It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FMWBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. On Tuesday, State Auditor Dave Bullock appeared before the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety. That purpose of that appearance was to brief the committee on a soon-to-be released report from the auditor's office, more specifically, the Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency.
The acronym for that, Dave. Very similar and kind of mirroring some of the efforts early in 2025 in the United States with Doge. Bollock's presentation relates to the recently announced dashboard, which tracks Lapsed salaries and long-term vacancies, which are described as six months or longer across state agencies and state government. One of the jobs of the auditor's office is to give an objective picture of what the numbers look like in terms of the state's full-time employment and lapsed salaries, according to the state auditor. He did preface this by saying, I want to be clear about one thing.
This is a snapshot. All these numbers tend to be somewhat fluid. This is a snapshot in time that gives us today the opportunity to take a look at exactly what the issues are. The scope of the report spans from February 6th to August 6th of 2025, according to data from the Office of the State Human Resources and reported by various state agencies. The report audited 46 state agencies, including departments, offices, boards, and commissions.
Of these, 37 agencies had at least one long-term vacancy, with 21 agencies having 15 or more long-term vacancies. It is important to note that the UNC health system is not included in the report. UNC system universities and North Carolina community colleges also submitted information to the Office of the State Auditor.
However, those two much larger entities, both the community college and the UNC system, system will be and are set to be included in a future report. According to the report's findings, long-term vacancies account for some 11% of the state workforce as of July 31st, 2025. More than 14,000 positions within state government were vacant, and of those, 8,800 positions, a little bit more than 8,800, have been vacant for at least six months or longer. That is out of more than the 79,813 total positions across state government, just shy of 80,000 employees. Of the more than 8,000 long-term vacancies, 13% were filled between August 6th and October the 1st, 2025, with another 9% of long-term vacancies planning to be eliminated between August the 6th and October the 1st.
Funding cuts or uncertainty accounted for 10% of long-term vacancies. Again, out of the more than 8,800 positions that were in that long-term status. Just shy of 2,000 of them or 22% were never actually posted by the state agencies, indicating to Bollock a lack of intent to fill the positions, and in some cases, an intent to generate lapsed salaries by the various state agencies and departments. 774 positions, or 9%, are purportedly kept vacant to generate lapsed salaries and cover expenses, such as operations. Another 10% of long-term vacancies were unexplained by various state agencies.
In compiling the information, every single state agency was contacted and asked to submit its information. As reported early reports earlier this month came out, more than a billion dollars in lapsed salaries were identified in long-term vacancies across North Carolina, which includes appropriated dollars, receipts, and federally. Funded positions. According to State Auditor Dave Bullock, some of these positions are made but not filled and essentially serve as placeholder positions.
Now, we did report on lap salaries over the last couple of months, and it's exactly what it sounds like. When a state agency has a position with a salary of, let's say, $100,000 a year, including benefits, if nobody fills that position each and every month, the state agency is able to essentially collect that money and turn it into what is called a lapsed salary, in which that money can be reappropriated within the department, within the agency, and used for a large swath of needs that is deemed by the agency. Jared Kronk, the director of DAVE, the Division of Accountability, presented the committee with the report's results and recommendations. The project started with sending a request to all state agencies for information, including details on all positions that have been vacant for six months or longer, as well as explaining the use of public funds to execute their powers and duties under state law. The obligation of the Auditor's Office is to report findings to the North Carolina General Assembly and to the public.
A part of the Dave Act, which was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly this year and put in place, did require those reports to be delivered directly to lawmakers in Raleigh. The project focused on long-term vacancies as of August the 6th, 2025, and those lapsed salaries resulting from the vacancies. Lap salaries are officially defined as dollars not expended during the period of time. in which the position has been vacant. Lap salaries can be used for one-time non-recurring expenses.
However, they cannot be used to fund permanent positions or increase the salary of already existing employees. The report's objectives include identifying all long-term vacancies across the state of North Carolina, including their duration, total count, and whether the position has been posted and applications received. Kronk also outlined the potential cost saving of eliminating certain positions with state auditor Dave Bollick saying, the state auditor is not in a position to cut positions or add positions. Our job is to take a data-driven approach. Look and get the actual facts.
