It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-99.3 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. Earlier this week, the Trump administration unveiled the National Farm Security Act Plan, a major initiative aimed at safeguarding U.S. agriculture from foreign influence.
A key element of that plan is reforming the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act to better track and limit foreign ownership of American farmland. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said that the plan puts farmers and food security first, emphasizing that foreign adversaries should not control U.S. land, laboratories, or livelihoods. The USDA will work with state and federal partners to integrate agriculture into the national security framework and pursue legislation or executive action to block land purchases by foreign adversaries. At the state level, the North Carolina General Assembly has introduced multiple pieces of legislation this session, one of them, House Bill 133, known as the NC Farmland and Military Protection Act, which would bar adversarial foreign entities from owning land within 75 miles of military installations, as well as Senate Bill 394, which proposes a similar ban targeting land near military and FAA, that would be the Federal Aviation Administration.
Designated special use areas. Both bills require current foreign owners to register or divest their land. Federal and state lawmakers alike say that these efforts aim to protect national security, food supply and rural economies from foreign threats. This is, of course, a big discussion in North Carolina with the massive amount of military installations that we've got in the eastern half of the state. This was announced on July the 8th in Washington, D.C.
with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins. Those two pieces of legislation are currently stalled out in the North Carolina General Assembly. There is some thought that potentially this announcement from the USDA Secretary could cause one of these bills to move forward, or we could potentially see some movement on it in the budget as that process is likely to begin in the next couple of weeks when lawmakers make their way back to Raleigh. We'll have some more details on this with Katie Zender of the Carolina Journal coming up in just a little bit. It's now 5.08.
You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. North Carolina has taken the crown once again as the number one state for business in an annual report out from CMBC and their business department to walk us through some of those details this morning and the relevance here across the state of North Carolina. It's my pleasure to welcome the president and CEO of the North Carolina Chamber, Gary Salamedo, to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Gary, thanks for the time. Huge announcement out of CMBC.
What do you make of it? Oh, thank you, Nick. It's a great day for North Carolina and for North Carolinians because it's all about people and having good jobs.
So every time we get this award, it just means that people are going to have more opportunity here in North Carolina and more people that love our state and want to come here to have a good opportunity. It's more available to them.
So we're excited about it. It's what gets us up every morning at the chamber. This is what we do as we try to advocate every day for a place where people can have a good job.
So it's another great day in North Carolina. We'll celebrate today and get back at work on doing the repeat for next year.
Well, and you talk about that repeat. Three out of the last four years, North Carolina has been in that top spot, falling to Virginia last year, but still being in second place. Gary, over the last five or six years, North Carolina has been very high towards that top of the list. What do you attribute that to? Yeah, no, well, a couple of things.
But first is, you know, we didn't lose to Virginia. They just caught up last year. They caught us last year because the secret sauce was out because we were winning so well. And yeah, it's really three things, Nick. You know, when we look at what we do, and this started back in 2013 for the chamber, is it's all about workforce and talent supply.
How do we make sure that people are getting educated and prepared for the jobs of today and tomorrow? It's a competitive business climate, which includes what's our tax structure? What's our torch structure? What's our regulatory environment? What's our availability of reliable, affordable energy?
And it's infrastructure. Roads, rails, water, sewer, ports. Are we not only meeting the needs of today, but are we making the investments for tomorrow to accommodate the growth and the job creation that's going on here?
So we do all that really well with a detailed plan and a group of business leaders who come together with leaders that are in public officials elected. leaders who believe that people are the most important thing and a good job solves a lot of problems.
Now, we look at the survey. North Carolina did very well in a couple of the metrics, 10 areas that they use in total when calculating who the number one state is going to be: business friendliness towards the top of the list, workforce development, and overall economic performance.
