RALEIGH — The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill aimed at beefing up the state’s rainy day fund. “It takes North Carolina from frankly one of the weaker savings regiments of any state to what the Pew Center believes will be one of the strongest,” said Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, the sponsor of...
Editor’s note: This measure was repealed on Wednesday when the House adopted the budget. Rep. Tine offered an amendment removing the funding to purchase the plane with a provision that the General Assembly would attempt to find the money from the General Fund or other sources. The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, after considerable debate,...
RALEIGH — The election night tally back in 1988 showed that Jim Martin was the first Republican to win re-election as governor of North Carolina in the 20th century. That fact alone merits a closer look at Martin’s record, but it’s far from the only reason that John Locke Foundation Chairman John Hood has written the new political biography Catalyst: Jim Martin and the Rise of North Carolina Republicans. Hood discussed the book with Mitch Kokai for Carolina Journal Radio.
RALEIGH — Despite their political differences, a Republican governor, Democratic state Senate, and a House split politically because of the recent ouster of its longtime leader all joined forces in 1989 to create North Carolina’s Highway Trust Fund. Former House Speaker Joe Mavretic detailed the fund’s political history during a presentation Monday for the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society.
RALEIGH — Eastern North Carolina traffic planners are in the process of deciding whether to add tolls to ferries that operate up and down the coast, or to divert money for their eventual replacements from the money allocated in their divisional highway budget. State lawmakers in 2013 gave local officials the option.
RALEIGH — Gov. Pat McCrory unveiled his first budget Wednesday that would spend $20.6 billion in the next fiscal year, an increase of about 2.2 percent over the current fiscal year’s General Fund budget. The total state budget, including federal funds, fee collections, and other revenues, is $49.6 billion.
RALEIGH — The John Locke Foundation’s new Agenda 2012 Policy Report offers more than 100 recommendations addressing such critical public policy goals as boosting taxpayers' job prospects, improving children's education, and reducing overly high taxes and burdensome regulations.
RALEIGH — An evenly split N.C. Supreme Court means that a lower-court ruling stands against former Gov. Mike Easley in a dispute over the governor's power to shift money out of the state's Highway Trust Fund. The state's highest court issued its unsigned opinion this morning. It explains that justices deadlocked 3-3 on the issues surrounding the dispute.
RALEIGH — State tax-supported debt nationwide increased by 10.3 percent in 2009 to $460 billion, more than double the rate in 2008, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Moody’s attributed part of this increase to the Build America Bonds program.
RALEIGH — Gov. Bev Perdue announced Monday an innovative public-private partnership — the first of its kind in North Carolina history — designed to accelerate completion of the conflict-ridden Interstate 485 outer loop in Charlotte.
RALEIGH — North Carolina drivers would pay higher taxes and fees, tolls on some of the state’s busiest roads, and a new charge tied to every mile they drive, if the next General Assembly adopts ideas percolating through the 21st Century Transportation Committee. That committee could adopt those ideas next week.