To be sure, not everybody's going to like the facts, but the facts are what they are. And here are some of the findings and some of the additional details from this report given to the North Carolina General Assembly. The 748 positions that agencies do not intend to fill because there's no public application available, nobody's applied for the job could result in cost savings of more than $32.1 million. 213 positions that have been vacant for a minimum of five years yields a cost savings of some $9.2 million. More than 1,300 positions that have been vacant for three years or more would result in a cost saving of a whopping $65.2 million.
State Auditor Dave Bollock said, I want to be really clear about this. There are likely and should be deliberations from this body across the state government on where adding full-time employees delivers a return on investment to the state of North Carolina and the citizens of our state. Our office has not been able to investigate. Shielded away from those recommendations. Similar recommendations were made to the Division of Motor Vehicle, and full-time employees were added to the department.
With Bollock saying it would be unfair for any report or person to say that the state auditor's office only looks to cut positions. Bollock explained that he wanted to allow every state agency to contextualize its vacant positions after reading a draft version of the report, which was submitted to every state agency listed in the report. Those submissions from those state agencies were due by January the 7th, with Bollock anticipating delivering a full narrative report, which will exceed some 500 pages in length and release it to the public sometime later in the month of January. With the state auditor saying our commitment is to be data-driven. And as part of that, we want to include every single state agency's contextualization of those positions.
To not do so would otherwise not be fair. Recommendations made by the auditor's office to the General Assembly's oversight committee included to make improvements to lap salary tracking and reporting, that agency budget should reflect actual expenditures for providing services and fulfilling responsibilities, that salaries should be competitive with neighboring states, that administrative delays should be reduced by streamlining workflows and increasing accountability, as well as tracking and the oversight of hiring. And finally, that vacancies should be improved and positions eliminated based on defined criteria. Again, that full report is expected to be released to the public sometime coming up later this month, with universities and college reports to be followed up.
Sometime this spring. Any additional Dave Act data will be available on a dashboard.
Some of those changes and information will be continually rolled out to the dashboard provided by the auditor's office as we get into the spring and summer months. With committee members also giving a demonstration on how to utilize and navigate that dashboard. We do have a link to that as well over on our website this morning. You can read the entire story, read some additional information on the Dave Act and that more than $1.04 billion in lapsed salaries that have been generated here across the state of North Carolina. All those details on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
Uh Mm. It's 22 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. I'm Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT. North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls has recently disclosed a breast cancer diagnosis.
However, she says she does plan to remain in the 2026 judicial race while receiving treatments. In a statement released this week, Earls said that the cancer was detected late last year and that she underwent successful surgery over the holidays. She is scheduled for additional treatments in January, noting that medical professionals have given her a positive prognosis. In the statement directly from Earls, who again is a member of the North Carolina Supreme Court, she writes, This diagnosis is another hurdle to overcome. But let me be clear.
I'm staying in the race to keep my seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. I've never backed down from a tough fight, and I'll always stand up for the rights of all North Carolinians. Earls, who has served on the Supreme Court since 2019, said she will continue to campaign statewide while managing her treatment and recovery. And the high court currently has a five to two Democrat majority with Earls as one of two Democrats. Earls spent more than 30 years as a civil rights attorney, focused on election policy, school desegregation, and discrimination cases, with her also being outspoken in opposition to recent federal immigration enforcement in the state of North Carolina.
She is expected to face Republican state representative Sarah Stevens, the Republican from Surrey County, in a general election for Supreme Court seat number one. That will be coming up later this year, November of 2026, with Stevens officially filing to run in late 2025 and positioning herself as a conservative alternative on the Bench. Stevens is a lawyer from Mount Airy and has served in the North Carolina House of Representatives since 2009. The Earl-Steven contest is one of several statewide judicial races set for the 2026 campaign cycle. The general election is set for November the 3rd, with primary elections taking place on March the 3rd of this year.
