Becki Gray

A budget agreement was reached over the weekend. If all goes according to plan, the conference report will be posted later today and voted on by the end of the week,  finalizing the $22.3B spending plan for 2016-17. Sources close to the final negotiations tell us the standard deduction will…

Roy hits the nail on the head, as always with his Daily Journal today on the difference between economic development and sound economic policy focused on economic growth.  As Roy explains, economic growth is better, cronyism takes us in the wrong direction. Over the last several years the…

An interesting land use bill is working it’s way through the General Assembly. You may recall a CJ report from Sept 2015 raising concerns about wind farms interfering with military operations. HB 763 modifies the permitting process for wind farms allowing the Dept of Military and Veteran Affairs…

Occupational licensing restrictions, essentially a tax on jobs are clearly a problem in NC as regular readers of this blog have learned here and here and here.  Although NC has some of the most restrictions impacting jobs, the problem is pervasive across the country and now for…

You’ve read all about how Certificate of Needs laws are hurting North Carolina, limiting access, driving up costs and compromising quality of health care.  While the federal government and twelve states have repealed their CON laws, many states, including our neighbors are also moving towards a repeal. A legal…

The US Department of Justice and the Attorney General of NC filed a lawsuit against North Carolina’s largest hospital conglomerate, Carolinas HealthCare System (CMS) this week. The complaint alleges CMS has used their market power to charge higher prices, control access and reduce competition by “using unlawful…

As you may be aware, both the House and Senate budgets repealed the $500,000 cap on state funding for light rail. For those of us who are not big fans of light rail and believe that taxpayers funding of rail, be it light rail, commuter rail or passenger rail…

A WSJ piece over the weekend looks at what’s killing jobs and stalling the economy. Many of North Carolina’s reforms have led to a more robust recovery here but there’s still much work left to be done. For much of the nation’s history, this process of what…