It's 5.05 and a good Wednesday morning to you. Welcome into 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 with major news on this Wednesday morning out of Raleigh as the North Carolina General Assembly announced yesterday that they are in fact working towards a full budget deal in the months to come.
The North Carolina House and Senate budget negotiators there have reportedly reached an agreement on a state spending plan, which ends more than 900 days since the state last passed a budget. And while we do not have all of the final details yet, the leader of the North Carolina House and Senate, that would be Destin Hall in the House, Phil Berger in the Senate, did hold a very last-minute joint press conference yesterday afternoon announcing the budget deal. deal. We have an understanding on a number of things that will allow us to move forward with getting a budget detail. We'll get to some of the top line budget agreement.
We'll get to some of the top line details in a second. What you know is that this is a starting point. There's still a lot that will need to be decided and discussed between the two chambers, but this agreement sets out a good framework for us to move forward. The talks that the Speaker and I have had have been extremely productive, and I'm hopeful that as we begin the full budget conference process, we'll be able to move quickly. And so, without belaboring it anymore, I'll turn it over to the Speaker.
That is the voice of the Senate leader in Phil Berger making that announcement yesterday. For those that have been following this process now since late, or I should say almost a year now, since budget negotiations started in Raleigh, the House and the Senate unable to come together. Together on a tax and spending plan, as you just heard there from Senate Leader Phil Burger, turning it over to House Speaker Destin Hall. And I'll echo what Senator Berber said. I think both of our chambers have reached largely an agreement on the big issues that now allow all of our members and our chairs to work towards some of the other things in the budget.
And I'm confident that we'll be able to get a comprehensive budget done relatively soon, but there's still a lot of work to do in terms of just the mechanics of the budget. But those chairs are starting to meet, I think, today. I'll start off with the salary package. This budget is really an unprecedented one for education in this state. The average teacher pay raise in our budget will be 8%.
It will take starting teachers to number one in the South when you're including the local supplement, but also taking care of veteran teachers as well and giving increases all across the salary schedule for teachers. As best we can tell, the largest average teacher pay increase, at least since 2006. and one of the largest that we've seen in probably the last 30 years or so.
So it's something we're very proud of. We want to continue to do all we can to fund education in this state, both public schools, as this budget does, also in the opportunity scholarships and making sure that parents have the ability to send their child to the school that they think is best for them. Um As to the state employees, this budget includes 3% average raise, but there's greater raises for certain areas of state government where the need is more great. I know Senator Berber is going to talk about some of that, but there's also a bonus there for those state employees for those making less than $65,000 a year, a bonus of $1,750. And for those making more than $65,000 a year, that bonus would be $1,000.
And let me go back to the teachers. Also, we'll have a bonus there for teachers over 16 years of $1,000 and those under that experience level of $500.
So I'll turn it back over to Senator Berger to talk about some of the additional state employee salary. This is from a press conference taking place in Raleigh yesterday. The agreement, if approved by lawmakers, would come after the North Carolina General Assembly failed to pass a full spending plan during the 2025 legislative long session. We covered that in great detail. Last year, here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour, North Carolina has continued to operate, unlike what we've seen with the federal government, operate under existing state funding levels, leaving, as you just heard, teacher raises, state employee pay, tax policy, Medicaid funding, and other major spending priorities undealt with up to this point.
Senate Leader Phil Berger also announced some of those additional state employee raises in Raleigh. Yes, so one of the focus points for our discussions has been making sure we provide law enforcement officers with meaningful raises. It's apt that this week is National Police Week because we're able to deliver for the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect us every day. The agreement includes an average, including steps, 20.3% raise for SBI and ALE officers. SBI civilian personnel will also receive a substantial raise.
Also, it includes an average 17.7% raise with step increases for State Highway Patrol officers and up to 11.5% for State Highway Patrol civilian personnel. Correctional officers, a part of the state employee group, will receive an average 15.4% salary increase with their step increases. Probation parole. officers will receive an average 10.1 percent salary increase including steps there will be 13 percent raise for other leos across state government including the state capitol police there's also nearly 40.1 million dollars will be included in the final budget to provide local law enforcement officers across the state with a one-time bonus of $1,750. That Senate leader Phil Berger had a press conference in Raleigh yesterday discussing the framework on these budget agreement coming really out of nowhere as we have been tracking the legislative short session kicking off just back a couple of weeks ago, set to run all the way until early July, at least that's what the calendar says as of right now.
