fiscal

Click here to view and here to listen to Dr. Terry Stoops discussing the new First in Freedom Index. RALEIGH — North Carolina ranks No. 23 among the…

Click here to view and here to listen to John Hood discussing this Spotlight report. RALEIGH — The past quarter-century of academic scholarship suggests state and local officials…

Click here to view and here to listen to Fergus Hodgson discussing this Spotlight report. RALEIGH — North Carolina state government is spending more money per person this…

RALEIGH — A new, easy-to-use checklist will help voters and candidates focus on the most important issues facing North Carolina’s city and town governments. The John Locke Foundation is…

RALEIGH – Final state budget negotiations could produce a document that’s more fiscally responsible than either the House or Senate budget plans, according to analysis by a John Locke…

House members approved a $20.3 billion budget for fiscal year (FY) 2007-08, up 7.6 percent from FY 2006-07; 1.5 times the 5.1 percent combined rate of inflation and population growth. Proposed spending is $1.4 billion ($158 per person or $632 for a family of four) higher than in FY 2006-07. Nearly all of the increase is in K-12 education, even though dropout rates have been increasing.

RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley has proposed North Carolina’s first $20 billion budget, thanks to $210 million in new taxes and a 7.2 percent increase in operations spending. That’s according…

Gov. Mike Easley has proposed an annual cap on the growth of state spending in North Carolina that would be tied to personal income growth. In considering the idea, lawmakers should examine recent data that show state spending caps to be effective particularly if they rebate excess revenues to taxpayers and enjoy constitutional, rather than just statutory, authority. Without a spending cap, it is likely that fiscal discipline will disappear as the state’s economy recovers.

RALEIGH — Gov. Mike Easley’s just-announced state budget plan for the 2003-05 biennium includes an immediate $461 million tax increase and allows spending to grow by nearly 5 percent next…

RALEIGH — Gov. Mike Easley and the state legislature have approved a revised budget for the current fiscal year that will likely result in hundreds of millions of dollars in…