Becki Gray

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…

Folks interested in facts, know the fiscal costs of Medicaid expansion, are well aware of the human costs of Medicaid expansion and understand that Medicaid reform must be the pre-cursor to any expansion.  The good folks at the Mercatus Institute explain why Medicaid expansion is a poor use…

North Carolina’s economy continues to recover and grow at a faster and stronger rate than others in our region and in the nation as whole. NC is a national model in reforms that work. Since 2013, 300,000 net new jobs, unemployment rate cut in half, incomes up. Today’s news from…

Yes, it’s complicated.  Those of us committed to keeping taxing and spending in check have learned it’s complicated and riddled with intended and unintended consequences.  As we continue to see the benefits of recent tax and spending reforms, feeling results of recent budgets and contemplating additional reforms…

In a recent study from the Mercatus Center, looking at just how prepared states are for the next recession, NC ranks 27th.  But keep in mind, they used figures from FY 2105.  Considering NC added another $1 billion into our savings account in this year’s budget, we’re in very good…