Chuck McGrady
  • Welcome
  • About Chuck McGrady
  • General Assembly
    • NCGA Website
    • How Laws Are Made
    • Legislative Building
    • Our State Seal
    • State Constitution
    • Glossary of Terms
  • Maps
    • District 117 Map
    • House Districts Map
  • Links
    • State Agencies
    • State Website
    • Court System
    • Henderson County Links
      • County Government
      • City of Hendersonville
      • Henderson County Schools
      • Chamber of Commerce
      • County Board of Elections
      • Blue Ridge Humane Society
  • Contribute
1 Representative Chuck McGrady
15
18

Education

The Start of the Legislative Session

Posted on February 12, 2019 by admin in Agriculture, Appropriations, Education, Environment, Ethics, Inside Baseball, Justice, McGrady, Newsletters, Spirituous Liquor, Transportation

Starting the legislative session is much like turning on a copy machine. You turn on the machine, and one isn’t immediately able to make copies. With the legislature, after everyone takes their oaths of office and receives their assigned seats on the floor, designated offices, and committee assignments, legislation doesn’t immediately get enacted. Bills have […]

Read More

Hurricane Recovery Fund Approved in Bipartisan Vote

Posted on October 2, 2018 by admin in Disaster Relief, Education, Elections, Emergency Management

Legislation to provide emergency flexibility to schools and elections boards in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, as well as establishing a new recovery fund from the state’s record savings reserve, unanimously passed the North Carolina House of Representatives on Tuesday. As a senior budget writer, Representative McGrady had a large part in crafting the new […]

Read More

Legislature to Convene October 2 for Hurricane Relief

Posted on September 25, 2018 by admin in Disaster Relief, Education, Emergency Management

The North Carolina General Assembly will convene Tuesday, October 2, 2018 to begin considering disaster relief legislation in support of victims of Hurricane Florence. Lawmakers supported calling the extra session next week to address pressing needs for education communities, provide policy flexibility to storm victims, and prepare for a fourth disaster recovery act since 2016 […]

Read More

The WLOS Election Questionnaire

Posted on September 14, 2018 by admin in Appropriations, Beer, Brunch, Budget, Business, Children, Courts, Crime, Economy, Education, Elections, Environment, Ethics, Healthcare, Insurance, Jobs, McGrady, Medicaid, Obamacare, Politics, Poverty, Public Corruption, Public Safety, Recreation, Redistricting, Spirituous Liquor, Sports, Taxes, Unemployment

During election season, candidates are called upon to answer issue-oriented questionnaires from various groups and news organizations, sometimes more than a dozen over the course of just a few weeks. Recently, Representative McGrady and other candidates were given the opportunity to provide detailed answers to a series of thoughtful questions from local ABC affiliate WLOS […]

Read More

Houses Passes School Safety Programs

Posted on June 5, 2018 by admin in Children, Education, Public Safety

New school safety reforms advancing peer-to-peer student support programs, facility vulnerability assessments, and resource officer training programs unanimously passed the North Carolina House of Representatives yesterday. House Bill 938 contains recommendations of the state House Select Committee on School Safety to improve classroom security and protect students. All schools with grades six or higher, and […]

Read More

Six statistics Carolinians should know

Posted on April 5, 2018 by admin in Budget, Economy, Education, Education Reform, Employment, Jobs, Tax Reform, Taxes, Transportation, Unemployment

Since 2010, when voters put Republicans in charge of most state governments across the United States, North Carolina became one of about a half-dozen states where conservative reformers have frequently — and sometimes spectacularly — faced off with progressives in ways that have attracted significant national attention. In 2011, the new GOP-majority General Assembly defeated […]

Read More

A New Pipeline of Money to Public Schools

Posted on February 16, 2018 by admin in Cooper, Education, Energy

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, […]

Read More

Class Size: A Simple Explanation of the Issue

Posted on January 25, 2018 by admin in Budget, Children, Education, McGrady, Newsletters

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 […]

Read More

Throwback Thursday: The Education Lottery

Posted on August 31, 2017 by admin in Education, Throwback Thursdays

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 […]

Read More

Reviewing North Carolina’s FY2017-19 Budget

Posted on July 12, 2017 by admin in Agriculture, Appropriations, Budget, Economy, Education, Environment, Government Reform, Health, Justice, Law Enforcement, Medicaid, Pension Reform, Public Assistance, Public Employees, Public Safety, Tax Reform, Taxes, Technology, Transparency, Transportation, UNC, Veterans

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), […]

Read More

Good Week, Bad Week…Last Week!

