It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Tuesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, as we kick off the month of April, there is still pretty significant debate going on in the state of North Carolina about a budget and the state's financial future. On Monday this week, North Carolina Democrat Governor Josh Stein stressed in a post on social media that North Carolina is projected to face a $2.8 billion revenue shortfall over the next two years. With the governor writing in part, North Carolina has so much going for it. Our population is growing. Our reputation is first rate.
We cannot risk losing our momentum by putting putting irresponsible fiscal decisions on autopilot. The time is now to invest in our people. The recently released revenue forecast, which came from the Fiscal Research Division as well as the Office of State Budget and Management, that's OSBM, shows stronger than expected collections and projects $35.079 billion in general fund revenue for the fiscal year 25-26, which will end coming up here pretty shortly at the end of June of 2026. That same forecast also projects $34.72 billion for the fiscal year 26-27, which will start on July the 1st of this year. The revised forecast reflects an improving economic outlook as well as stronger tax collections across the Tar Heel State.
with economists at the state leg legislature's fiscal research division now expecting 6.7% growth in personal income in 25 through 26, which is up from 5.2% that was originally predicted and projected in May of 2025. Lawmakers do caution, however, that the rising costs and future tax cuts could stray North Carolina's finances, and that is one of the large reasons why we are without a budget here this morning on this 1st of April. As evidenced from his claim, a spokesperson for the governor cites the governor's recent column that ran. As it relates to the budgeting, in which the governor highlights what he calls North Carolina's impending fiscal cliff. As well as breaking down how the state got to where it is and why a change in the course is needed.
The spokesperson said that OSBM's income tax cuts would lead to larger structural shortfalls within the state of North Carolina, reflecting a projected gap between future revenues and the cost of maintaining current service levels, accounting for inflation as well as population growth. Stein's office said and responded to the Carolina Journal yesterday, saying, The gap is driven by the projection in the most recent consensus revenue forecast that our state revenue will hit two triggers for additional personal income tax cuts over the next few years. In other words, the $2.8 billion is the size of the shortfall the state would need to close if no changes are made. Brian Balfour, the senior vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation, told Carolina Journal that the most recent consensus forecast released just last week only showed revenue projections through this coming fiscal year, which as I mentioned begins on July the 1st, not for the next two years. With Balfour telling CarolinaJournal.com, this means that there's no revenue projections to use as a basis to predict a revenue shortfall in the second of the two years.
Additionally, revenue projections have been notoriously low over the past dozen years, producing massive surpluses every year except for the COVID lockdown year. Unless more compelling evidence comes forward, we can take Stein's warning with a grain of salt. The governor has also continued to advocate for passing his $1.4 billion critical needs budget before the General Assembly short session begins coming up in the month of April and mentions that those are needed. Adding the $1.4 billion figure from his critical needs budget over the next two years would also equal that $2.8 billion figure, but Stein's spokespeople said that that is a separate issue. North Carolina was the only state in the country in 2025 that did not pass a budget and relied on the previous biennium budget from two and a half years earlier to keep funding for needs and services across the state.
Democrat Governor Josh Stein was quick to remind everyone of that at a March the 9th press conference, saying, The state has added more than 300,000 people. The cost of living has increased by more than 6%, and the federal government is abandoning long-term commitments. Yet we have not had a full budget, so the state keeps operating at a baseline limping along.
so much so that the s that some things are already breaking for the state. The state faces certain critical needs that require immediate action. This is not the first time, for those that have been longtime listeners of the program, this is not the first time that he has criticized the legislature for not passing a full budget or funding the Medicaid rebase, which he did once again in his new budget request back just about three weeks ago. The governor also pointed out that both the North Carolina House and Senate agreed that it was underfunded as it relates to the rebase, but couldn't come to a mutual agreement. About $319 million is needed to fully fund the Medicaid rebase, even though both the House and Senate agreed last fall that only $190 million would be needed in their separate bills.
That was based on analysis by the General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division, and that Medicaid would be fully funded through the month of April.
So the clock is officially now ticking. Democrat Governor Stein also called for a 10% raise for correction officers, state troopers, and other state law enforcement, citing the shortage of police officers and correctional officers and that both rank 49th in the nation for starting pay. A few weeks later, he held a separate press conference focusing on the subject of public safety. This governor saying at a March the 9th press conference, this is a damned embarrassment. It should surprise no one that the State Highway Patrol now has more than 270 vacant positions.