However, Gary, there are a couple of areas where the state is still lacking. Cost of living, we rank 23rd, quality of life 29th, and cost of doing business 21st. Those are some relatively low numbers when you look at the overall number one ranking that the state got. What do we have to do to get some of those numbers up and keep us on the top of this list? Yeah, I think when you look at the cost of living, you just got to always be vigilant about your tax structure and making sure that your tax structure is competitive, that people are bringing home money so they can reinvest in their families and in their communities.
So our tax is really competitive, but there's always the opportunity for little things to creep into that that make it less competitive, that make it more expensive. I think regulatory burden has a serious cost to it, Nick, at the end of the day. You know, right now it takes longer to permit things in North Carolina does it to build them. There's a cost to that. There's a cost to that to our housing.
There's a cost to that to what it takes to build a facility.
So on those metrics, I think, yeah, there is a high cost here and we could do better at limiting the barriers to growth that are there. You know, right now, we just did a housing study, for example, and housing. We need to get better at building housing across the spectrum so that the people that can work in the community that can live in the communities where they work.
So, I think that's a quality of life measure now and available, affordable childcare when both parents are working.
Sometimes, you know, right now we've got an old system in there, and we've done some work there too on how we can modernize that and make it more available to people.
So, when you look at quality of life, it's more about what are the workers facing in order to be able to go to work, what are the barriers to work that are in front of people. What can we do? Just one day at a time, one study at a time, one piece of policy at a time. We have a one-year plan every year in our legislative agenda that addresses those issues. You know, look, other reaction coming in from across the state of North Carolina.
Of course, Governor Stein interviewed by CNBC in the Wilmington area with the announcement being made. Reaction also coming in from the leaders of the North Carolina House and Senate. The Republican-led General Assembly says, Hey, this has been something that we have been keenly focused on over the last decade. And some of the things that you mentioned and talk about, Gary, taxes, not only personal but corporate taxes, some of the other changes to regulatory reform. They're wearing this as a badge of honor on their chest because they've ushered a lot of this change in in North Carolina.
Yeah, and a lot of folks have too. You know, the Republicans have been there for the last decade. There's a lot of collaboration, Nick, that goes on behind the scenes, though, that we never hear about with folks that work a lot of the issues out that don't make it, that are not the real divisive ones that we see publicly a lot.
So, yeah, the Republicans have led. They've made sure that they were listening closely to the business community. And we work together collaboratively to make sure we have reliable, thoughtful, understandable policies that grow jobs. You know, it's interesting as you look at this from a political element, the top five states, the vast majority of them, actually every single one of them besides the state of North Carolina, has a Republican legislature and a Republican governor.
However, you look here at North Carolina, the past few years we received awards. you had a Democrat and Roy Cooper in the governor's mansion and Republicans in the General Assembly. Think other states can take something away from some of this bipartisan work that has led the state continually towards the top of this list? Nate, I've been fortunate in my career. I've lobbied in about every state in the country in my previous life with Glexo.
And there's something that's unique to North Carolina that transcends some of the political differences, and it's collaboration so people can have a good job. And so, at the end of the day, they're going to fight and there's going to be tensions. But at the end of the day, particularly as we see in our economic development announcements, there's a collaboration there. There's businesses there that are saying this is what it's going to take to grow these jobs. And businesses are going to build the roads and lay the pipes and hang the wire to do that.
So, this spirit of collaboration is unique to our state. And that's why that's the secret sauce why we're winning in the end. Good policies, we're going to argue over different things, but at the end, they care about people having a good job. Gary, tell us a little bit about the NC Chamber. What do you guys do day in and day out?
Yeah, we're the leading business and advocacy organization for the business community in the state of North Carolina. Our members represent 21 different industry segments, and we develop the policy, do the research, and do the education and advocacy in the General Assembly and state agencies to make sure we have a competitive business climate so people can have a job, a good job. Because good private sector jobs, as you know, that's what builds communities. That's what gives us the resources to invest in people so they can have a good life. Our job, when we get up every day, is to aggregate those voices and communicate what it takes to have a good job.
