Joseph Coletti

A simple change to ballot language and another small change in ball could have huge impacts on local borrowing. Dan Way reported for Carolina Journal that “Debt fared better than taxes in local referendums.” Only one bond referendum failed. Wake County alone received permission from voters to issue $1.017 billion…

New ID cards from the State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees made at least one teacher angry. What exactly do the cards and accompanying letter say? State government insures itself and contracts with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina to administer the program. Legislators have never…

What works better than work requirements to get poor people to work? During a roundtable discussion on work requirements in anti-poverty programs, Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute 1) general economic growth, 2) removing barriers to participation in economic growth such as occupational licenses and post-prison criminal sanctions on…

As younger generations join family giving decisions, there is a greater emphasis on giving locally and on giving time. While people in business, governments, nonprofits and foundations continue to seek investments that scale, there is also a reemerging acceptance that some of the most significant investments we make (in…

Experienced workers in Seattle had their hours cut but were able to find work outside the city to offset their lost wages, less experienced workers had no gains, and those out of work were less likely to enter the workforce. Those are the key findings of the latest look at…

“The high cost of housing is an important factor in trapping millions of Americans in poverty,” Michael Tanner writes in National Review. “On average, Americans in the lowest third of incomes spend more than 40 percent of their income on housing, a number that rises to more than 50…

Employees at the Division of Employment Security, which is responsible for unemployment insurance, can walk by the rooms where they were born. The building housed Rex Hospital until 1980, when the hospital moved across town. A new request for proposals for office space tipped off Triangle Business Journal that…

Arizona voters could choose to become only the second state to exclude services from sales taxes. One of the basic principles of taxation is to have a low rate and a broad base. [P]olicy experts warn that such a ban limits a state’s revenue-raising options and could actually be…