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It's 505 and welcome in to a Tuesday 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. We start off this morning with some pretty big news out of our state capitol that is getting a reaction from across the state of North Carolina. This is a discussion over a merger between Wake Med and Charlotte-based Atrium Health. This was set to be a major topic of discussion at the Wake County Board of Commissioners meeting last night.
However, that vote has now been postponed as many elected officials across the state, including multiple members in the North Carolina General Assembly, as well as individuals like state treasurer Brad Breiner and state auditor Dave Bolick jumped into the fray over the weekend, encouraging the Wake County Board of Commissioners, their county commission group, to postpone the vote, which is exactly what they did last night. State Treasurer Brad Breiner and State Representative Mike Scheetzel of Wake County issued social media posts over the weekend indicating that they thought that the vote might not take place on Monday. They thought that they were successful in convincing the Wake County Board of Commissioners to delay the vote, and that is exactly what happened.
Meanwhile, State Auditor Dave Bullock also issued a public request Sunday for the commissioners to delay the vote. The state treasurer took to social media late on Sunday to write in part, this weekend I sent a letter to the Wake County Commissioner sharing my concerns with the atrium slash WakeMed merger. Thankfully, the board is going to delay the vote. This proposed move will increase already high health care costs with no meaningful investment in Wake County. Representative Mike Schieetzel, who is in the member of the North Carolina General Assembly, he's in the House, one of the Republicans in Wake County, saying, I've heard from our Wake County commissioners this morning, and they intend to delay this vote, and that is the right move.
This merger will significantly impact the costs and quality access of care across Wake County. It merits a transparent, deliberative process. With him following up by saying, I've never seen one of these hospital consolidations. That ends up lowering prices and improving quality. We need to slow down until we have all of the information.
Other representatives jumping into this as well, including Representative Aaron Perre, also a Republican member out of Wake County, saying, I could have not said it better myself, referring to some of the comments from Representative Schizo, one of her colleagues in the North Carolina House.
Now, on over to some of the statewide reaction. We heard from State Auditor Dave Bollock, who wrote in a letter over the weekend: the rollout of the proposed hospital takeover raises serious questions. The lack of transparency does not instill confidence. In fact, it calls for greater scrutiny and explanation. In the interests of the people of Wake County and of all of the citizens in North Carolina, the vote to approve Wake Med's amended Articles of Incorporation, currently scheduled for May the 4th, 2026, should be delayed.
And I'd applaud any decision to delay this vote, which, as I just mentioned a few minutes ago, did in fact happen last night. Atrium and Wake Med's plan are planning a quote strategic combination. Including a $2 billion atrium commitment to Wake Meds initiatives, according to a document posted in connection with the Wake County Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday evening. The release of that information came Friday afternoon with the publish of some of the meeting documents, as is pretty typical for government meetings. A couple of days beforehand, you get a full copy of the agenda, all of the supporting documents, all of the other information that the board or commission is set to discuss.
And it prompted that pretty swift reply from state lawmakers and other elected officials, including state treasurer Brad Briner, who posted a letter saying, There is a simple business principle that when supplies consolidate and competition is reduced, it is the consumers who suffer. This has been proven to be true time and time again in the healthcare landscape, where prices continue to rise and patients are left with mounting medical debt. I look forward to the Attorney General. General and the FTC, that's the Federal Trade Commission, carefully scrutinizing this proposal and what it could mean for the people across our state. If history is any guide, this merger will not benefit the public.
Atrium, frequently described as North Carolina's largest hospital system, Is a part of Advocate Health, which labels itself the nation's third largest nonprofit hospital system. Founded in 1961, Wake Med, I should say, has three acute care hospitals, a physical rehabilitation hospital, and a mental health hospital for a total of 973 beds throughout Wake County and the Triangle, according to its website. Noting on their site, our physician practices are home to more than 350 physicians representing nearly every specialty. According to information provided to the Wake County Board of Commissioners, it reads in part: recently, Wake Med leadership informed the county of its plans for a strategic combination with Atrium Health Incorporated. Atrium Health combined with Advocate Aura Health in 2022 to create Advocate Health Incorporated, which is headquartered in Charlotte.
