Gov. Roy Cooper

From Carolina Journal: The Senate approved the Tax Reduction Act of 2019 on a 28-13 vote on Monday, May 20, and sent it to the House. Last Thursday, the bill passed its initial vote by a 26-19 margin. Sponsors say Senate Bill 622 will reduce individual and corporate taxes…

Yesterday, the governor’s Office of State Budget and Management and the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division released their latest consensus forecast, which includes the truly surprising April tax collections. Earlier reports suggested the revenue could be as much as $700 million higher than originally forecast. The final estimate is…

Carolina Journal reports on the latest Civitas Poll results. Most North Carolina voters think the media has covered Robert Mueller’s investigation too much, but a majority also approve of Mueller’s performance as special counsel. The data comes from the latest Civitas Institute statewide survey. The conservative public policy…

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…

JLF’s Becki Gray writes for Carolina Journal‘s Daily Journal: It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the folks on Jones Street. After a week of subcommittee meetings, full appropriation consideration, input from the finance side, two rare Friday sessions, and two full days of debate, on Friday, May…