We appreciate the analysis this morning. Gary Salameda with the NC Chamber joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. For the ones who get it done, the most important part is the one you need now. And the best partner is the one who can deliver. That's why millions of maintenance and repair pros trust Granger, because we have professional grade supplies for every industry, even hard to find products, and we have same-day pickup and next day delivery on most orders.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-993WBT. Apex, just outside of the Raleigh area, has been chosen as the home for the future Duke UNC Children's Hospital, which is anticipated to open in the early 2030s. According to Craig Albanese, the CEO of Duke Health, finding the right home for NC children was among our top priorities. And this location offers us the space and access required for a world-class children's hospital.
From the moment children and families enter the campus, they will know that they are in a place built just for them. Most importantly, children with the most complex health issues will have access to the most highly specialized pediatric services right here in the heart of North Carolina. Carolina. Construction is slated to begin in 2027 on a new hospital planned for approximately 230 acres of land at the intersection of US 1 and NC 540. The 500-bed facility is projected to create around 8,000 jobs in Apex, that is in Wake County.
And it will feature a children's outpatient cancer center, 103 beds dedicated to children's and adolescent behavioral health, as well as a research and education hub supported by both UNC and Duke Schools of Medicine. According to the CEO of UNC Health and the Dean of the UNC School of Medicine, Wesley Burks, they report: We are incredibly excited to confirm Apex and Wake County as the home for NC children. This campus will create a brighter, healthier future for generations of children and adolescents across. North Carolina and the Southeast, and we're thrilled to have Apex as our home and partner. The hospital's campus will be integrated into what is known as the Verdia Master Plan, which is a mixed-use community spanning over 1,000 acres.
Developed by RXR, Verdia will include 8,000 new homes, 3.5 million square feet of retail and dining spaces, 12 million square feet of office and research facilities, and a new Wake Tech Community College campus. In January, Duke and UNC announced that they would partner to bring the children's hospital to the Triangle region, and the Apex mayor is very excited about the announcement, saying, as mayor and chair of the town's economic development committee, I want to share how extremely proud and excited I am about North Carolina children's coming to Apex. This is a golden moment for our community. This transformational project will bring new jobs, not only strengthen our economy, but create opportunities for people to be part of something greater, a space where hope, healing, and compassionate care come together for countless families. I am deeply moved as I envision the children and families across North Carolina and the nation, potentially even the world, who will find care and comfort here.
This moment reflects the very heart of Apex, a compassionate community, and a true peak of hope for all. According to the Joint Conference Committee report on the Current Appropriations Act of 2023, almost $320 million was appropriated for the project in the 2023 budget. And that money is, of course, continuing to be used for all of the lead up and research into building this facility. North Carolina Treasurer Brad Breiner said in a press release, North Carolina's children, that is the hospital, represents the very best for our state, bringing people together to propel North Carolina forward to benefit our citizens, and in this case, particularly our children. We are thrilled to help bring this vision to a reality.
The sale of land held by our pension fund will allow us to make a good return on investment for NC Children's to secure a home in growing and thriving community, and most importantly, our citizens and taxpayers to benefit from both. This is truly a win-win. For a decade, both institutions have aimed at bringing a freestanding children's hospital to North Carolina. With it, this hospital would be the first of its kind anywhere in the state, serving as a flagship hospital comparably clinically and accommodatively to the top children's hospitals in the country. Moreover, an adolescent hospital would also be housed within, according to a September 2024 announcement, and we heard some of those details from both the CEOs of Duke and UNC Health.