The major disagreement as we've been following this process now for more than a year revolves around tax policy in North Carolina. Disagreements between the North Carolina House and Senate as to whether to continue cutting taxes at the current rate already specified. In state law, Senate leadership, at least in months past and years past, has agreed that they would continue cutting at the current rate. Lawmakers in the North Carolina House feeling that continuing to cut the tax rate could leave the state at a major financial deficit moving forward. And Senate Leader Phil Berger also announced the new tax plan, which does have some major changes for North Carolina.
Talking about taxes, the business climate and our business environment has been created in large measure by our tax reduction strategies. And we intend to continue to see that going forward. When it comes to the tax package, we're repealing the personal income tax rate triggers for the near term and setting a new schedule. In tax years 27, 28, and 29, the tax rate will be 3.49%. uh in uh uh tax years um 30, 31, and 32, the rate will be 3.24%.
In 33 and 34, the rate will again drop to 2.99. We'll then reinstitute triggers for two additional step downs beyond that. That will take the rate from 2.99 to 2.74 and then ultimately to 2.49. As part of the tax package agreement, we've agreed that both chambers will pass a constitutional amendment for the November ballot that will lower the state's current tax cap to 3.5%. And we also will take up and pass the House's levy limit on property taxes.
Both chambers want to deliver additional tax relief to the citizens of North Carolina, and other discussions will take place on other tax policy as we move forward with the budget process. A major point there noted by Senate Leader Phil Berger that this deal will include a proposed constitutional amendment. We've talked about this with Joe Harris and other folks over at the John Locke Foundation and Carolina Journal over the past couple of months talking about this concept of bringing forth a levy limit that would put that cap on property taxes as negotiators have come to an agreement to move forward with that. Our final clip from yesterday's press conference includes Speaker Destin Hall talking about for those that are not current state employees, but have been in the past state retirees and what some of the funding is going to look like for them moving forward. And I want to mention state retirees.
As well, who would get a 2.5 bonus in this budget? For a broad level, this budget is delivering record salary increases, really, across state government, both for teachers and, as you heard, for law enforcement officers. And so, we're very proud of that. But we also continue to deliver tax relief for the citizens of this state. You've seen that for a decade and a half now since Republicans took control of the legislature.
We've continued to reduce that rate and do it in a responsible way that allows us to continue to provide these kinds of raises. If you look at our competitor states, those around us, I just read yesterday, Georgia reduced their income tax, and they've got a goal to get down to $399, which is where we are today.
So, we're already well ahead of them with this plan, ahead of our other competitors. And so, proud of the framework that we've got in place. We think it sets the state up for continued success economically and also making sure we're taking care of those. Hardworking state employees and keeping more money in the pockets of the workers of this state. This was a major announcement in Raleigh yesterday, waiting now more than a year for a budget to move forward.
This budget bill, which again, I'll note this is a framework agreeing between the House and the Senate on these top-line numbers. It will have to be approved by the full North Carolina House and Senate before then advancing to Democrat Governor Josh Stein's desk for a signature. Lawmakers are expected to be in Raleigh today. We will likely see a lot of appropriations committees and other education, other committees across the North Carolina General Assembly meeting in the coming weeks to hash out all of the final details as to what exactly they will include in this budget. But it would appear that the budget stallmate that we have been keeping a very close eye on is very close to being resolved in Raleigh.
We'll keep you up to date right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour and our website, CarolinaJournal.com. It's 22 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT tracking some other news across the state of North Carolina this morning. New details surrounding North Carolina's COVID-19 inmate release program under then former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper, who of course is now running for the United States Senate, are beginning to renew questions about public safety and prompting movement from lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly. Recent investigations, two different investigations, one published by Fox News, the other by the New York Posts, both indicate that nearly half of the inmates released under a 2021 pandemic settlement were later arrested on new charges.
The report highlights a February 2021 agreement between then-Governor Cooper and civil rights groups that resulted in In the release of approximately 3,500 inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The settlement followed lawsuits from organizations, including the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP and ACLU, which at the time claimed that overcrowding in prisons could create an unconstitutional health risk for inmates during the pandemic. Talking about some of the overcrowding in jails was the premise of that lawsuit in 2020. According to the reports, a review of data from the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission found a recidivism rate of 48% among released inmates. The New York Post reported that more than 600 released inmates were later arrested or convicted of serious crimes, including violent felonies and sex offenses across the state of North Carolina.
With the more shocking detail coming from the New York Post identifying 18 individuals who were released under this settlement in 2021, who were later charged with murder after their release. Again, as I mentioned, two different entities are publishing reports, and Fox News Digital came up with similar numbers. They looked at a sample group of 1,180 released prisoners, and they found that 566 of them were later arrested on new offenses, all of them within just two years. Last month, legislative leaders announced. The creation of a new oversight committee to investigate these prisoner releases carried out under then Governor Cooper.