At its April board meeting, the Wake Med Board of Directors. Unanimously approved this transaction, allowing Wake Med to become an affiliate with Advocate Health Enterprises. The letter goes on in the county commission agenda: reading: Wake Med intends to convert from a non-member nonprofit to a single-member nonprofit, in which atrium health becomes the sole member to ensure unified governance, consistent oversight, and alignment with system objectives. The agenda item went on to say: Wake Med will continue as the same legal entity without dissolving or reincorporating. And as part of the transaction, Atrium Health will make a $2 million capital commitment to further Wake Med's strategic initiatives.
The deal would require Wake County commissioners and their group for approval for the amended proposed documents and restated Wake Med's Articles of Incorporations. As commissioners would maintain control of eight seats. On WakeMed's 14-member governing board, which is, if you're looking at the map, there is very relevant as those commissioners appoint what could be described as the majority on the WakeMed board. The commissioner's agenda document went on to say WakeMed will reinstate its commitment to maintaining or approving the existing level of health care services to the citizens of Wake County and surrounding areas, including community health care in the region. The county is not contributing to any funding and will not be conveying of any new property or assets as part of the Wake Med transaction.
Wake Med's history dates back to 1955 when voters approved a bond for a local hospital that it would open, as I mentioned, back in 1961 as a 380-bed memorial hospital. Originally a public hospital, Wake Med now operates as a private, not-for-profit corporation. We have had many discussions here on this program over the last couple of years and have covered it for much longer over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
Some of the skyrocketing health care costs across the state of North Carolina. Multiple surveys just in the last year consistently put North Carolina at the bottom of the list in terms of health care affordability, either right at the bottom or pretty close to the bottom from many national surveys as health care costs remain a hot topic. of conversation within the state. This also brings up the discussion about certificate of need, something we've talked about extensively here on the Carolina Journal News Hour as well, the process in which medical systems like WakeMed or Atrium. Are required to go to the state of North Carolina to go to a review board and request additional certificates for a variety of different things within their health care systems.
It could include MRIs, additional beds, other more expensive and complex medical equipment. All of that is funneled through the state of North Carolina. A review board determines from their vantage point whether that system needs or not needs some of those additional services. That is why it is called a Certificate of Need. C-O-N.
There has been continued discussion in the North Carolina General Assembly for years now about repealing portions of the state certificate of need law, which many who are in favor argue would increase some level of competition, allowing other hospital systems, other health care providers to make the financial investment to purchase maybe unique specialized equipment. In many places across the state right now, that equipment is very hard. To come by, there may only be one provider, if any, in a region that can provide a certain kind of piece of equipment or test. The proponents of dissolving certificate of need argue that removing that overburdensome state regulation will increase that level of competition and give the consumers, you and I, that take advantage of health care services throughout the year, give us the opportunity to get access to higher quality, more affordable health care. We are in the legislative short session right now with this discussion being as prominent as it is, a major discussion of a merge between Wake Med and Atrium.
It will be interesting to see, especially for a couple of the Wake County, Wake County members in the General Assembly, as I mentioned, Aaron Peray, Mike Sheetzel, if they will maybe spearhead some of these charges in the legislative short session, which is set to run for the next two months or so. We will keep an eye on this vote in Wake County as the Wake County commissioners did officially vote. Last night to delay a proposed vote and discussion over the merger between Wake Med and Atrium Health, based in Charlotte. You can read more. We've got copies of all the letters from Brad Briner, from state auditor Dave Bollock, the commentary from Representatives Pere and Sheetzel, all of that available this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
Look for the story: Wake County Commissioners Could Delay Atrium Wake Med merger vote.
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And It's 5:22. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good Tuesday morning to you. We've got some pretty exciting news here across the state of North Carolina with a strong federal tie-in.
The United States Department of Agriculture has officially announced that Raleigh is set to become home of the USDA's, that's the United States Department of Agriculture's research hub. This is part of a decentralization plan that we announced and brought to you during the summer of 2025.
However, getting some more clarity this morning from USDA. This falls under the Food and Nutritional Assistance Administration, the FNA announcement. According to a USDA press release, Secretary of Agricultural Brooke Rollins announced that the USDA would be restructuring back on July the 24th of 2025. In that initial announcement, It was announced that Raleigh, our state capital, would be one of five hubs located across the United States to which the USDA would be relocated.
However, at the time, we did not know exactly what facilities or what things would be going on at the USDA hub in Raleigh. We now know that it will be their research division. According to Brooke Rollins in a press release, she wrote, on my first day leading the People's Department, I shared several commitments to our state, tribal, territorial, and local government partners, including prioritizing customer service and infusing each nutrition program with new energy and vision. This reorganization is designed with those commitments in mind. I look forward to working with our partners as we continue to nourish children and families in need through nutrition programs that not only are provided by America's farm families, but also programs that pave a pathway to better health and economic stability.
