It's 5.06 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 Tuesday morning to you. We, of course, are keeping a very close eye on all of the busy ongoings in the North Carolina General Assembly as we are close to what I would describe as the halfway point in this legislative short session as lawmakers are looking to be out of Raleigh and back to their respective districts in and around the July the 4th holiday. We'll start off with a tax revenue, some interesting figures here.
North Carolina's latest revenue forecast shows stronger than expected economic growth and tax collection across the state, with projected general fund revenues revised to $2.6 billion. billion dollars above the certified budget. This revision comes less than a week after Republican legislative leaders denounced a budget framework. They did that last week. And the revenue forecasts now estimate $71.1 billion in general fund revenue over the biennium.
That's up pretty significantly from $68.5 billion that were expected, with $35.7 billion expected in the fiscal year $25, $26 and $35.4 billion in $26-27, well above some of those expectations. The revised numbers are expected to shape negotiations at the General Assembly as lawmakers work through competing priorities, including. State employee raises, teacher pay infrastructure needs, and the future of North Carolina's scheduled income tax reductions. Senate Leader Phil Berger, the Republican from Rockingham County, said that the forecast validates the Republican-led fiscal policies enacted over the past decade. With Berger saying in part, for years we've seen these revenue forecasts significantly underestimate our state's economic outlook.
North Carolina's economy is strong. And we will continue to bring in substantial revenue surpluses thanks to Republican-led tax and budget policies. Our formula of low taxes, responsible spending, and reasonable regulation has led to one of the most prosperous decades in our state's history. State budget officials said that the upward revision was driven by several factors, including stronger individual income tax collections, corporate profits, sales tax collections, and insurance premium taxes collected all across the state. Income growth from capital gains and bonuses, along with higher corporate income and franchise tax receipts, also contributed significantly to those higher collections in Raleigh.
With Governor Josh Stein striking a more cautious tone, saying that the stronger revenue picture is good news, but should not lead lawmakers to making long-term decisions based on volatile market activity. With the governor saying in part, with these strong stock market revenues have exceeded our forecast. This is good news, but we can't stake our future on stock market volatility. We need to make fiscally responsible decisions and continue to invest in what our state continue to make. Our state is so strong that is our people.
This has been a constant back and forth between Republicans and Democrats in Raleigh over the last 15 years. Every single time a revenue forecast comes out, we see far above expectations, with Democrats consistently warning that we are approaching or right at the fiscal cliff. And so, this is yet another example of those doomsday scenarios of the state being significantly strapped for cash due to some of these policies out of Raleigh not coming to fruition. As this disagreement previews a familiar budget debate in Raleigh, Republican legislative leaders have argued that repeated revenue over collections show that, in fact, North Carolina can continue reducing taxes while maintaining core government services. Governor Stein and other Democrats have urged caution, arguing that the state should preserve revenue for education, healthcare, public.
public safety and other long-standing obligations. Brian Balfour, the Senior Vice President of Research at the John Locke Foundation, said that the latest revision continues a long-running pattern of forecasts, underestimating state revenue and overestimating the effects of tax cuts. With Balfour saying in part, this latest revision continues a long trend of state revenue forecasts, significantly underestimating revenues. This can largely be attributed to the forecasts overestimating a negative impact on revenue due to tax cuts. Lower tax rates stimulate greater activity and can often result in more tax revenues, not less.
This also underscores why budget writers should take revenue predictions of a fiscal cliff years into the future with a grain of salt. The forecast gives lawmakers more flexibility as they consider spending and tax changes in the short session. It also strengthens the hand of Republican budget writers who have pushed to continue lowering the personal income tax rate. A first draft of the state budget is expected to be completed in the next couple of weeks. We, like many others, will be keeping a close eye on that and are patiently awaiting some of those details out of Raleigh.
We'll bring you those details. We'll bring you the latest as soon as we get it right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour.
Well, here's some concerning news from across the state. A federal grand jury has indicted a 32-year-old Wilmington man on charges that he threatened President Donald Trump in a Facebook post. According to the indictment, reading from the Eastern District of North Carolina, on or about October the 3rd, 2025, through on or about October the 13th, 2025, in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the defendant Christopher James Hill did knowingly and willfully transmit in interstate and foreign commerce a communication, namely a comment posted on a public website, Facebook.com, and communication contained a threat to kill and injure the person or another, specifically a threat to kill United States President Donald J. Trump in violation of Title 18, United States Code Section 875C, according to the details. The grand jury in this case took action on April the 23rd with Hill facing a court hearing on May the 11th.