With House Speaker Destin Hall, the Republican from Caldwell County, and Senate Leader Phil Berger, the Republican from Rockingham County, saying that the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations Subcommittee on Prisons, yes, a mouthful there for sure, will examine the decision to release inmates early as part of that settlement. With Senate Leader Phil Berger saying at the time, just back a couple of weeks ago, Roy Cooper opened the floodgates and then did the bare minimum to inform the public about the criminals being released into their communities. Berger went on to say he made every effort to hide what he did, and Republicans in the General Assembly are going to hold him and Governor Stein accountable for releasing violent repeat offenders and endangering our citizens. Both of the stories highlight several high-profile arrests in both reports, and those have, of course, intensified criticism about the early releases. Three examples highlighted include Terrell Brace, previously convicted on assault and property crime charges.
He was released early from prison during the settlement and was later charged in the 2022 killing of Alette Thompson in Charlotte. Another individual by the name of Kayshawn Norell, previously convicted of manslaughter, was also released early under the 2021 settlement under then Governor Roy Cooper. Went on in 2023 to be charged in a murder in Raleigh, shot two individuals, killing one. And then finally, Brandon Locklear, previously convicted of assault. With the deadly weapon, inflicting serious injury.
He also was released early under the settlement and was later charged with second-degree murder in 2023. House Speaker Destin Hall framed the committee as a matter of public safety and government accountability, saying during the announcement of this joint legislative committee just back a couple of weeks ago: Public safety is the most important responsibility of our government. If Roy Cooper or any other official failed at this most basic responsibility, the people of this state deserve to know about it. The release of violent repeat offenders back onto our streets is a serious miscarriage of justice. This committee will investigate exactly how these early release decisions were made, who was responsible, and whether proper safeguards were followed.
John Guzay, a senior fellow of legal studies at the John Locke Foundation, said this was a policy failure to allow these prisoners to go free due to COVID concerns at the time, telling Carolina Journal in part: I noted at the time that there was a strong possibility that many members of this group will commit new crimes after they are released, and that some will be arrested, convicted, and incarcerated. Noting that many of them may carry higher contagious rates of COVID-19 after getting out and then coming back in into jails, courtrooms, and prisons. Guzay went on to say, for that reason and many others, I did not think that they all should have been released. And I think time has. Shown that I was right.
Concerns over public safety are likely to remain a major issue in North Carolina as the United States Senate race between former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Watley, former head of the North Carolina Republican Party and head of the RNC, is expected to be one of the most expensive and closely watched contests anywhere across the United States, with both parties battling for control of the United States Senate in the 2026 midterm elections. We, of course, have been talking about this race consistently, and we will continue to do so as we get new polling. We'll continue to release that throughout the next couple of months over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And of course, we'll bring you the latest right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. 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. Good Wednesday morning to you. Unless you've been living under a rock over the last couple of months, it's been very hard to get away from the redistricting discussions that are taking place all across the nation, Virginia, Florida, now discussions in South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, pretty much all over the map. North Carolina is a large redistricting effort for Congressional Districts 1 and 3 took place last year.
So we haven't seen a whole lot go on here in North Carolina.
However, there are some remaining lawsuits over previous maps approved and passed by the North Carolina General Assembly. To bring us up to date, the latest this morning, Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, the latest that looks like you're tracking deals with North Carolina in-state Senate maps for the General Assembly. What are you tracking there?
Well, you might remember, Nick, that after the General Assembly redrew maps for the state legislature and for Congress for the 2024 cycle, that there were a series of lawsuits challenging those maps on various grounds, but most of them dealt with the issue of racial gerrymandering.
Now, two of the suits. one of which dealt only with congressional districts and another one that dealt with congressional districts and legislative districts are already over. The plaintiffs had lost and decided just to basically quit while they were behind. But there was one federal lawsuit that remained out there, and that was one that challenged two districts in the state senate in northeastern North Carolina. The plaintiffs in the case, two black voters, one of whom is actually a state representative, Rodney Pierce, he was elected to the state house while this litigation was going forward.
The two voters claimed that the General Assembly had engaged in racial gerrymandering because they did not draw a majority-minority district in an African-American heavy part of northeastern North Carolina.