Again, it should surprise no one that the Department of Adult Corrections has only half of the correctional officers needed to safely operate its prisons. We're asking people to put themselves in very demanding, albeit rewarding, jobs, asking their families to also sacrifice on behalf so that they can earn less money than they could if they worked at Costco. He also noted that there are approximately 1,000 more inmates within the Department of Corrections than there were three years ago, and that health care costs have risen by 10% over the past three years. As a result, the department needs $80 million to get back into the black and has focused and has been forced to ask vendors to, quote, float them on their bills, according to Governor Stein.
Some other requests from the governor's budget include a 10% raise for state nurses and health care workers who treat people with severe mental illness. Starting teachers would also get a 13% increase under the governor's recommendations. All teachers across the state, regardless of their amount of time in education, would receive a 6% raise, and master's pay would be restored for teachers and provide more pay increases for those that have been longtime educators in North Carolina. The governor also mentioned other urgent needs, including the State Bureau of Investigation, whose operational budget is in the red because its caseload has dramatically increased in recent years, as well as 262 child care programs that have closed since the last time the state passed a budget as part of what the governor called inadequate child care subsidies. Also, more than 1,400 children of veterans who were killed or injured have either had their scholarships reduced or were denied due to a lack of funding.
This battle has been going on now for almost a year between state lawmakers, the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly, and Democrat Governor Josh Stein.
Now, the governor claiming that the state is going to be in a nearly $3 billion budget shortfall over the next two years. We will watch as lawmakers make their way back to Raleigh this month and likely begin hashing out either some mini budgets or a full long-term budget. We'll keep you up to date with all the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. And of course, we'll have continued coverage and the latest over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. With VerboCare, help is always ready before, during, and after your stay.
We've planned for the plot twists, so support is always available. because a great trip starts with peace of mind. It's 5:20. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 WBT. We have continued tracking throughout the entirety of this week wildfires that continue to burn across the state of North Carolina.
A state burn ban does remain in effect this morning. Fortunately, crews within the North Carolina Forest Service, as well as local firefighter crews as well, have been making good progress. As of a couple of days ago, we were tracking six, seven different wildfires burning across the state, two in eastern North Carolina, the rest out west as of this morning. According to the latest information from the North Carolina Forest Service, there are four sites that they are monitoring or four active fires. The largest takes us to Wilkes County.
That is where 600 acres does remain burning this morning. That is now at a 50% containment again, according. to the Forest Service. Our next largest fire takes us out to Mitchell County, very, very close to the Tennessee border. 350 acres there, 90% containment.
So that seems to be getting under control. We've got 275 acres burning in McDowell County. That is only at 30% containment as that fire continues to grow. And another smaller wildfire in Wilkes County at 45 acres with 90% containment. With all of that, the North Carolina Forest Service has issued that statewide burn ban as those fires continue to burn across western North Carolina.
As of right now, again, we are watching four of those active fires burning across the state. According to officials, one of the fires, the Cane Creek Wildfire, much of that area is covered in storm debris left over from Hurricane Helene, which of course affected the state all the way back in September of 2024. Debris coupled With the drought severity across the state, caused the fire to burn hotter, more intensely, and unfortunately spread rapidly. Just yesterday, the North Carolina Forest Service is running what they are calling an infrared drone flight to survey the fire area and best identify target areas for suppression tactics. Areas with high heat indexes pose the most risk of potential reignition, with the North Carolina Forest Service saying that they are working alongside the Wilkes County Emergency Management and local fire departments to contain the fire.
Over the last few days, local officials cleared 20 homes under voluntary evacuation measures as the cause of these fires are still unknown. One of the other fires that we just looked at, the jumping branch fire, is located in McDowell County. The North Carolina Forest Service says that it has completed installing fire lines around the perimeter of the fire, while also noting much of the fire is also burning as a result of significant discarded storm debris left over from Hurricane Helene. The cause of the fire was determined to be the result of an Improperly discarded smoking material, like a cigarette or cigar, according to a press release from the North Carolina Forest Service, with an individual being charged in Marion, North Carolina, for starting a fire on grasslands, brushlands, woodlands without fully exhausting the flames. In the fiscal year 24-25, so that was the year that started.
