Joseph Coletti

Senior Fellow

Posts by Joseph Coletti (page 4)

  • Available funds to meet “significant economic changes”

    As more of America shuts down each day, nobody knows what comes next, but the current situation reminds us that it’s always been hard to make predictions, especially about the future. House Speaker Tim Moore posted today about the $3.9 billion in North Carolina’s unemployment trust fund that…
    Joseph Coletti, March 17, 2020

  • Democrat Sen. Wiley Nickel Could Single-Handedly Solve Budget Impasse: Why Won’t He?

    State senator Wiley Nickel and state representative Julie von Haefen, both Democrats from Wake County, are holding a press conference this afternoon to show how concerned they are about retirees and teachers. Sen. Nickel jumped the gun with a string of tweets last night calling for new negotiations on budget…
    Joseph Coletti, March 10, 2020
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  • Transparency and local budgets

    This might be the first year in a long time that municipalities and counties live up to their financial reporting obligations if a law passed in 2019 works.
    Joseph Coletti, March 9, 2020

  • Tax votes split 4-4

    With a competitive Democratic presidential primary and a Republican incumbent, eight counties saw an opportunity to get voter approval for a sales tax referendum. This was the first presidential primary year with more an incumbent Republican and an open field for Democrats and the results for sales tax votes reflected…
    Joseph Coletti, March 4, 2020

  • WRAL misinterprets its own poll results

    WRAL used results from a poll that makes no mention of the budget fight to claim, “[Gov. Roy] Cooper is winning the popular vote in the ongoing battle.” The poll asked voters a hypothetical question about expanding Medicaid that obfuscates the budget cost and consequences, let alone the…
    Joseph Coletti, February 24, 2020

  • UNC system campus administrator gains outpacing faculty gains

    Laura Wright, an English professor at Western Carolina, opines in today’s Raleigh News & Observer, “For more than a decade, the salary stranglehold on UNC system faculty has been perpetuated by our state’s legislature and ignored by the media. Flat wages over such a long period actually constitute cuts…
    Joseph Coletti, February 19, 2020

  • Charlotte opportunity

    A New York Times story on “black families leaving Chicago” led me to another story on the topic a year ago. The earlier story described Kristin Ware’s decision to move from Chicago to Charlotte for a lower cost of living, better schools, and “lots of opportunity.” Ware told…
    Joseph Coletti, February 17, 2020

  • High property taxes are the hangover of local spending

    North Carolina has a number of policies and practices to ensure budget sustainability for local governments and their taxpayers. Sales tax increases must be approved by voters at times when every precinct votes, which generally means in primaries or general elections and are acknowledged to be for general purposes. The…
    Joseph Coletti, February 14, 2020