Now they lost at the trial court level. First, they were unable to get an injunction that would have blocked this map from being used in 2024. And then after the map was used in 2024, the case actually went to trial. And the district court judge, so the trial court judge, ruled against the plaintiffs and ruled for the legislature and said that it was fine in the way that it moved forward with its map. But the plaintiffs appealed to the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, and they were going to continue to make their case that the map violated the Voting Rights Act and was a case of racial gerrymandering until we saw the U.S. Supreme Court come up with its ruling in the Louisiana versus Calais case, saying that the Voting Rights Act could not be used in the way that Democrats have been using it in recent decades to try to win themselves new seats, and that there would only be very limited circumstances in which Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act Could be used to strike down an election map. Based on having that ruling, it appears that's been the main driver for the plaintiffs in this North Carolina case to drop their appeal and drop their case, thus ending the suit and guaranteeing that state Senate Districts 1 and 2 will remain in effect, not only for this election cycle, but for future election cycles, unless there's a new lawsuit up through the next census in 2030. And so, Mitch, as I kind of mentioned at the open, and as you've talked about and as we've talked about in the past, a lot of what has gone on here in North Carolina in recent months really has to deal with cases that do not actually are not actually taking place here in North Carolina.
Some of these discussions out of the United States Supreme Court, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, we saw a major decision just a couple of weeks ago from the United States Supreme Court on that. That has forced some of the southern states. We've talked about, or there has been a lot of discussion about Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi over the last couple of days. Does that revolve around in this case here in North Carolina as well? Yes, I mean there's less of an impact here in North Carolina because the last time that the General Assembly drew a congressional map, and much of the debate right now that's taking place nationally is about congressional maps, the last time North Carolina drew its congressional map, there was already a sense of not using race to draw the districts.
And so we have a map that has no accounting of race by the General Assembly. And the only way they were able to squeeze out the possibility of Republicans picking up another seat was to shift some of the people around in Districts 1 and 3 to make District 3 a little bit less Republican and make District 1 more Republican. But that's only in a good year for Republicans going to help them squeeze out maybe one more Republican seat. This is picking up a larger degree of interest in some other states because those other states have continued to draw districts that they consider to be Voting Rights Act districts. And now they're saying, well, wait a minute, if we don't have to draw districts that are Voting Rights Act districts, that could potentially open up the door for much maps that are much more friendly to Republican voters in those states.
North Carolina had already, by the time it drew its 2023 map, for the 2024 election had already said. We're not going to take any account of race as we draw this map. And so they already drew maps that were almost as favorable to Republicans as they could be. The only case in which it was not was District 1. And now that the map that was drawn for this election cycle.
potentially makes it another one that could go into the Republicans' win column. But that was only a potential pickup of one district. Whereas in other southern states where now Voting Rights Act districts might not be considered moving forward, there could be the chance for Republicans to pick up two, three, maybe even more seats. No question about that. And we did see those moves, those new maps, I should say, from the North Carolina legislature.
That was late last year. We were tracking that very closely here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. All right, Mitch, let me throw this out of you. Is it fair to say that North Carolina kind of spearheaded a lot of this? We've seen so much redistricting legislation in this state over the last 20 years.
Almost seems like the state and especially lawmakers in Raleigh were a little ahead of the curve, kind of regardless of what some of these major decisions are out now from the United States Supreme Court and what some of these other southern states, as you just noted, are dealing with. Yeah, North Carolina has been a major player in the redistricting legal battles for decades. One of the cases that has been brought up again and again and again as a precedent and was even referenced in the latest U.S. Supreme Court case was the Thornberg versus Jingles case from 1986. And some of the things that had to be involved for plaintiffs who were trying to win a redistricting case, and they had to prove that a minority group made up a large majority within an area that could be a congressional district, and there had to be block voting by whites against them, and there had to be racially polarized voting.
Those were all called the jingles preconditions, and that came out of a North Carolina case. And beyond that case, North Carolina has had other major redistricting decisions that have had an impact nationwide. Another one that I could think of fairly recently was the Rucho v. Common Cause case at the end of the last decade, in which the Supreme Court decided that federal Courts were no longer going to deal with the issue of federal, deal with the issue of partisan gerrymandering.
So, North Carolina has played a major role in the redistricting decisions that have affected courts across the country. And that probably shouldn't surprise us because North Carolina was a state that was ruled for years and years by Democrats, long beyond the time when Republicans took control in other states of the South. And so you saw the two parties fighting it out for control. And one of the ways that they fought for control was in redistricting.
So you saw lots of lawsuits about redistricting, first when Democrats were in control and since 2011, since Republicans have been in control. And so cases in North Carolina have helped set the stage for what states across the country have been able to do when it comes to redistricting. It's going to be an interesting couple of months as we continue to watch that discussion take place across the rest of the United States. Of course, we'll keep an eye on any redistricting discussion and conversation here. Not expecting a whole lot more across the Tar Hills State in North Carolina.
We do have continuing coverage of this story that we're talking about this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Uh Good morning again. It's 550. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT recapping our top story this morning.