That would have been July 1st of 2024 all the way to June, end of June 2025. The North Carolina Forest Service reported more than 5,600 wildfires across the state. Of those fires, 57 of them were attributed to smoking-related causes. With Philip Jackson with the North Carolina Forest Service telling Carolina Journal, any ignition source at this point could start a wildfire. No evacuations have been reported in many of the fires, which continue to burn either private or federal land, including some national forests across the western half of North Carolina.
Going back once again to Phil Jackson, who is the public information officer for the Forest Service, he told the Carolina Journal that 99% of these fires are caused by human activity. Noting that the primary culprit of wildfires is debris burning and carelessness, saying, quote, we are dealing with textbook fire weather. Anything that results in a spark could potentially start a wildfire. This burn ban that we have been talking about throughout the week did officially go into effect Saturday night, and it does prohibit open burning, and as well as canceling all statewide burn permits that had been previously issued, the ban is effective indefinitely, and new permits will not be issued until it is lifted. Steve Troxler, who is the Agriculture Commissioner here in North Carolina, said with drought severity across the state, forecast to fire weather, and the potential for limited rainfall, it is critical to reduce the number of new fire starts.
Vegetation fuels, vegetation, vegetative fuels will dry rapidly. And with the amount of fuel loading in the mountains and the drought impact statewide, a burn ban for all 100 counties is necessary to reduce the number of wildfires on our landscape. We were covering two wildfires outside of western North Carolina, one in Onslow County that was burning just south of Jacksonville. That only spread to at max 16 acres and is now 100% contained. There was also a small wildfire in Terrell County as well that has also been fully contained by crews with the North Carolina Forest Service.
So we are keeping an eye, especially on the western half of the state, as these fires continue to burn. And as that burn ban does remain in place, and it looks like those conditions will remain relatively ripe for fire concerns in the coming days. We'll keep you up to date with the latest. Right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, and of course over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We are going to be keeping a close eye on the North Carolina General Assembly coming up over the next couple of days as there is going to be a government operations subcommittee on hurricane response and recovery.
That is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Thursday, April the 2nd, within the North Carolina General Assembly. The group is set to meet at 10 o'clock in the morning, where once again, they will be getting an update on recovery and relief efforts that continue to take place in Western North Carolina. This meeting is scheduled to, again, take place in Raleigh. In which individuals that are part of the recovery efforts from various entities within state government will likely be in attendance, speaking to members of the General Assembly, including Senator Brent Jackson and Representative Brendan Jones. Jones in the House, obviously Senator Brent Jackson in the Senate, in which they will be continuing to follow through on what those relief and recovery efforts look like, how much more money would potentially the General Assembly need to dole out in this legislative short session, as there's the possibility of potentially a few little mini budgets to deal with some specific needs across the state of North Carolina.
We will be keeping an eye on that throughout the day tomorrow. We'll bring you the latest on CarolinaJournal.com and, of course, have everything you need to know over coming up here Friday morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:35. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. We are turning the clocks back to 2023 this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour and a very interesting story out of Pembroke, North Carolina.
That is in Robinson County, a relatively small town across our state. There was an election, municipal election that took place in the town back in 2023. And since that period of time, there's been a litany of legal challenges and court cases as it relates to that. We do have a conclusion to that story this morning to bring us up to date on the latest. Mitch Coke from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Mitch, crazy to sit here on this first day of April 2026 and be talking about an election that happened in November of 2023. What's the latest that you're following?
Well, the latest is the challenger in that election from 2023, who appeared to have won the mayoral election by 19 votes. Finally, he gets the election certificate saying that he won the race. What happened was this is a long-standing political battle between two figures in Pembroke, Charles Gregory Cummings and Alan Dial. They've run against each other for mayor several times dating back to 2015. The first time they ran against each other, there were enough election irregularities in the election that the state board of elections called for a new election, and Cummings ended up winning.
He won in a rematch in 2019, which did not prompt any sort of electoral disputes. But then in 2023, the third time that they faced each other, Dial appeared to win by 19 votes. Alan Dial, who is the challenger, former member of the Pembroke Town Board, who had often clashed with Cummings. But Cummings disputed the result, and he pointed to a number of irregularities that he saw in that election, including identifying up to 16 People who appeared to be homeless, but put as their mailing addresses for purposes of the election, commercial properties owned by Alan Dyle. And as the investigation moved forward, it turned out that Dial said, yes, I allowed some people to live on these properties.