The groundbreaking is expected. In 2025, the hospital opening sometime in the early 2030s. This was set to be a major facility in the Apex area, and will put North Carolina on par with many of the other children's hospitals that do exist around the country. This is, again, going to be a long-term story. As some of this construction in progress continues, we'll continue to track the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Again, recapping one of our big stories this morning. North Carolina has regained the top position from CNBC as America's top state for business. The annual ranking evaluates all 50 states across 135 metrics and 10 key categories of competitiveness, including economy, business friendliness, workforce development, infrastructure, and more. North Carolina has been a top performer in the annual survey in recent years, claiming the number one spot in 2022 and 2023 and finishing second in 2021 and 2024. We will have some more details on how exactly North Carolina ranks in this study, plus reaction coming in from Governor Josh Stein, who was in the Wilmington area yesterday with this announcement being interviewed on the USS North Carolina battleship by CNBC, as well as legislative.
leaders. We'll have those details coming up here in just a few minutes. It's 535. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT, a bill that will help rule in independent pharmacies and their customers in North Carolina, was one of nine bills signed into law by Governor Josh Stein earlier this week. Senate Bill 479, also known as the Scripp Act, had Senator Brenton Saury, the Republican out of Johnson, as one of its primary co-sponsors.
The North Carolina General Assembly passed the conference report for the bill unanimously in June as a step towards bringing down the price of health care across the state. It gives customers the benefits of prescription drug rebates at the pharmacy counter. before a payer could keep those rebates to offset other costs. The bill is intended to increase transparency in the prescription drug supply chain link, including pharmacy benefit managers also known as PBMs, and pharmacy service administrative organizations known as PSAOs and prescription drug pricing.
So, what does the bill do? It allows insurers, including Medicaid-managed care plans, to offer targeted health services such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol screening through select pharmacies, particularly in underserved areas. Previously, health plans were required to offer the same enhanced services to all pharmacies within their statewide networks. That all-or-nothing rule made it too expensive to support smaller, rural, most of the time, independent providers. Under the new law, health plans can create contracts with independent and individual pharmacies, making it financially feasible to direct resources to where they are needed the most.
Supporters say that this change will help rural pharmacies serve as a front door to the healthcare system and catching chronic conditions early, as well as connecting patients to care before issues escalate. Lawmakers anticipate that some of the flexibility in this legislation will increase health access in areas where traditional medical providers may be limited, while also giving pharmacists a greater role in preventative care. The bill also prevents PSAOs from requiring independent pharmacies to buy more expensive drugs from certain wholesalers when less expensive options are available. Governor Josh Stein said in a press release of signing this legislation: no matter where you live in North Carolina, you should be able to access affordable health care and medications. This bill increases accountability and protects community pharmacies from pharmacy benefit managers' unfair business practices that make prescription drugs more expensive for patients.
It will help independent pharmacies promote access to health care, particularly in rural areas. And critically, it will lower the amount that consumers pay at the pharmacy counter by making sure discounts are passed on to them. As I've noted, Josh Stein signed this and nine other pieces of letter this and eight other pieces of legislation into law earlier this week, as we covered earlier on the show. He did also veto three more pieces of legislation. That brings his current veto count up to 14 in this General Assembly session.
Lawmakers are expected back in a few weeks towards the end of July. They will continue to deal with budgets and spending, and you can imagine probably be looking at some. Veto overrides out of the Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly. We'll keep our eye on all of those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. A pretty big announcement this week out of the federal government as it relates to foreign ownership of land in the United States, particularly that dealing with agriculture and around military installations, has been developing.
To walk us through the details, Katie Zender, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Katie, some of our more astute listeners might be familiar with some discussions earlier this year here in North Carolina about prohibiting some of these sales. But first, what are we learning out of Washington, D.C.? Hi, good morning, Nick. Yeah, so on July 8th, Secretary Brooke Rollins of the Department of Agriculture, along with Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegsteth and a few other federal officials, rolled out a plan called the National Farm Security Action Plan, which has a number of sections and does a number of different things.
But one thing that it really focuses on is limiting and reforming the process by which foreign entities can own U.S. farmland, especially with regards to land that is near sensitive military sites.
