Becki Gray

We’re still combing through last week’s committee reports, sorting out details from this morning’s Finance meeting and waiting for the full budget documents, but we’re starting to get a picture of what the House proposes in its budget. Here are a dozen things that struck me: 1. Spending is same…

Tax cuts, prudent spending, saving more for a rainy day are a few of the good things in the Senate budget.  Phasing out NC’s egregious Certificate of Need (CON) laws is another.  What we know is CON limits access, increases costs and compromises the quality of health care. A complete…

Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed House Bill 467, Agriculture and Forestry Nuisance Remedies, on Friday. In his veto message, he noted, “Special protection for one industry opens the door to weakening our nuisance laws in other areas which can allow real harm to homeowners, the environment, and everyday North Carolinians.” He…

The N.C. Senate’s $22.9 billion General Fund budget plan would allow taxpayers to keep more of their own money, while also showing greater restraint than the governor in dealing with state spending growth. The John Locke Foundation budget team offers that reaction to Senate budget highlights unveiled in a Tuesday…

My colleague Kari Travis has the latest update on the Rocky Mount event boondoggle, oops, center in today’s Carolina Journal. Read her report, but here’s a quick recap: $50M project in a community with 3.3% population decline where property values likely dropping 15% and possible property tax increase of…

Special Session V and where do we go from here? The real barrier to repealing HB2 this week was trust.  Efforts at some kind of compromise had been going on for months, starting in April and ongoing through the fall. But the 2016 elections got in the way. Personalities, partisan…

You saw them on the front page of the newspaper. You heard them on the 6 o’clock news. You read their rants on social media. They disrupted the work of the General Assembly. Members of the N.C. House and Senate complained they could barely hear each other debate the special…

Wow. Just wow. I spent last night watching, commenting, wondering, and asking really? And a good part of today, making notes and generally thinking through what does all this mean.  Sharing some random thoughts on the day after the 2016 Election….. Lucky Mike Night – unexpected wins for “Mike” Mike…