U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle's office publicized the indictment in a news release on Monday with Hill being scheduled for arraignment and trial before U.S. District Judge Luis Flanagan in the federal court system in that term, which begins coming up on June the 16th. These charges against Hill are similar to other high-profile cases in North Carolina's Eastern District, the one that we have talked about in the coming the previous weeks. FBI Director James Comey.
Comey is scheduled for a June 30th arraignment in New Bern with a July 15th trial to follow before Flanagan. Two charges against Comey are based on an Instagram post last year in which he documented what he called random seashells on the beach. Arranged to spell out 8647, which according to the grand jury who indicted him, not the U.S. Attorney's Office, it is not the U.S. Attorney that in fact brings forth these indictments, that that was knowingly and willfully making a threat to the president of the United States.
Seeing another similar charge for a different individual in Christopher James Hill, tracking that out of the Eastern District of North Carolina, we'll be keeping an eye on this case and many others in the Eastern District as a lot of work going on there. The Eastern District runs essentially from Raleigh all the way to the Outer Banks down to portions of or all of southeastern North Carolina, the Wilmington, New Hanover, Brunswick County area, and as well as west up into portions of more central North Carolina. We'll be keeping an eye on this and many other cases over on the website, CarolinaJournal.com, and of course, right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. If you work in university maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip-off. And Granger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more, and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock so your team always gets the win.
Call 1-800-GRANGER, visit Granger.com, or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. It's 520. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT keeping our attention on the North Carolina General Assembly. On this busy Tuesday morning, senators have filed a right to farm constitutional amendment. A couple of these constitutional amendments now looking very plausible coming up later on this year as North Carolina voters could decide whether to add a right to farm and forestry to the state constitution under a proposed amendment filed in the North Carolina state senate.
The legislation, Senate Bill 1080 titled Constitutional Right to Farm, was filed last Thursday and would place the amendment on the November 2026 statewide general election ballot. The bill is sponsored by state senators Brent Jackson, the Republican from Sampson County, Lisa Barnes, the Republican from Nash, and Buck Newton, the Republican from Wilson. The proposal would add a new section to Article I of the North Carolina Constitution recognizing the right of people to engage in farming and forestry. The language specifically cites the cultivation of crops, the raising of livestock and poultry, as well as the production of dairy and a dairy products, the harvesting of timber and other practices for the production of agricultural and forestry commodities. Under the bill, the right would be described as a value and essential part of the state's heritage, forever preserved for the public good.
According to state senator Lisa Barnes, she said in a statement, farming and agriculture are deeply rooted in our state's DNA. Agriculture remains a top contributor to our state's economy, and we need to do everything we can to preserve our farmland and support our hardworking farmers. This bill takes our commitment to agriculture a step further by enshrining it as a right in our state's constitution. Senator Brett Jackson, a farmer and current co-chairman of the Senate's Agricultural, Energy, and Environmental Committee, said that the amendment is aimed at protecting farmers' livelihoods, with him saying in the statement, the livelihood of farmers across the state is under attack. If we want our agriculture to thrive in our state, we must take a serious approach to safeguard our farmers.
By putting this on the ballot, we can show farmers in every corner of this state that we value them and want them to prosper for generations to come. Over to Senator Buck Newton, who represents Wilson and Johnston counties, said that Republicans in the General Assembly have consistently advanced policies to support farmers, noting whether it is to rip through burdensome government red tape or provide new avenues for their farms to flourish, we've put in the legwork.
Now it is time for us to enshrine the right to farm in our state's constitution. Agriculture and the larger agribusiness does remain central to North Carolina's economy. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services describes agriculture, which includes food, forestry, and fiber, as the state's number one industry, contributing a whopping $100.2 billion to the yearly economy here across North Carolina. In a statement provided to Carolina Journal, Agricultural Commissioner Steve Schroxler backed the proposed amendment, no surprise there, saying that it could help educate North Carolina's growing population about the realities of farming. with Troxler saying in part, with so many new people moving into the state who may not be familiar with North Carolina's agriculture, I see this as an effort to bring more awareness to farming and the importance of this $100 billion industry in our state.
People may move into another area where they will encounter tractors and farm equipment on the road and may experience a dust and some smells of a farm, but that is not unexpected. It is all part of farming and is a legal part of operation. Jeanette Doran, who is the senior counsel over at the John Locke Foundation, however, did raise some concerns about whether voters would see the full amendment's language before casting their votes. She said in part, when North Carolinians vote on constitutional amendments, they deserve to see what they're actually voting on, and they deserve to see it on the ballot when they vote. Instead, the General Assembly writes a ballot question and voters don't see the amendment's real language.
