A healthcare bill passed unanimously during the long session creates additional protections for people covered by health benefit plans. The bill also contains protections designed to help smaller pharmacies compete with large pharmaceutical companies. “This bill will assist independent pharmacies by allowing them to provide more information to their patients regarding the amount of the […]
North Carolina will send a statue of the late Reverend Billy Graham to represent our state in the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. The collection of 100 statues honors two notable people from each of the 50 states. House Bill 540, passed overwhelmingly by the General Assembly in 2015, authorizes that a statue of Reverend Graham be […]
The Reverend Billy Graham died just before 8am this morning. He was 99 years old. Born on November 7, 1918 in Charlotte, William F. Graham was of Scottish descent, the son of William Franklin and Morrow Coffey Graham. The Grahams were dairy farmers, and young Billy was reared on their farm approximately four miles from […]
Standing on the grounds of our state capitol in Raleigh is a life-sized statue of George Washington, whose birthday we remember in what has come to be known as “Presidents’ Day.” The bronze figure, by French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, quietly tells a remarkable story that eclipses all the mythology that famously surrounds our nation’s first […]
In an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 104 to 112 vote Tuesday afternoon, the legislature passed legislation requiring money in a $58 million special fund be distributed to eight school districts in Eastern North Carolina that are along the path of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. House Bill 90 drew praise from local education leaders in the pipeline’s corridor, […]
The future of self-driving cars is upon us, and the North Carolina General Assembly is, well, paving the way. With a bipartisan and near-unanimous vote during the short session, our state legislature passed House Bill 469 into law, regulating the operation of fully autonomous vehicles — if and when they become available in our state. […]
Fraud prevention laws recently enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly are guarding against identity theft and protecting millions in state revenue from scammers this tax season. The state Department of Revenue (DOR) attributed an 18% uptick in cases of identified fraud and a 20% uptick in savings for the 2016-2017 Fiscal Year to the […]
Legislators are hearing a lot about the class size issue. To read some letters to the editor (and most of my emails from people on the subject), one would assume that the legislature changed the rules and now needs to pay for the class size changes it has mandated. The problem with that narrative is […]
The legislature will be in session next week. What exactly is being taken up is unclear, although it appears it may include redistricting of some sort. The legislature is awaiting a decision from a three-judge panel of federal judges considering the constitutionality of legislative districts drawn after the original districts were found to be unconstitutional […]
North Carolina is one of sixteen states well-prepared for a financial recession according to an economic study released this month by researchers at Moody’s Analytics. North Carolina has a record $1.5 billion savings reserve and has significantly improved its tax structure under a Republican-led state legislature. Moody’s Analytics provides financial insights on capital markets and […]
The legislature was in session early in October to take up several bills and veto overrides and, after Governor Cooper vetoed one of the bills passed in that session, was back for a one day session mid-October to override the veto. The adjournment resolution is interesting in that we will reconvene “the 2017 Regular Session […]
The ability of voting groups to form a recognized political party in North Carolina just got a whole lot easier. Senate Bill 656, the Electoral Freedom Act of 2017, lowers the threshold for establishing a recognized political party in a number of ways. The bill also makes it easier for unaffiliated candidates to participate in […]
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released wage data estimating North Carolina had the fourth fastest household income growth in the nation during 2016. According to the Census Bureau study, North Carolina’s median household income was $50,584 in 2016 — up 4.5 percent from last year after adjusting for inflation. North Carolina’s wage growth ranked substantially […]
The recently completed two-day session resulted in the passage of several noteworthy laws and bills on regulatory reform, judicial redistricting, electronic notice and the budget. My focus is going to be on only two of those bills, but I’ll cover those other bills in future blogs. Senate Bill 16 [Business Regulatory Reform Act of 2017] […]