So here are the five hubs and exactly what's going to be going on there in Indianapolis. That is going to be the hub for SNAP. That's the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as Food Stamps. Over to Dallas, Texas, that is where the children's nutrition program is going to be housed. Kansas City, that's where the supplemental nutrition and safety programs will be based out of.
As I mentioned in Raleigh, that is where all of the research programs are going to take place. And finally, in Denver, Colorado, that is the site for the emergency management and continuity of operations.
So that will be taking place in Denver in those five different hubs. Steve Troxler, who is North Carolina's Agricultural Commissioner, told the Carolina Journal News Hour: North Carolina has a strong, successful, and collaborative history of agricultural research in cooperation with our land-grant universities.
So it is welcome news that the USDA intends to move some of its agricultural research projects to Raleigh as part of its reorganization process. I believe agricultural research will be key in increasing agricultural. Production and efficiency that will be needed to meet future food and fiber needs. While we don't have any additional details, I know that we have outstanding research partners in our state. Closing quote there from Agricultural Commissioner Steve Troxler.
The purpose of the decentralization plan is to bring the USDA and all of its various affiliated groups closer to the people it supports and to lower the cost of living for its employees, with Raleigh being chosen as one of those five locations with a federal locality rate of just 22.2%.
Some changes to hub locations seem to have been made already, as last summer the remaining four hub locations were reported to be in Kansas City, Indianapolis, Indiana, Fort Collins, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah, with many of those facilities, even though some are going to remain as these long-term USDA hubs.
Some of them will be phased out almost. completely. USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden said, this reorganization is long overdue. The Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Service Mission area has not made and had a Senate confirmed leader under Secretary in nearly two decades. And the shift to the Food and Nutrition Administration will better align with other benefit programs administered across the federal government.
This reorganization also reduces some duplicate management and complexity within the agency, better prioritizing state services and participant needs, and expanding the department's presence to fight fraud, waste, and abuse. Vaden took a personal tour of one of the facilities with Raleigh Mayor Jeanette Cowell during a visit to our state capitol last September. At the time, visiting that facility just a month after it was announced that the USDA would be opening one. Of their five hubs here in North Carolina. John Sanders, who is the director of the Center for Food, Power, and Life at the John Locke Foundation, told CarolinaJournal.com: it makes sense to disperse USDA's facilities and its people across the country.
Agricultural, especially, is about getting back to the roots. Placing the agricultural department among the nation's agricultural centers rather than the seat of politics seems appropriate. Raleigh is a great choice for the USDA research hub, especially given its proximity to NC State University and the research triangle. A smaller footprint, including the FNA administrator, will remain in Washington, D.C., as the entire agency is not evacuating our nation's capital.
However, they will stay there to handle and work with Congress, integrity work, policy coordination, and regulatory work within the federal government. Decentralization will realign the USDA's focus to the states that administer the USDA nutrition programs, as well as the taxpayers who fund them and the households that will benefit from these programs ongoing. Back to John Sanders from the John Locke Foundation. He says, perhaps more federal agencies should be told to get out of the stifling, a politics-heavy atmosphere of Washington and touch grass. You can read more on the USDA hub.
Hub in its announcement in moving to Raleigh. A couple of the other locations, as I mentioned, Indianapolis, Dallas, Kansas City, and Denver. Raleigh rounds out the five in which USDA will be dispersing its workforce and getting more of its activities closer to the people and out of Washington, D.C. Continued coverage of this over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
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Prices will be higher for delivery. It's 5:36. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. We are keeping a close eye on the North Carolina legislature, as we have been for the last couple of weeks. As the legislative short session kicked off back towards the end of April, it runs all the way through, or at least scheduled to run all the way through the beginning of July.
A group of four Democrats in the North Carolina House filed legislation that would cut nearly $400 million from the North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship Program over the next two years and redirect that money to child care subsidies and related priorities. That move would be a sizable rollback of the school choice expansion that the Republican-led General Assembly enacted back in 2023.