Important to note that Earls nor Stevens either face a primary opponent, so it is off-to-the-races for both of them. They will battle against each other. Coming up in November, that's when the election will be. We'll see that campaign kick up. We'll see how that plays out here across the state of North Carolina.
If Earls is able to retain her seat, it will remain a 5-2 Republican majority. If Sarah Stevens is able to win in November, that will move the structure, the political structure of the North Carolina Supreme Court to a 6-1 Republican majority. We'll continue to track this and many other statewide races in the coming year, right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. In some other statewide news this morning, as many folks are tearing down the Christmas tree and moving it to the curb, Christmas tree growers are wrapping up a very busy season here in North Carolina, marked by consistent sales, stable production, all of that, despite broader economic pressures. According to Will Colloway, who is a Christmas tree specialist in terms of production and marketing for NC State University.
University told the Carolina Journal: We had really good conditions for them to grow this year. We had rain spread out throughout the year, other than all at once. We had a good summer with not much drought, so the trees looked really good. Colloway also said that this was an average year for Christmas tree sales across the Tar Heels state, with Black Friday weekend being the busiest point of the season, as it is each and every year. And this was incredibly relevant to keep an eye on because, of course, in September of 2024, Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina, affecting tens of thousands of individuals.
The storm also affected most of the Christmas tree farms in Western North Carolina, where they are very prominent. The farms in Avery, Ashe, and Watauga counties were hit especially hard by Hurricane Helene. The farmers were resilient, however, working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to open roads and build bridges to be able to welcome customers last Christmas season, which also included the 2024 White House Christmas tree from Canter's Christmas tree farm in Newland, North Carolina. With Colloway noting, Hurricane Helene is still on the minds of a lot of people. 30 to 40,000 trees were wiped out by landslides.
However, we cultivate about 53 million trees and harvest anywhere between 2 and 3 million a year.
So while it does hurt to lose thirty to forty thousand, we had no problem with supply, and we don't foresee there being any supply issues in the future due to Helene, Colway told the Carolina Journal. Christmas tree farming means a lot to North Carolina as it is the second largest specialty crop in the state, only behind sweet potatoes. According to Colway, Christmas trees alone produce about $150 million annually to the state's economy. And if you add greenery and agricultural tourism, that number can soar as high as anywhere between $250 and $400 million a year. North Carolina is the second largest Christmas tree production state in the nation, behind only Oregon.
Colloway added that the Fraser fir grows best in North Carolina, and because of that, he likes to say we are number two in production, but number one in value. The North Carolina Christmas Tree Association posted on social media this week asking real tree owners to recycle their Christmas tree. As the holiday season ends, your tree can be found for farm, can be food rather, for farm animals or transformed into a nourishment-rich mulch for soil. Even after the destruction that Hurricane Helene brought to Western North Carolina, the state's Christmas tree industry was better and stronger in 2025 after very good weather for the most part throughout the year. People also continue to support Western North Carolina and their businesses after Hurricane Helene.
This is one of many stories in our continued coverage of the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina as September of 2024 rolled around. The devastation and destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Helene does continue to be a major topic here in North Carolina. You can read some additional coverage, not only on the pretty strong Christmas tree season here in North Carolina, but all of the other recovery efforts that continue across the state. Those details available this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That headline story, North Carolina Christmas tree season ends strong.
Okay. It's 5:36. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. A good Thursday morning to you.
We are tracking a pretty important decision coming out of the North Carolina Court of Appeals as it relates to appointments to the judicial seats and the North Carolina Utilities Commission here across the state of North Carolina. This is a legal challenge that we've covered a couple of times over the last few months here on the Carolina Journal News Hour as we continue the discussion of the Republican legislature being pitted against Democrat governor Josh Steinen, who really has the power to make some of these appointments. To walk us through the latest from the Court of Appeals this morning, Mitch Gokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, pretty substantial update. What you got for us?