Posted on July 6, 2017 by admin in Annexation, Appropriations, Beer, Budget, Business, Cooper, Economic Development, Education, Emergency Management, Energy, Environment, Ethics, Hard Cider, Local Government, McGrady, Municipal Government, Newsletters, Older People, Politics, Wine

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 […]

Read More

Education Spending in the State Budget

Posted on June 30, 2017 by admin in Appropriations, Budget, Dan Forest, Education, UNC

Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest lays out the facts on public education spending contained in the General Assembly’s 2017-2018 Biennium Budget.

Read More

House Overrides Budget Veto

Posted on June 29, 2017 by admin in Appropriations, Budget, Cooper, Economy, Education, Speaker Moore, Tax Reform

With a bipartisan majority of 76 to 43, the North Carolina House of Representatives voted yesterday to override the governor’s recent budget veto. The budget, now state law, enacts another round of middle-class tax cuts, a fourth consecutive teacher pay raise, and a record-high savings reserve. “The governor chose partisanship over the people of North […]

Read More

Legislature Approves State Budget

Posted on June 23, 2017 by admin in Agriculture, Appropriations, Budget, Economy, Education, Environment, Government Reform, Health, Law Enforcement, Medicaid, Public Assistance, Public Safety, Technology, Transportation, UNC, Veterans

The North Carolina General Assembly gave its overwhelming approval yesterday to a $23 billion state budget that, among other things, increases education investments by more than $700 million, raises teacher pay for the fourth consecutive year, provides needed disaster relief to communities affected by Hurricane Matthew, helps lower-income people by further expanding the state’s zero-tax bracket, and adds $363.9 million to the state’s savings reserve account. […]

Read More

More on the Budget: How it Impacts WNC

Posted on June 21, 2017 by admin in Appropriations, Budget, Children, Courts, Economic Development, Education, Environment, Jobs, Justice, Law Enforcement, McGrady, Newsletters, Nonprofits, Recreation, Transportation, UNC, Veterans, Water

The State’s budget comes in two parts: Senate Bill 257 [The Appropriations Act of 2017], the actual law, and the so-called “Money Report” which shows all of the various appropriations by the numbers. SB257 is 438 pages long, and although not sequentially numbered, the Money Report is even longer. The Money Report is relatively easy […]

Read More

Biennium Budget 2017-2019

Posted on June 20, 2017 by admin in Appropriations, Budget, Civil Service, Cooper, Education, Environment, Healthcare, Justice, McGrady, Newsletters, Tax Reform, Taxes, Transportation

After two weeks of negotiations between Senate and House conferees, the compromise budget was introduced late last night, starting the clock on when the House can take up the bill. Under Senate rules, the Senate can take up the bill immediately, and it will likely take up the bill today and tomorrow. Under House rules, […]

Read More

Legislative Leaders Craft Budget Deal

Posted on June 19, 2017 by admin in Agriculture, Appropriations, Budget, Economy, Education, Environment, Government Reform, Health, Law Enforcement, Medicaid, Public Assistance, Public Safety, Technology, Transportation, UNC, Veterans

Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) held a joint press conference Monday to announce details of the roughly $23 billion budget and tax relief agreement reached between the state House and Senate. As a result of responsible budgeting decisions, millions of middle-class families and job-creating small businesses will keep more […]

Read More

House Releases 2017-18 Budget Plan

Posted on May 25, 2017 by admin in Agriculture, Appropriations, Budget, Economy, Education, Environment, Government Reform, Health, Law Enforcement, Medicaid, Public Assistance, Public Safety, Technology, Transportation, UNC, Veterans

The North Carolina House of Representatives released highlights of its balanced budget proposal for the 2017-2018 biennium on Thursday, submitting a plan that continues to advance successful government investment strategies contributing to revenue surpluses, rainy day reserves, rapid economic and population growth this decade. The budget highlights released on Thursday were provided to area appropriations subcommittees […]

Read More

Human Trafficking: Resistance and Rescue

Posted on May 8, 2017 by admin in Children, Crime, Education, Women

A bipartisan bill has been introduced in the House to directly help victims of human trafficking and to establish a pilot program to educate students and law enforcement officers on ways to recognize the signs of trafficking activity. Human trafficking is the illegal practice of buying and selling people for the purposes of their forced […]