The Republicans have enjoyed majorities in both bodies of the General Assembly for nearly seven years now, and pretty soon Phil Berger and Tim Moore will be asking for two more. This is an appropriate time to assess their performance on the economy. Even under the Perdue and Cooper governorships, policy outputs were shaped greatly […]
The adjournment resolution, SJR 692, provides that bills “proposing an amendment or amendments to the North Carolina Constitution and containing no other matter” and bills “proposing an amendment or amendments to the North Carolina Constitution and containing no other matter other than statutory conforming changes to implement such bills” may be heard when the legislature […]
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has declared a State of Emergency for all 100 counties as the state prepares for almost certain impacts from Hurricane Irma early next week. “There is a lot we still don’t know about this storm, but we do know that North Carolina can expect to feel some sort of effects […]
This week, Rep. Chris Millis (R-Pender) resigned from the NC House. Resignations aren’t that usual, but this one is noteworthy because Millis was one of the younger Members, and cited the need to spend more time with family, when announcing his resignation. His resignation came after the legislature came back in session for the second […]
Twelve years ago today, former Governor Mike Easley signed legislation establishing the so-called “North Carolina Education Lottery.” From the very start, the proposal sharply divided the public; opponents considered the lottery a regressive, thinly-disguised tax on the poor — and the way the controversial bill became law is a case study in political shenanigans. During […]
North Carolina’s unemployment rate dropped once again to 4.1 percent in July, decreasing 0.1 percentage points from June and remaining below the national average of 4.3 percent. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, most economists consider full employment (otherwise known as the “Nonaccelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment,” or NAIRU) to be in […]
Four months after being overwhelmingly passed in the House, the Restore Campus Free Speech Act has become law. House Bill 527 is bipartisan ‘campus free speech’ legislation that strengthens standards for free expression in our state university system and mandates that all public universities “ensure the fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression.” HB527 […]
Bipartisan legislation overwhelmingly passed the General Assembly last month that takes steps to fix the ongoing challenges in North Carolina’s child welfare system. It was signed into law on June 21. “Rylan’s Law” (House Bill 630) was named after Rylan Ott, a Moore County toddler who drowned in a pond after he was put back […]
Hundreds of thousands of hardworking North Carolinians will no longer pay any state income tax by 2019, thanks to several rounds of tax relief provided by the legislature’s Republican majority. A recent memo from the head economist at the non-partisan Fiscal Research Division notes that “of the nearly 4 million tax returns anticipated for tax […]
Legislation passed unanimously last month by the General Assembly makes it a crime to operate drones near North Carolina’s prisons or jails. House Bill 128 creates multiple criminal offenses for a person using an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) within 500 feet of local confinement facilities or State or federal correctional facilities (and within 250 feet […]
Many bills passed in the last two weeks of the session and are awaiting action from the Governor. He has until the end of the month to decide whether he will sign or veto most of these bills. He also has the option of allowing bills to become law without his signature. At this point, […]
North Carolina has received four national economic distinctions so far this month, including being hailed as the #1 state for starting a business, the #5 best state for business, the #5 best state for budget solvency, and one of only 12 states in the country with a unanimous ‘AAA’ bond rating. Fit Small Business, a Madison Avenue research and […]
Planning your summer vacation and looking for some light beach reading? Joseph Coletti over at the John Locke Foundation has you covered with a comprehensive analysis of this year’s state budget: A New State Budget Based On Time-Tested Principles In his 1985 address to the North Carolina Foundation for Research and Economic Education (NC FREE), […]
Lawmakers in Raleigh passed bipartisan legislation at the end of June giving more authority to cities and counties to relax certain prohibitions on the sale of alcohol. Representative McGrady was a chief architect and leading advocate of the legislation in the General Assembly. Senate Bill 155, the culmination of months of work, is catch-all legislation reforming more than a dozen alcoholic beverage control (ABC) laws. […]
Having overridden Governor Cooper’s veto of the budget, the General Assembly concluded its work just past 2:00 am on June 30, and headed home. The legislature had rocked along at a fairly slow pace until the last few weeks, but then completed its work in a series of long days and nights. More legislation was […]