Yeah, you know, there have been several cases, Nick, pitting Governor Josh Stein against Republican legislative leaders, and all of them involve, in some respects, appointments and who has the power to make them. This particular lawsuit that we're talking about now is one that dealt with. Appointments to fill statewide judicial vacancies.
So, if there's a vacancy on the North Carolina Court of Appeals or on the state Supreme Court, what are the rules governing that? The second major piece of it dealt with the Utilities Commission and shifting one of Governor Josh Stein's appointments away to the treasurer, Brad Briner, who's a Republican. And the third piece, which has gotten less attention and basically has been resolved, were changes made to something called the State Building Code Council. Piece of the suit has pretty much been resolved, but the two active pieces are the judicial vacancies piece and the utilities commission piece. I'm going to start with the judicial vacancies piece.
When this case reached a three-judge trial court panel, the panel ruled that the General Assembly had overstepped its authority and said that Governor Josh Stein should be able to appoint basically whoever he wants to appoint if there's ever a vacancy in the State Court of Appeals or the State Supreme Court. Meaning, even if you had elected a Republican to that post. Governor Josh Tyne could put a Democrat in there. And basically, that's what has happened when there have been vacancies in the recent past when a Republican has won an election and moved from the Court of Appeals to the state Supreme Court. There's a vacancy on the Court of Appeals.
But former Governor Roy Cooper didn't have to appoint a Republican, and so he didn't. He appointed a Democrat to replace the Republican. The state law, Senate Bill 382 passed in 2024, said no, if the person leaving either the state Court of Appeals or the state Supreme Court was elected with a political party behind his or her name, then the governor can only appoint someone who has been recommended from a list of three names from the political party of that person who departed. This is something that's already done in replacing people to the legislature, for example.
So, Mitch, that's what I was going to bring up. And folks may have seen this locally in California. County commission races or school board races, typically you see some leapfrogging going on there.
Somebody moves from the school board, they run for county commission, and you typically see if they're a Democrat, well, not typically, you do see if they're a Democrat, the new replacement is appointed by the Democrat Party. If you're a Republican, you're replaced by the Republican Party.
So, this is something that people are probably already familiar with, having seen it unfold in their local communities before. Yes, people should be familiar with this concept because it does come into play quite often.
Now, what the trial court said in this case was that the General Assembly could not make that change. It overstepped its authority and that Governor Stein should have the freedom to appoint anyone he wants to.
Now, with a ruling that came down from the State Court of Appeals, the majority in that opinion, two to one, said that the General Assembly did nothing wrong and it was able to place that new restriction and force the governor to appoint someone of the same political party that just departed either as a judge or a justice.
So that was one piece. The second piece, the State Court of Appeals upheld also in a 2-1 vote, what the trial court had said on the Utilities Commission. What had happened in the past was there are five seats on the State Utilities Commission, which oversees your electricity, your phone bills, anything that's considered a utility. The General Assembly had two appointments. to that commission, the governor had three appointments.
The General Assembly took one of the governor's appointments and gave it to the state treasurer, a Republican, Brad Briner. And at the trial court level, the court said that was fine. And so that actually enabled Treasurer Brad Breiner to appoint Don Vandervaart. Former state environmental secretary and the director of the Office of Administrative Hearings, he got an appointment to the Utilities Commission. That took effect on July 1st.
And now the Court of Appeals has upheld that piece of the ruling. In fact, if you look at the Court of Appeals ruling, It actually ruled in favor of the General Assembly in all regards.
So there was a sort of a mixed ruling at the trial court level. The Court of Appeals basically said the General Assembly was fine doing everything it did that Governor Josh Stein challenged. And Mitch, specifically when you talk about this Utilities Commission case, some of our listeners and viewers might be familiar with some of the previous challenges that we've discussed as it related to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. We saw something very similar there. Instead of giving the appointment authority to the treasurer, they gave it to state auditor Dave Bullock.
There's been some legal challenges on that as well. This seems like it's a broader movement by the North Carolina General Assembly. And seemingly from what it really boils down to is what is the executive branch, Mitch? Is it just the governor or is it the entire Council of State, of which all were elected by people all across the state of North Carolina, from the mountains to the coast, the Virginia to the South Carolina border? Yeah, you're exactly right.