Read More

Legislative Life After Crossover

Posted on April 27, 2017 by admin in Asheville, Budget, Business, Children, Cooper, Education, Election Reform, HB2, Justice, Local Government, McGrady, Municipal Government, Newsletters, Politics

Over the past two weeks, legislators’ energies were focused on passing bills to meet the “crossover” deadline — the date on which bills die if they haven’t passed from one chamber to another. While there are some bills that don’t need to meet crossover, such as bills having to do with spending, a significant number […]

Read More

Improving Rural Access to Broadband

Posted on April 21, 2017 by admin in Dan Forest, Economic Development, Economy, Education, Healthcare, Public/private partnerships, Technology

With an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 109 to 8, the North Carolina House yesterday afternoon passed the “BRIGHT Futures Act” (House Bill 68) to accelerate the build-out of digital infrastructure in rural and other underserved areas of our state. Representative McGrady co-sponsored the bill. The goal is to bring greater economic prosperity to more folks by way of a […]

Read More

Transcendental Media-tation

Posted on April 13, 2017 by admin in Beer, Cooper, Economy, Education, Education Reform, HB2, Jobs, Sports, Tax Reform, Technology

With The Bathroom Bill Gone, Here Are 5 Things Happening In North Carolina For The Media To Cover by Patrick Gleason Between the University of North Carolina Tar Heels beating Gonzaga to win the men’s college basketball national championship on Monday, and the North Carolina General Assembly last Thursday repealing House Bill 2, commonly referred […]

Read More

School Calendar Flexibility

Posted on April 12, 2017 by admin in Children, Education

A bill sponsored by Representative McGrady giving North Carolina’s school districts more flexibility in setting their own calendars passed the House earlier this week with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 108 to 6. House Bill 375 allows a school board to schedule its school opening date to coincide with the opening date of an area […]

Read More

The Week After the Repeal of HB2

Posted on April 7, 2017 by admin in Business, Education, HB2, Law Enforcement, McGrady, Newsletters, Utilities, Water

Last week was so hectic, with legislators in and out of meetings and sessions to secure the votes for House Bill 142 — the repeal of HB2, that legislators seemed exhausted this week even with looming bill-filing and crossover deadlines. Most activity occurred in committees where legislators pushed their bills through committees with the goal […]

Read More

Two Months and Ten Bills

Posted on March 16, 2017 by admin in Asheville, Beer, Children, Cooper, Education, Election Reform, HB2, Healthcare, Justice, McGrady, Newsletters, Private Property Rights, Utilities, Water

My apologies for letting two months go by between communications. While lobbyists complained of a slow start to the legislative session, that isn’t my perspective. I’ve been busy from day one. Initially, some probably weren’t sure what exactly kept me so busy, but with the filing of House Bill 186 [Repeal HB2/State Nondiscrimination Policies], that should have […]

Read More

Majority Leader Outlines Record of Success

Posted on February 17, 2017 by admin in Business, Economy, Education, Education Reform, Government Reform, Jobs, Regulatory Reform, Tax Reform, Taxes, Unemployment, Unemployment Reform

The following piece was written by North Carolina House Majority Leader John Bell and first appeared in the North State Journal on February 8, 2016. What We’ve Done for North Carolina North Carolina was once a state that was defined by slow economic growth, high unemployment, burdensome taxes, and massive federal debt. Our great state […]

Read More

Class Size Flexibility

Posted on February 16, 2017 by admin in Education

The North Carolina House of Representatives voted unanimously today to pass House Bill 13, providing local school districts with the flexibility they requested for class size scheduling in kindergarten through the third grade. Representative McGrady was the primary sponsor of the legislation. “House Bill 13 provides flexibility to local school boards as to how they […]

Read More

Growing Rural Broadband

Posted on February 16, 2017 by admin in Business, Dan Forest, Education, Public/private partnerships, Technology

Representative McGrady has co-sponsored bipartisan legislation allowing Public-Private Partnerships to expand high-speed fiber optic networks to rural and other underserved communities. The BRIGHT Futures Act (House Bill 68) is legislation focused on accelerating digital infrastructure and economic development in rural and unserved areas of North Carolina by connecting them to the key markets of Broadband, […]

Read More

Special Session Wrap-up (Part 1)

Posted on January 9, 2017 by admin in Civil Service, Cooper, Courts, Education, Education Reform, Election Reform, Elections, Emergency Management, Ethics, History, McCrory, McGrady, Newsletters, Politics

