• John Locke Update

    North Carolina’s COVID-19 Response: State Budget

    posted March 16, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    Our budget stalemate may have an unexpected and unintended benefit. Because the General Assembly and Gov. Roy Cooper could not agree on a new budget, state government has been operating…
  • John Locke Update

    Estimating the impact of coronavirus on state spending and taxes

    posted March 12, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    Families, employers, universities, health care providers, insurance companies, health care companies across North Carolina and the rest of the country, and governments at all levels are responding to coronavirus disease…
  • John Locke Update

    Confusion on NC FAST workers and Medicaid spending

    posted March 5, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has a history of breaking budgets with lax controls over Medicaid spending. It took nearly three years under Gov. Pat McCrory…
  • John Locke Update

    Six counties seek higher sales taxes

    posted February 26, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    After we posted a summary last week on sales tax referenda in four counties (Chatham, Forsyth, Madison, and Wayne), a citizen in Alamance County alerted us that a sales…
  • John Locke Update

    Four counties seek higher sales taxes

    posted February 20, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    Another election, another opportunity for counties to ask voters to raise the sales tax. Only two of 25 tax votes have passed when held in conjunction with presidential primaries, with…
  • Policy Position

    Transportation Funding

    posted February 10, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    North Carolina has 80,000 miles of state highways, more than any other state besides Texas. Unlike Texas, where state roads are one-fourth of the total 313,000 miles of roads…
  • Policy Position

    State Spending and Taxes

    posted February 10, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    North Carolina has one of the strictest balanced-budget requirements in the country. State law holds the governor responsible for cutting expenditures to avoid a deficit. Republican leadership in the…
  • John Locke Update

    Saving for the retirement of teachers and state employees

    posted February 10, 2020 by Joseph Coletti
    At a certain age, everyone begins to wonder, “Have I saved enough for retirement?” For most people, the answer is that they have not and will not. Governments have not…