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), […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
[youtube_sc url=”https://youtu.be/P9ga3ELIUDA” width=”580″ modestbranding=”1″ autohide=”1″ fs=”1″ border=”1″ hd=”1″] Although it’s still too early to tell what effects last year’s welfare reform initiative will have on North Carolina, similar policies put in place by the state of Maine in 2014 have already proved to be extremely successful in breaking the chains of poverty in the Pine Tree State. In July 2014, Republican Governor […]
Revenues for the current year are projected to finish $330 million above initial budget projections, according to the latest figures released by the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management and the legislature’s nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division. The latest revenue forecast also boosts projections for FY 2016-17 by $231 million above the certified budget. […]
A provision of House Bill 318, signed into law last month by Governor Pat McCrory, returns North Carolina to President Bill Clinton’s 1996 policy requiring that able-bodied adults meet some minimal work requirements in order to continue receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, commonly known as food stamps. President Clinton’s goal twenty years ago was to “end welfare […]
There’s nothing quite more thrilling for state government geeks (like us) than the annual publication of the General Assembly’s Summaries of Substantive Ratified Legislation. This weedy tome, of which only a few hundred are printed, is produced at the end of each legislative session by the good folks of the Research Division. The Research Division is a non-partisan central office […]
After the Obama administration ended North Carolina’s eligibility for an additional 99 weeks of federal unemployment benefits starting in July of 2013, the number of people taking jobs in the state has trended dramatically upward. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.
[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRd1H4HXv5M#t=520 rel=0 fs=1 autohide=1 modestbranding=1 width=590 ]Kelly McCullen reports for UNC-TV’s North Carolina Now and Legislative Week in Review on the General Assembly’s recent Unemployment Insurance reforms, including a fascinating interview with Assistant Commerce Secretary of Employment Security Dale Folwell. Follow Kelly McCullen on Twitter at @kellymccullen.