Joseph Coletti

The House increases spending faster than the pace since 2011, and prepares for more demands next fiscal year in education and Medicaid, but Gov. Cooper expects much slower spending growth than he has proposed in any of his first three budgets (3.0% vs 4.9% / 5.0% / 5.6%). Even with…

The Savings Reserve, the state’s rainy-day fund, would increase to $1.5 billion over the biennium under the House budget proposal, though it also leaves $600 million unspent that could be available in case of an urgent need. With the recently forecast $700 million surplus, the Senate could more…

One of the most confusing things about the House budget is the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund (SCIF). It makes comparing the House plan with the Governor’s plan or with spending in previous years, a challenge, but here is how the House and Cooper handle capital spending and…

You can read our Spotlight on the House Budget or, if you prefer tables and graphs, we have them below First, we compare appropriations and availability in the House budget with Gov. Cooper’s proposed budget. When we treat debt service similarly, we see the governor would have spent $600 million…

Tennessee is on the verge of seeking a block grant for Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health coverage for children and their parents and long-term care for the elderly, blind, and disabled. The block grant would allow Tennessee to tailor Medicaid to the needs of its people, but…

A new working paper by Alma Cohen of Harvard, Roberto Tallarita of Harvard Law School, and Moshe Hazan and David Weiss of Tel-Aviv University finds CEOs of public companies tend to lean Republican and that public companies led by Republican CEOs tend to be less transparent in their political…

The Highway Fund and Highway Trust Fund pay the transportation needs of North Carolina. For most of their existence, these funds also transferred money to the General Fund and paid for operations of the State Highway Patrol. Bipartisan efforts since 2005 have ended these payments, meaning state government has $470…

The State Capital and Infrastructure Fund is creating a load of confusion this budget season. The SCIF (pronounced “skiff”) was created in 2017 to wean the state from debt to pay for capital projects. Each fiscal year, 4% of General Fund tax revenue and 25% of unreserved cash from the…