And it was also put forward in the evidence of court hearings that Diales family members helped these folks with mail, helped get them to the polls, didn't tell them how to vote, didn't pay them to vote, which could have been disqualifying. But certainly there were some concerns raised, not only by the incumbent Charles Gregory Cummings, but also by at least one of the members of the state court of appeals that recently dealt with this, saying this could be a recipe for how you could win a close election in a small town, allow some people to live on your properties and allow them to vote for you in the upcoming election.
So shortly after this election took place in 2023, Cummings, the incumbent, Filed an election protest. Once he lost his election protest, he went to court. He has lost at all levels of court. The courts have always upheld Dial, the challenger, as the winner. And the most recent ruling had been in early March from the State Court of Appeals, a unanimous opinion.
A for dial against Cummings, saying that even with the voters that were identified who were suspect, that wasn't enough to overcome Allen Dial's 19-vote lead and that he should be the winner.
So, Cummings, who has served as mayor. Throughout this whole term, while Dial was apparently the winner, Cummings has been serving in office. He asked the state Supreme Court for an emergency stay. And as that request was in, the mandate from the State Court of Appeals, which is the official end of the State Court of Appeals ruling, they come out with a decision. And then a few weeks later, there's the mandate.
So the order officially comes into place. That took place. The State Board of Elections warned everyone that, hey, without any further action, we're going to issue this election certificate. And that basically will end the dispute because there's nothing else to dispute once the election's certified. And so they said, we're going to do this as of Monday morning.
And that's what ended up happening. The election certificate was given a dial. He was sworn into office. And then Tuesday. The state Supreme Court issued an order denying the request for temporary stay.
So that order came out after the certificate of election had already been given to Allen Dial, after he was already declared the winner. And there could be further legal action, but it doesn't look as if there would be anything that could overturn the election because all Cummings could get potentially would be a ruling from the state Supreme Court saying that there had been something unusual that had happened. But it's more likely that the state Supreme Court will just say, well, we can't take it up because now it's moot. The election's over. Dial's been certified.
And if you have any other problems, take it up with the Board of Elections or with the General Assembly, but we can't help you. Mitch, obviously, we're talking about this very small town in Robeson County. We're only talking about a couple thousand citizens in the entire town.
So let's be clear. This does not have a broad appeal across the entire state of North Carolina. But I think some of the interesting facts in this case, as we look at other, many, many other small towns that exist, both in the eastern and western half of the state, this is pretty concerning when you've got an election that takes place now almost two and a half years ago in the small town of Pembroke that has gone disputed this entire time. The now winner, as we know from the certification, as you noted, that was issued by the state board of elections just this week.
Meanwhile, the individual who lost that election continued to serve for all of that time. This is kind of an interesting situation that I would be surprised if the North Carolina General Assembly or somebody doesn't jump in and say, we need to find a better process for this, because as we know, with this term for now, Mayor Dial, that ends November of next year. he's going to get to serve less than two full years in an office that he won by 19 votes. Yeah, I think there are two big issues that come out of this that could have impact beyond Pembroke. One is the one that you just talked about, the fact that because Cummings was the incumbent and because he disputed this election result, he was able to continue serving in office despite the fact that he appeared to have lost throughout the whole legal process.
And so now that it is resolved, that is more than halfway through the mayoral term that Allen Dial appeared to win. And my guess is there are going to be at least some people in the State Board of Elections and perhaps the General Assembly who might want to look at whether that is the proper way to continue moving forward or if you come up with some other sort of resolution so that someone who has lost an election can't serve in the office for well over two years into the apparent winner's term. That's one issue. I think the other one is the one that I talked about earlier, and that is what to do. About detailing the residency of voters who don't have permanent housing.
Almost everyone who votes lives in a house, lives in an apartment or a townhome. You have an address. You give the elections board your address. They determine whether you're eligible to vote in a particular town or precinct or that matter. But in this case, we had in the neighborhood of 16 different voters who listed as their address.