(Or why I voted the way I did on S4 & H17) For me, the Special Sessions could go by the title of that old Clint Eastwood movie: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The optics of the first, two Special Sessions before the Christmas holiday, were horrible. We were called to Raleigh to […]

Read More

Throwback Thursday: A Little History

Posted on December 29, 2016 by admin in Civics, Cooper, Economy, Education, Elections, Ethics, Government Reform, History, Human Resources, McCrory, Pearl Clutching, Politics, Public Employees, Throwback Thursdays

A few weeks ago, when the General Assembly called itself back into a special session following the passage of The Disaster Recovery Act of 2016, the legislature took up some important bipartisan reforms to North Carolina’s ethics, elections, and court systems. At the same time, another piece of bipartisan legislation, House Bill 17, was also passed […]

Read More
12345

Contact

EmailFacebookTwitter

Search

Latest Newsletter

  • Great Seal of the State of North Carolina

    The Start of the Legislative Session

    February 12, 2019

More About Newsletters

To receive Rep. McGrady's newsletters, please send an email to his Legislative Assistant and we'll add you to our newsletter distribution list.

For a complete archive of all of Rep. McGrady's newsletters, click here.

Rep. McGrady’s Latest Tweets

  • Stories and photos we love: For veterans in Henderson, a handmade gift for their service https://t.co/YvvZlVMEiR… https://t.co/wzYbve47Cx
    February 17, 2019
  • That is H 69–not H 60.
    February 15, 2019
  • The commission bill (H 60) gives us a chance to end partisan gerrymandering. Another way to do this is by consti… https://t.co/M1PA5CYL8J
    February 15, 2019
  • @amyrbrown12_amy @nutgraham While I agree with you, putting together a little, lame poetry to try to get folks thin… https://t.co/plGRY1sxYH
    February 14, 2019
  • Before the 50th Anniversary celebration for @FallingCreek, I went on the website and saw @BrianTurnerNC’s picture.… https://t.co/2lxtn6wR2g
    February 14, 2019
  • On this edition of the pod Rep @ChuckMcGrady chats independent #Redistricting, proposed ABC reform, a friendship wi… https://t.co/JZW6TdJvCU
    February 14, 2019
  • @GrierMartin Yeah, it is lame but want to keep the conversation going.
    February 14, 2019
  • Republicans are red Democrats are blue When neither side can bank on majority control Is the best time to push n… https://t.co/KaJ7UUDynI
    February 14, 2019
  • New story: 400-plus acres added to recreational forest in western NC https://t.co/eU5h8kTERz #wral
    February 14, 2019
  • Redistricting reformers hopeful with legislation this year https://t.co/oN0FMPMIRc https://t.co/iSSIW4cAmP
    February 14, 2019

The Economy Then and Now

Articles by Category

Articles by Year

Recent Articles

  • The Start of the Legislative Session
  • House Enacts Voter ID With Veto Override
  • The End Is In Sight
  • The Endless Legislative Session
  • $793 Million for Florence Recovery
  • My Perspective on the Proposed Constitutional Amendments
  • Disaster Relief: What Comes Next
  • Hurricane Recovery Fund Approved in Bipartisan Vote
  • Legislature to Convene October 2 for Hurricane Relief
  • The WLOS Election Questionnaire
  • Constitutional Amendment Redux
  • State Revenues Exceed Forecast by Over $400 million
  • Hurricane Relief Committee to Investigate Recovery Delays
  • Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
  • Revenue estimates $252.8 million ahead of targets
  • The Short Session Winds Down
  • Flag Day 2018
  • Remembering the Day that Saved the World
  • Houses Passes School Safety Programs
  • The Budget Passes and…Life After the Budget
  • The Budget: More Detail on What It Funds
  • The Budget: Substance and Process
  • A Primer on Transportation Projects
  • Six statistics Carolinians should know
  • Employment Increases by more than 85,000
  • Safeguarding Emergency Equipment
  • LEO: No Need to Get Angry
  • The Pharmacy Patient Fair Practices Act
  • A Statue for North Carolina’s Favorite Son
  • A Good and Faithful Servant
  • Remembering Washington on President’s Day
  • A New Pipeline of Money to Public Schools
  • Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car
  • Tax Fraud Prevention Saves State Revenue
  • Class Size: A Simple Explanation of the Issue

Featured Video

Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara
This site is provided as a service to the people of Henderson County. It is not maintained at taxpayer expense.