John Locke Updates

Tax reform left a number of people receiving smaller refunds (or writing larger checks) this April because many taxpayers inadvertently had too little withheld from their paychecks. On the other…

Elected officials in North Carolina have debated Medicaid expansion for years. The question at hand is whether to accept a generous matching rate from the federal government to add roughly…

Alcohol entrepreneurship in North Carolina isn’t limited to craft beer, wine, and liquor. Seventh in the nation in apple production, North Carolina is also seeing a growth in producers…

Criminal convictions are expensive. Court fees, fines, and other costs add up quickly and leave a defendant with crushing debt. And the collateral consequences of a criminal record can be…

In 2011, Thom Tillis, Phil Berger, and the Republican leadership in the N.C. General Assembly removed the 100-school school cap included in the 1996 law that authorized the creation of…

In 2011, Buncombe County commissioners and the president of the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College promised voters that, if passed, a quarter-cent tax increase on the ballot that year would pay…

A $700 million accounting change made the North Carolina House’s $23.9 General Fund budget difficult to compare with past budgets and with Gov. Roy Cooper’s spending proposal. The budget bill…

What are association health plans? Association health plans (AHP) are group health insurance plans sold through a business or trade association to its employer members. These plans have been…

A bill before the General Assembly (Senate Bill 55) would create new continuing education requirements for general contractors. Currently, the state doesn’t require any continuing education for general contractors.

In December 2018, I wrote the following: “As a general rule, the public and politicians should never view economic impact studies as anything more than an attempt by special…