And this has actually cropped up in several suits. You mentioned another suit that is still at the Court of Appeals now, and that is the one about moving election board appointments from the governor to the state auditor. Because of a trial court ruling, that was allowed to happen. And the auditor now oversees appointments to both the state board of elections and all the county boards of elections, which flipped them from 3-2 in Democrats' favor to 3-2 in Republicans' favor. Then we had this ruling that deals with the Utilities Commission.
There was another suit involving different boards in which the General Assembly took appointments that the governor had and moved them to other members of the Council of State. Shockingly, also Republicans in this case, either the Agriculture Commissioner, Steve Troxler, or the Insurance Commissioner, Mike Cossey. And to date, all of the courts that have had a final say in any of these cases have said that it's okay for the General Assembly to move an appointment from the governor. To another member of the Council of State because the appointment remains in the executive branch and doesn't go from the executive branch directly to the legislature.
Now, interestingly enough, in this case, the dissenting judge, Allegra Collins, who is a Democrat, basically said that moving that utilities commission appointment from the governor to the treasurer was not really keeping it in the executive branch. She picked up on the governor's argument saying that because the legislature gave this appointment power to the treasurer, the General Assembly could decide at any time to take it away from the treasurer and give it to someone else, which means in her view and in the governor's view that it's basically the legislature controlling this appointment. The majority didn't buy that. And as things stand right now, that decision to be able to move the appointment to the treasurer stands. Mitch, I've got a two-part question for you.
I want you to wrap up with discussing what some of the next steps could be for folks like Josh Stein and those challenging. But as you have joined us, I mean, I don't even know how many times at this point, dozens of times talking about these various legal challenges, we now have a pretty solid ruling in favor of the Republican-led General Assembly at the Court of Appeals. Does that make these other cases that are currently pending, as you just noted, does this protect the General Assembly from future lawsuits and future cases where, I mean, Mitch, they can come back here anytime in 2026 and continue to shuffle around appointment authority. Does this make the road easier for them moving forward? And what are some of the next steps for those that are not on the side of the General Assembly?
Well, it could make it easier for the General Assembly if it wants to make more appointment changes like this, because courts, as I've said, in all of the final rulings that we've seen so far, have said the General Assembly can move appointment powers within the executive branch from the governor to another member of the Council of State.
Now, one of the things that's a caveat is that some of the previous rulings that have helped pave the way for these rulings have said all of these are very fact-intensive cases, meaning that you can't just say, well, we ruled this way in this case, so that automatically means every other case has to turn out the same way. The courts will have to look at the facts of particular cases, see how they fit in with what's been done before. But I think it does mean that it's a little bit more likely that the General Assembly can be able to do what it's done in this case in other instances. I think one of the particularly interesting things about what happens in this case is: does Governor Josh Stein appeal? We've seen in some of the other cases there have been rulings that have been mixed bags for the General Assembly and the governor.
And so sometimes the General Assembly has appealed.
Sometimes the governor has appealed. In one case that's still out there dealing with appointments. The General Assembly has appealed. Governor Josh Stein has asked the Supreme Court not to take the case. But he says if the Supreme Court does take the case, then take up my appeal, but I'd rather you not.
In this case, if there's an appeal, it would only be from Governor Josh Stein. And I'm not sure he's going to want to do that. I'm not sure he's going to want to have the state Supreme Court as it stands now give a definitive ruling that would say, yes, what the General Assembly did in this case is fine, and any other instance just like it is fine. He may just cut his losses and say, okay, I lost on this. And let's not have the state Supreme Court put an even more firm precedent in place saying that the General Assembly was within its rights to do what it did.
And Mitch, part of the reason why that might be the case is due to the fact that there's a very heavy conservative lien currently on the state's highest court. I don't remember exactly off the top of my head of what the breakdown is, but there's a strong Republican majority. It doesn't go any higher in terms of any of these state challenges. These are not federal, so you can't necessarily jump into the Fourth Circuit or somewhere else. When the state Supreme Court rules on it, I mean, it's pretty much said and done at that point.