So the reforms in this plan are really looking at reforming The process by which the foreign entities are purchasing and reporting the purchase and holdings of American farmland, just to kind of put some more safeguards around that process. And this has been a growing discussion for a couple of years here across the United States, and particularly here in North Carolina, with our two very large military installments and some land being purchased in and around those. You've had the opportunity to speak to the Agricultural Commissioner, Steve Troxler. What did he have to say about this federal announcement? Yeah, so he said I support measures to protect our valuable and irreplaceable farmland because we are losing farmland every day in North Carolina in a variety of ways.
He also said that the Farmland Preservation Trust is already working with branches of the military to protect bases with permanent conservation easements on lands and around the bases.
So you can read the full quote in the article, but yeah, they're already working with that. And this is something that Troxler has been talking about for over a year now is according to a report by the American Farmland Trust, North Carolina is on track to lose over a million acres of farmland by 2030. And we talk about farmland. Katie, you've been walking us through the various tariff discussions throughout the state of North Carolina, and we've come back to the same thread over and over again. Agriculture does continue to be the largest business in North Carolina.
It has a multi-$100 billion a year impact across our state. This is a big deal. Right, that's exactly right, Nick. This is the biggest industry in the state. There's a congressional report from January of just last year that says that 3.5% of farmland in North Carolina, or upwards of 700,000 acres, is actually foreign-owned.
So, this is something that we've been looking at for a while now. The 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office actually looked at some of the issues with the reporting process. That foreign entities have to go through when they purchase or acquire US farmland. And so there's a lot of issues with this process. This data is collected under the Agriculture Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978.
And, you know, this. Information is not always updated in a timely way, which means the DOD doesn't have access to accurate information, which means they can't protect us accurately.
So, this is something that really we've been following for over a year now, even before that, since the report was commissioned by the GOA. And so, this is something that we've been looking at for a long time. And so, that's kind of the goal of this security action plan that has been rolled out by the Trump administration: kind of to close some of these loopholes and to fix some of these issues with the current reporting process. Let's turn our attention to North Carolina lawmakers in the General Assembly earlier this year in both the House and the Senate introduced two different pieces of legislation. They did follow the vast majority of the same trend, some minor differences between them.
But Katie was dealing exactly with this same issue. I can imagine some of this probably spawned from that federal report last year that you were just mentioning. That's exactly right, Nick.
So there were two different bills introduced both in the House and the Senate this year. One of them was the North Carolina Farmland and Military Protection Act, or HB 133, and that was sponsored by Representative Jennifer Bawcom, Representative Don Bell, Representative Jeff Zanger, and Representative Neil Jackson. I actually got to speak with Representative Jeff Zanger recently, and you know, he told me that not only did they introduce this bill this year, but they also introduced it the previous year. He said, you know, farmers are the most patriotic people in the country, and they just need to know, you know, who the enemy is and who they need, who they should and shouldn't be working with. And they're going to find ways to work around that.
So as long as they know who to trust and not trust, they're going to find ways to work around that and to work with that. They just need that information. And he said, I'm thrilled that the federal government is stepping up and realizing this could be a really big problem. And I think folks are starting to understand that even though we do have a global economy, there are vulnerable. Vulnerabilities that you know could create concern if we're not wise.
And so. He also said, you know. This bill was introduced not only in this session but in the previous session. And then there was also a bill introduced on the Senate side called the Prohibit Foreign Ownership of NC Land. And so basically, what this bill would do would prohibit land acquisition by adversarial nations.
There's some specific nations outlined in the bill: China, Iran, North Korea, Russia. But they could go back and expand that language and add other nations later on if that bill were to become law.
Now, both of these bills did make crossover, which happened in May. We have not seen any movement really since then, so I don't think we're going to see, unfortunately, any probably movement on them this session. But you never know when these bills could be revised. And even if they don't make movement this session or get past this session, there's a very good chance that they're going to be reintroduced next year. Yeah, they are stalled out right now.