So, here are the details: it's House Bill 1066. It's known as the Child Care. Stabilization and Affordability Act, and it was filed recently by Representatives Beth Helfrich, a Democrat out of Mecklenburg County, Brandon Lofton, another Democrat out of Mecklenburg County, Lindsey Prathor, a Democrat out of Buncombe County, and Representative Julie Von Hafen, the final Democrat out of Wake County. The bill would reduce the Opportunity Scholarship Grant Fund Reserve appropriations by $150 million in non-recurring funds in the fiscal year 26-27, and an additional $240 million in reduction in those recurring funds in the 27-28 fiscal year. The recurring cuts would continue indefinitely with the program's annual appropriations falling from a scheduled $700 million to $460 million in the 27-28 fiscal year and from $825 million to $500 million.
And $85 million in the 2032 through 2033 years and beyond, according to current projections. The bill directs the cut funds to the Department of Health and Human Services, quote, to be used to assist in reducing the waitlist for subsidized childcare in this state, end quote, reading directly from the legislation. Candice Witherspoon, the director of the Division of Child Development and Early Education, told a legislative oversight committee back in the month of March that the state's child care subsidy waitlist had grown to more than 15,000 children as of December 2025, up from what was just 2,000 children on the wait list in July of 2024. Brian Balfour, the senior vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation, questioned the framing of the affordability crisis driving the bill, telling Carolina Journal: the fact that the existence of the The expiration of COVID-era daycare subsidies has caused so many daycares to go out of business is a bit puzzling. Daycares had survived for generations without the COVID subsidies, but then in just a couple of years of receiving them, they can no longer survive without them.
He continued by saying government intervention is so intertwined in the daycare system that is beginning to become that those systems are beginning to be addicted to the subsidies. If we want daycares to be more affordable, we should focus on eliminating the forces that are pushing prices up. Massive subsidies artificially subsidize demand, while mountains of regulation suppress supply, creating a perfect storm for unaffordable prices. Ending the quote there from Brian Balfour. Beyond the funding cuts, the bill would restore an income cap on the Opportunity Scholarship Program by limiting eligibility to households earning no more than 200% of the federal free or reduced price lunch program threshold.
That change would eliminate the two upper income tiers, including the universal 45% tier added when the legislature removed all income-based eligibility limits back in 2023. The bill arrives weeks after Democrat Governor Josh Stein unveiled a recommended state budget that would more aggressively phase out the opportunity scholarship program through a moratorium on new awards and a stricter income cap set at 150% of the federal reduced price school lunch eligibility level, which would be roughly $90,000 a year for a family of four. If you made any more than that as a family of four, You would no longer be eligible under the governor's proposed budget for the opportunity scholarship program. Carolina Journal previously reported that Stein's plan would remove an estimated 60,000 students from the program, which currently serves more than 106,000 children.
So you'd be talking about a major reduction there of over 60% under the governor's budget. House Bill 1066 includes one opportunity scholarship expansion, however, a new pre-K eligibility track for four-year-olds whose principals certify them ready to enroll for the following school year. Brian Balfour also took issue with the bill's funding mechanism using cuts to a school choice program to underwrite payments to private child care providers. With Balfour saying in part, opponents of the opportunity scholarship program often say it's wrong for taxpayer dollars to go to privately owned schools, but this bill redirects some of the opportunity scholarship money to go to privately owned daycares. If one is wrong, why is the other okay?
School choice opponents' actual main objections is that choice offers children an escape from the one-size-fits-all public school monopoly and dilutes the educational establishment's control over the flow of information to our children. At a House Democratic caucus press conference back on April the 22nd, Representative Lofton from Mecklenburg County said that the legislature had, quote, passed a budget that put more money into private school vouchers than into teacher raises. With Lofton saying at the time, we've actually increased automatically the money going to private school vouchers. This year, I think we'll be over $600 million that we spend on those vouchers. The bill is also includes $205 million in reoccurring funds to set childcare subsidy reimbursement rates at the 75th percentile of most of the recent child care market rate studies, making the try-share child care pilot program permanent at $9 million per year, reenacting the state's child care credit at doubled amounts, expanding the child care wage salary supplement program, and creates a state-run health coverage pool for children for child care employees with $35 million in recurring rebate funding.