There's not much vertical room past that. That's right. And we have a 5-2 Republican majority on the state Supreme Court right now. And that won't change, barring unusual circumstances, that won't change any time between now and the 2028 election because there is one state Supreme Court seat up for grabs this year, 2026. It's held by a Democrat now.
So even if Democrats win the election this year, they will do no better than the 5-2 deficit that they have now the next time Democrats even have a shot. at taking control of the state Supreme Court would be after the 2028 election.
So if any of these cases are resolved completely before we get to the 2028 election, they will be resolved by a court with a substantial Republican majority. We've got additional coverage of this story and some of these other legal challenges that do pit the governor against the North Carolina General Assembly. Those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the information and analysis this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
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Good morning again. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:52 on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. Continuing our coverage of some statewide news this morning, more than $12 million was recently awarded to communities in eight North Carolina counties by the North Carolina Department of Commerce from the department's community development block grant for neighborhood revitalization, known as a CDBGNR program. The grants fund housing and public improvements for moderate and low-income individuals.
Governor Josh Stein said in a press release Stronger neighborhoods depend on affordable homes and economic opportunities. These grants will enable local leaders to improve housing, public spaces, help families build stability, and support long-term economic growth for North Carolinians across the state. Avery County is receiving the largest allotment, nearly $5 million for Avery County, with Jackson County receiving the next biggest allotment at $2.5 million, according to the press release. The town of Bethel in Pitt County, the town of Elm City in Wilson County, the town of Nashville in Nash County, that's North Carolina, as well as the town of LaGrange in Lenore County, are each set to receive just shy of $1 million. The town of Wallace in Duplin County is receiving $556,000.
And finally, the town of Sandyfield in Columbus County receiving $143,000. Kelly Lester, who is a policy analyst for the Center for Food, Power, and Life at the John Locke Foundation. Told the Carolina Journal: history shows that block grant-style neighborhood aid programs often struggle to deliver lasting results. These programs funnel taxpayer dollars through layers of government with little evidence that sustainability improves affordability or economic mobility. Instead of repeating a model with mixed track records, North Carolina should focus on policies that actually work, such as reducing zoning and permitting barriers, lowering construction costs, and allowing private investment to respond to the community's needs.
Without addressing those fundamentals, block grants risk developing expensive short-term investments rather than engines of real neighborhood revitalization. The Community Development Block Grant Program is a program of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, that is HUD, and it is partially administered by the North Carolina Department of Commerce's Rural Economic Development Division. According to a press release, the program requires that at least 70% of the CDBG grants need to be used to fund projects that benefit low to moderate income households. Commerce Secretary here in North Carolina, Lee Lilly, said in the press release, grants from the Neighborhood Revitalization Program help advance our long-standing mission to improve economic well-being and quality of life for all North Carolinians. These funds will help Hurricane Helene impacted areas as well as other rural communities improve economic prosperity for their residents.
The program uses a formula-based approach to provide annual grants to states, counties, and cities for the development of. Urban communities to provide sustainable living environments as well as decent housing, as well as expanding economic opportunities for low and moderate individuals, according to HUD. Earlier this year, HUD approved a massive $1.4 billion community development block grant. That was one of the part of the disaster recovery programs at HUD. That money, of course, going to Western North Carolina.
To continue to provide a housing rehabilitation and, in some cases, complete rebuildings of complete rebuilding of houses and neighborhoods throughout the western half of our state.
However, as we heard from Kelly Lester, there are questions about these programs, especially ones that are late rolled out in more rural communities. And what do the long-term economic impacts of some of these programs look like? We're talking about $12 million being allocated from the North Carolina Department of Commerce to those communities across the state of North Carolina. That mixed bag, that mixed track record does have the eye of many, many policy analysts and lawmakers. You can read some additional details this morning by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
The headline story: NC receives $12 million in community block grants. That's going to do it for a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next. Followed by Good Morning, BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT.
