new partners at the negotiating table in 2019: The Republican majority in the state Senate will...
The Senate gave tentative approval to House Bill 1092, a constitutional amendment requiring photo identification to vote in North Carolina elections. Senators also voted 46-0 to approve House Bill 335, restoring the last Saturday before the 2018 general election to the early voting schedule. The House later voted 99-2 to concur with the change. Senators...
Republican state Senate candidates spent 21 percent more than Democrats heading into the May 8 primary and have more than twice as much cash on hand for the Nov. 6 general election. Senate leadership typically raised the most, a 2018 first quarter campaign analysis by the N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation says. But four Democratic candidates cracked...
Legislative Republicans and Democrats bristled at excuses Department of Health and Human Services officials gave Tuesday over their failure to create a mandated watchdog program. “Do you understand how frustrating this is for the members of the General Assembly? Three years now we have required the creation of an office,” Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, said...
Legislation to provide surplus computers to students from low-income homes has passed the General Assembly. Republican Sens. Jeff Tarte, R-Mecklenburg; Andrew Brock, R-Davie; and Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell; sponsored Senate Bill 312. Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee on Information Technology, sponsored a similar version of the bill in the House. “This will benefit students...
A jarring supply of opioids is flooding North Carolina. Sen. Tom McInnis, R-Richmond, said if all of the opioid pills prescribed in the past 12 months were counted, “every man woman and child would have a bottle of 100 in their hand. This is an excessive amount of these very, very addictive chemicals that cause...
RALEIGH — Craft beer is on tap at the state legislature, where lawmakers have introduced three bills to roll back laws that stifle unprecedented growth in the brewing industry. On Tuesday, Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, announced House Bill 500, which would allow local beer operations to self-distribute up to 200,000 barrels of their product. Current...
Opponents of the proposed high-occupancy-or-toll lane project along Interstate 77 sense a bit of momentum after a bill ordering the N.C. Department of Transportation to cancel the project’s contract overwhelmingly passed the House. Now they’re turning their focus on the state Senate. One opponent of the HOT lanes project, Sen. Jeff Tarte, R-Mecklenburg, point to...
RALEIGH — A legislative oversight committee on Wednesday voted to consider measures aimed at reducing the $25.5 billion unfunded liability in the state retiree health benefit fund. Kiernan McGorty, principal program evaluator for the legislature’s Program Evaluation Division, said options to reduce the liability include increasing taxpayer subsidies to the fund, raising premiums for active employees, or requiring retirees to cover more of their insurance costs.
