General Assembly

In addition to questions of money and Medicaid, the budget stalemate raises a philosophical question: When is a balanced budget not a balanced budget? North Carolina’s state constitution and…

Hubert Humphrey once said, “The ultimate moral test of any government is the way it treats three groups of its citizens. First, those in the dawn of life — our…

Does the current budget impasse between the N.C. General Assembly and Gov. Roy Cooper feel different? It should.  There is less of a sense of crisis even though the decisions…

The budget standoff in North Carolina is generating national attention, which focuses on the debate over Medicaid expansion. But there’s another policy standoff in Raleigh, and it’s interesting not just…

On July 25, 2017, Governor Roy Cooper announced the creation of the Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education.  The name of the commission name references the ongoing Leandro…

A bill now before the state Senate, House Bill 590, would make a simple but sensible adjustment to an already good regulatory policy. The Regulatory Reform Act of…

The North Carolina budget bill (House Bill 966) for fiscal years (FY) 2019-20 and 2020-21 is over a thousand pages of provisions and monetary line items describing…

North Carolinians will be hearing the name “Leandro” a lot more in the next few years. “Leandro” is the name of the lead plaintiff in Leandro v. State of…

Ever since the end of Prohibition over eight decades ago, North Carolina has been a “control” state for liquor. In North Carolina, government controls the pricing, warehousing, wholesale, and retail…

Now that the House has officially rejected the Senate’s budget bill, the two chambers soon will begin conference negotiations to set a final budget that likely will be subject to a…