A major announcement out of the North Carolina General Assembly as the North Carolina House and Senate budget negotiators announcing in a press conference yesterday afternoon that they have, in fact, reached an agreement on a state spending plan. This is ending a months-long impasse between Republican leaders in the two chambers. The agreement was announced in that joint press conference with Phil Berger saying in part, this plan is a good framework for us to move forward. And the talks that the speaker and I have had have been extremely productive. And I'm hopeful that as we begin the whole budget conference process, we will be able to move quickly.
House Speaker Destin Hall also saying during yesterday's press conference, our chambers have reached an agreement on a big issue that will now allow our members and chairs. To work towards some of the other things in this budget. I am confident that we will get a comprehensive budget done relatively soon, but there is still work to be done. We, of course, are going to be keeping a very close eye on this in the weeks to come as the North Carolina General Assembly's legislative short session does continue and is expected to continue through the beginning parts of July. We will be keeping up to date over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and of course, right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour.
In some other statewide news this morning, the former Pilot Mountain town manager in Michael Bose has been indicted on a Class F felony charge following an investigation by North Carolina by the North Carolina office of the state auditor as they looked into allegations of misuse of taxpayer funds. At a press conference earlier this week in Greensboro, state auditor and Dave Bollick announced the indictment, calling the alleged spending plain and simple fraud. According to Bollock, the indictment stems from an investigation conducted by the Office of the State Auditor in partnership with the North Carolina. State Bureau of Investigation, that's the SBI for those that follow along, and district attorneys across North Carolina. The investigation reviewed an estimated 793 credit card transactions with a total of more than $317,000 incurred by the former town manager between January of 2022 and November of 2024.
State auditors alleged multiple purchases were personal and unrelated to the town's expenses. Within the expenses identified in the report, there were $419 hotel charges at a hotel in Seattle during which the auditor described as a family vacation connected to an Alaskan cruise. There were approximately $2,300 in visa gift card purchases and more than $10,000 in food-related purchases, more than $1,500 in DoorDash transactions and $276 in terms of ammunition purchased from a gun shop in and around Pilot Mountain. Bose was indicted under North Carolina General Statute 14-92, which is embezzlement by a public officer, with state auditor Dave Bollock saying public officials are entrusted with taxpayer money and that they need to be held to a higher standard because of their fiduciary responsibility to the public. Bollock saying during the early the press conference earlier this week, when you take a job as a city manager and you are entrusted with With the fiduciary duty to look after taxpayer money in service of the community, you are held to a higher standard of trust.
State Auditor Dave Bullock emphasized that the investigation does remain ongoing and suggested that additional developments and details could still come, saying in part, it is fair to say that just because there has been an indictment issued, that the work still continues in Pilot Mountain. The investigative report also identified concerns beyond the alleged fraudulent purchases, with auditors saying that numerous transactions lacked receipts or any sort of justification from a financial standpoint, which they claim makes it difficult to determine whether all of the expenditures were actually legitimate. The report alleged that Bose approved his own travel reimbursements and used a signature stamp of the mayor's signature to sign checks, bypassing procedures, and safeguards that should have been set up. During that same press conference, SBI Chief of Staff and Brent Kloberson praised the partnership between the State Bureau of Investigation and the State Auditor's Office, particularly in protecting smaller municipalities that may struggle to recover financially from losses involving public funds. With the SBI saying in part, these small towns don't have the capacity to recover from a loss like this.
State Auditor Bullock said that the investigation reflects a broader shift within the auditor's office towards increasing the use of technology and artificial intelligence in detecting potential fraud. He said that data analytics allowed investigators to review hundreds of transactions and flag suspicious expenses. We have thrown jet fuel on artificial intelligence. As the auditor described how modern analytics replaced older manual auditing methods, the state auditor also used the event to warn municipal leaders across the Tar Heel state about the importance of oversight and accountability, saying, If you really are wondering whether you're micromanaging or not, I would err on the side of micromanaging over not asking questions. As he encouraged mayors and city council members to closely review municipal finances.
Pilot Mountain officials have not yet publicly responded to the indictment. According to Deputy State Auditor Beth Ray, the town has not yet received the full investigative report because this is an ongoing criminal proceeding now. Those state officials have said. That they have maintained ongoing conversations with town leadership throughout the investigation. Bullock also confirmed that the Office of the State Auditor has additional active investigations involving multiple municipalities across the state of North Carolina, two in which we've brought you here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, investigations in Kerry, that's in Wake County, just outside of our state capital, and in Rocky Mount, where they are dealing with some major financial issues.
You can read more on this story over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
Well, that's going to do it for a 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 FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. Oh.