An additional provision would direct an automatic annual adjustment to the subsidy reimbursement rate beginning July the 1st of 2027 indexed to whatever is greater of the regional consumer price index or the most recent market rate study. That provision specifies that the increase shall not require further Further appropriations or legislation approval, meaning that that rate would continue to go up consistently year after year after year. This legislation tracks closely with recommendations from the North Carolina Task Force on Child Care and Early Education, which was established by Governor Josh Stein via executive order in March of 2025. That task force is co-chaired by Lieutenant Governor Rachel Hunt, a Democrat, and Senator Jim Bergen, a Republican from Harnett County. The task force's 2025 report called for setting a statewide subsidy reimbursement rate floor, expanding workforce compensation programs, exploring tax credits for families, and pursuing public facility use and public-private partnerships for child care.
Each of those priorities are reflected in House Bill 1066. The legislation was referred to the House Committee on Rules, Calendars, and Operations. That's the same committee where Representative Von Haifen said in a separate April the 21st press conference, her seven prior bills to fund the Leandro Public School remediation plan have all died without a hearing.
Now, as we've talked about some of the details in this legislation, it is important to note the power makeup and current structure within the North Carolina General Assembly, which does include a Republican majority in both the North Carolina House and Senate, a supermajority in the Senate, just one vote shy in the North Carolina House.
However, in recent weeks, we've covered as two members of the North Carolina House, both from Mecklenburg County, have decided to switch their party affiliation from Democrat to unaffiliated. It is not immediately clear whether those two members will vote with Republicans on veto overrides or other pieces of importance. Legislation, but Democrats losing two additional votes in the House. In all likelihood, House Bill 1066 will not get any significant traction in the North Carolina General Assembly as the Opportunity Scholarship Program remains a major priority for Republican lawmakers and their expansion of the program. Back in 2023, consistent polling all across the board shows that there is broad approval for the Opportunity Scholarship Program, whether it's our most recent couple of Carolina Journal polls or other state and national polling.
Parents across the state, guardians, and other family members across the state are strong advocates for school choice, which is exactly what the Opportunity Scholarship Program does provide. You can read more on this legislation by visiting our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. We've got the headline: Democrat Bill Defund Opportunity Scholarships to Fund Childcare. Those details again at CarolinaJournal.com.
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Good morning again. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 553 Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM. WBT tracking some other statewide news this morning, North Carolina election officials have officially resolved more than 36,000 incomplete voter registration records since launching what was called the Registration Repair Project last summer. That is according to documents filed last Thursday in federal court.
The project was designed to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act and resolve a lawsuit that was filed by the United States Department of Justice against the North Carolina State Board of Elections. The project involves collecting a driver's license number, a full driver's license number, or the last four digits of a social security number from voters whose registration records lacked said information. The issue of incomplete voter registration records played a major role in a months-long dispute over North Carolina's 2024 state Supreme Court election as trailing candidate Jefferson Griffin challenged more than 60,000 ballots cast in the election by voters with that incomplete record or with those incomplete records on hand. The courts eventually rejected Griffin's complaint and declared Allison Riggs the winner of the Supreme Court contest. The total number of North Carolinian voters with incomplete registration records Records dropped from 103,000 in July of 2025 to now just 66,000 in April of this year, according to Thursday's court filings.
That means that 35% of the incomplete registration records have been resolved, at least to date. The State Board of Elections labeled the document an annual report to the chief U.S. District Judge and Richard Myers as the judge mandated reporting in a September 2025 court order that endorsed a deal ending the Justice Department's lawsuit. The repair project has featured two mailings to date to affected voters, the first targeting some 82,000 voters in August of 2025, and the second was sent to about 74,000 voters in November of last year. Election officials updated 4,000 records from January the 31st through April the 28th.
Some 886 voter records were removed from the repair list due to voters' own cancellation of their registration or other regular list maintenance processes, which could include somebody moving out of the state of North Carolina or dying, in which they would be removed from those roles. Either by providing information to the state or after missing a set number of elections. The state board determined that there were a relatively small number of instances where certain requirements of the order were not followed during the March the 3rd primary, in which state election officials were set, or I should say, local election officials were to provide information to voters who had that missing information, according to state officials. This project has now been ongoing for months and seems to be working with some pretty good success, according to state election officials. 35% of the incomplete registration records resolved, and they are expecting many more to be resolved later on this year, as many more voters will be heading to the polls in November to take place in the mid or take part, I should say, in the midterm elections taking place here across the state of North Carolina.
For those voters that show up with those incomplete records, they will be providing. With the correct proper information and documentation that they do need to provide to the state of North Carolina for their registrations to stay active and will vote a provisional ballot. We've been covering this story for almost a year now. We've got continued coverage this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
Well, that's going to do it for a Tuesday 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, WBT.
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