Always, of course, the possibility that some of this language makes its way into either a full budget or mini budgets as we continue to track that progress as well. Katie, we appreciate the time this morning. A great update. Katie Zender with the Carolina Journal joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:52.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 11:10, 99.3 WBT. North Carolina has once again regained the top position from CNBC's America's Top State for Business in 2025. That annual ranking coming out yesterday evaluates all 50 states across 135 metrics in 10 key categories of competitiveness, including economy, business friendliness, workforce, infrastructure, and more. The Tar Hill State has been a top performer in the annual survey in recent years, claiming the number one spot in twenty two and twenty three and finishing second place in twenty one and twenty four. The survey highlighted some of North Carolina's strengths in business friendliness.
Here is how North Carolina ranked overall in the scorecard: third overall in economy, 11th in infrastructure, fourth in workforce, 21st in cost of doing business, fourth in business friendliness, 29th in quality of life, 13th in technology and innovation, sixth in education, eighth in access to capital and cost of living, 23rd. All of that added up gave North Carolina a score of 1,614, which made them the number one state for business. Donald Bryson, the CEO of the John Locke Foundation, says North Carolina's third CMBC top state for business title in four years is no accident. It reflects a decade of disciplined fiscal policy, competitive tax reform, and a regulatory climate that trusts entrepreneurs more than bureaucrats. The result is a 3.7% GDP surge, tens of thousands of new jobs, and a talent pipeline that rivals any in the nation.
Lawmakers should double down on this free market formula because the real winners are North Carolinians who enjoy greater opportunity and rising prosperity. Governor Josh Stein appeared in an interview yesterday morning with CNBC on the USS battleship North Carolina, that is just across from downtown Wilmington, and was asked about the current tax climate across the state. The governor told the CNBC host, quote, no one likes to pay taxes, so we want taxes to be as low as possible. But we need enough, enough to pay for excellent public schools, enough to pay for our community college and university system, enough to make sure that our roads are excellent. We have an incredibly good infrastructure across our state.
So let's get them as low as we can. We have the lowest corporate tax rate of any state that has a corporate tax income in the country. We have low personal income taxes.
So what I don't want us to do is imprudently continue to go to zero when we have all of this fiscal uncertainty coming from Washington. North Carolina legislative leaders welcomed the news, emphasizing the decades-long efforts Republicans have invested at the North Carolina General Assembly. Senate leader Phil Berger, the Republican out of Rockingham County, said: North Carolina offers unparalleled opportunity for businesses of all sizes. Since 2011, the Republican-led General Assembly has reshaped our state's business climate by slashing our tax rate, reducing regulatory hurdles, and supporting world-class educational and job training programs. Our community colleges and UNC system schools are a vital partner in preparing our citizens to fill thousands of jobs being created here and the existing ones.
We must double down on our efforts to support business growth and develop from Murphy to Manio. Our speaker Destin Hall piggybacked on those comments, saying we've taken a deliberate approach to fostering a business-friendly environment grounded in policies that reduce barriers to entry, promote competition, and encourage investment and growth. Being ranked number one for business yet again is just the latest example of the successful reforms implanted in North Carolina by the Republican-led General Assembly. With some more reaction from the business community, Andy Ellen, the president and general counsel of the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association, said North Carolina reclaiming CNBC's top state for business title is a testament to the outstanding work of our state's policymakers, business community, as well as education system, saying that it reflects the spirit of our state motto, to be rather than to seem. The North Carolina Retail Merchants Association is proud to play even A small part in this achievement as we continue working to make North Carolina the very best place in the country to operate retail business.
Other top states included Texas, Florida, Virginia, and Ohio, while Rhode Island, Montana, Hawaii, and Alaska ranked at the bottom of the list. There's a lot of very interesting and I'll argue pretty cool information that CNBC puts out as part of their annual study: America's Top State for Business. We've got that linked over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. The headline for the article: North Carolina ranks first in the nation for business. That's going to do it for a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour.
WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you Monday morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3 WBT.