Not only commercial property, which is not normally a home for someone, but commercial property owned by one of the candidates in the election. And so any sort of election correspondence would go and filter through that candidate. And Judge Donna Stroud of the Court of Appeals, who went along with the ruling that said Dial should win, nonetheless raised a lot of concerns and said she thought that the State Board of Elections and/or the General Assembly ought to look into this issue of homeless voters and establishing their residency and challenging their residency. Because the way that things played out in this case, there was no real way to challenge that residency before the election. And after the election, there was a limited amount of time.
And how did you prove or how could you prove one way or the other whether these folks lived at those addresses? She said that that was something that ought to be addressed because otherwise, what Alan Dial did in this election. Election, even though she agreed, everything showed that he ended up being the winner and should be certified. But what happened in this case from the challenger is the type of thing that a future candidate in another small-town election might want to try to help them get a few votes that might be the difference maker to help them win. Mitch, this is not the only time over the last couple of months that we've talked about residency and addresses.
This was a relevant story for the Republican Senate primary that just happened back in the early parts of March. Actually, the first candidate on the list by the name of Margot Dupree had a hearing in front of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. She has a homestead in Florida. She had, and I'm quoting her, glamper here in the state of North Carolina with no permanent address. The registration and her candidate filing address, I think it was a UPS or FedEx store somewhere in and around the Charlotte area.
So this is not only relevant for voters that might be homeless themselves, but also candidates and other individuals who maybe have more of this nomad lifestyle where they don't physically have a permanent address. They're living in an RV or some sort of other portable vehicle. And so, yeah, I think you're absolutely onto something there.
Somebody is going to have to deal with this. There's going to be likely more and more of these cases coming up. That's entirely possible. And I think the candidate issue is a little bit easier than the residence issue for voters because in the candidates, the parties themselves can play a role. If it looks like this is a person who doesn't really live in the district that he or she is running for, or in the case of Dupree, doesn't actually live in the state anywhere and have permanent residency.
The parties can try to make that known. And if the person's eventually disqualified, the party could put someone else in that person's place if they ended up winning. But I think that is something that probably will be addressed at some point. But also to be addressed is this issue of the people who are eligible to vote. And I think the issue that Judge Donna Stroud was raising in her concurring opinion when this Pembroke election was at the State Court of Appeals, the idea was.
This could be the recipe for someone in a very small town race that's only going to have a few hundred votes. If you know that there's likely to be just a handful of votes separating the winner from the loser, and you know that there are some people who are in non-permanent housing who you can say, look, you know, I'll let you stay in this spot and I'm not going to tell you how to vote. I'm not going to pay you to vote, but I'm the one providing your place to live. And I will expect that you probably will think about that when you're casting a ballot. That's the type of thing that could crop up again in North Carolina and could make a difference.
Now, in this case, as we said, the Cummings, the incumbent, only identified 16 people, only I say, but identified 16 people who seem to have fallen in this situation. And the vote differential between Cummings and Dial was 19 votes.
So it was not enough to swing the election. What about the... Case when an election is decided by five or six votes, and maybe there are 10 votes that are questionable in this way. That could be something that could swing an election toward one candidate or another. And it's the type of thing that you would think election reformers and people who care about election integrity would want to address at some point.
And so while we have a conclusion to this mayorial race in Pembroke going back to 2013 or 2023, excuse me, there's no question about it. We're likely to hear some more discussion on those points that, Mitch, that you're bringing up this morning. We appreciate the information and the insight. Continued coverage over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Good morning again. It's 5:56. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9, WBT, recapping one of the big stories that we are tracking this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein is now claiming that the state of North Carolina is set to face a nearly $2.8 billion revenue shortfall over the next two years. With the governor writing in part on social media, North Carolina has so much going for it.
Our population is growing. Our reputation is first rate. We cannot risk losing our momentum by putting irresponsible physical decisions on autopilot. The time is now to invest in our people. He is referring to automatic income tax cut triggers that are set to be met here across the state.
That if that sounds vaguely familiar to you, that is the current issue that has Republicans in both the North Carolina House and Senate in disagreement. And probably a large reason why North Carolina is the only state in the nation that did not pass a budget in fiscal year 2526. We are expecting lawmakers to be back in Raleigh over the next couple of weeks. There will likely be a lot of discussion, a lot of conversation on budgeting, whether it's a full budget or a litany of mini budgets. We'll keep you up to date with all the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Well, that's going to do it for an interesting Wednesday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FN News Talk, 107.9, WBT. Yeah.