That's not informed consent.
Some questions about some of the verbiage, the way in which portions of this constitutional amendment are written, kind of shining some issues, according to at least Jeanette Doran from the John Locke Foundation. If approved by lawmakers, that's the next step here. The amendment would appear on the ballot as a, quote, constitutional amendment protecting the right of people to engage in farming and forestry. The 2026 statewide general election is currently scheduled for November the 3rd. This is one of just many constitutional amendments that is very likely to appear on the ballot.
Last night in Raleigh, late yesterday evening, after 6 o'clock, senators in the North Carolina General Assembly moved forward or continuing the process, I should say, of moving forward with a constitutional amendment that would put a cap on the income tax rate here in North Carolina. One of the other constitutional amendments that we have been keeping another very close eye on is changing that from the 7% cap that exists right now, rolling that back to 3.5% for the years going forward. If, in fact, voters do support said a constitutional amendment, that would have some major. Ramifications for future North Carolina General Assemblies who would not have the ability to increase the personal income tax rate above 3.5% without getting full approval from voters. They'd essentially have to pass another constitutional amendment to increase that rate for the current Republican-led General Assembly.
No major changes there. The tax rate currently at 3.49% and is scheduled to continue dropping in the months and years to move forward, or at least as it stands right now, we, of course, continue to watch budget negotiations as well.
So, not necessarily expecting a major immediate impact, but in terms of future North Carolina General Assemblies, some major movement there. We'll, of course, keep an eye on that constitutional amendment, this farming constitutional amendment, many other details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Well, it is scheduled to be a jam-packed day in Raleigh as lawmakers are meeting all. The way from 8:30 this morning until 4 o'clock this afternoon. A litany of committees in both the North Carolina House and Senate set to meet throughout the day today. It kicks off at 8:30 this morning with the Senate Rules and Operations of the Senate Committee, who will be taking up Senate Bill 1080. That is the constitutional amendment as it relates to lowering the Personal income tax rate here in North Carolina.
Also, looking at Senate Bill 1082, North Carolina's right to work amendment. Talked about that yesterday morning, as well as Senate Bill 1076, limiting electric/slash natural gas revenue users.
So that is taking place at 8:30.
Some other meetings, including the House Alcoholic Beverage Control Group, will be meeting. They'll be discussing House Bill 921, the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, finance, education, a lot of pieces of legislation moving throughout the day today. No surprise as lawmakers are staring down the barrel at trying to get out of Raleigh by the end of next month.
So a lot of legislation still to work through, a lot of additional commentary to bring forward. We'll be keeping an eye on all of that throughout the day. We encourage you to follow us over on social media. The Carolina Journal is over on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, any place. That you are using social media.
You can find all those links over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, or just search for the Carolina Journal in your favorite social media platform.
Okay. It's 5.36. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good Tuesday morning to you.
NC Innovation, an interesting concept out of the North Carolina legislature with the idea of commercializing research coming out of universities across the state of North Carolina. We've talked about it over the last couple of years here on the Carolina Journal News Hours. Their future remains pretty uncertain, especially now as conversations take place in Raleigh over a budget coming out of the North Carolina legislature. To walk us through the latest this morning, the editor-in-chief of CarolinaJournal.com, Donna King, joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Donna, we chatted about this probably eight or so months ago when we were hearing some proposals about clawing back a large sum of money from NC Innovation.
You've been keeping a very close eye on this. What's the latest? Sure, sure.
Well, now we have what begins, what seems to be the framework of a final state budget for this year, which is now, of course, as you mentioned, 18 months or so overdue.
Now that Hall and Berger have come up with a framework, where everybody's sort of waiting to see how NC Innovation plays in the final version of the budget. When Senate Leader Phil Berger was asked about that by reporters, really pressed about it, they had to ask twice, he said, well, the future of NC Innovation is resolved only to the extent we will continue discussing how to resolve it.
So obviously, this is still a vulnerable endowment for NC Innovation. Half a billion dollars is going to take a lot of scrutiny, a lot of oversight, watching to see how they're operating and how they're managing that money for North Carolina taxpayers.
So, really, as we speak now today, lawmakers are in there. They're trying to hash out all the details of this budget and where NC Innovation's $500 million falls. As both chambers talk about how to claw it back and how much to claw back. Donna, the root solution here for NC Innovation and the concept makes a lot of sense. You have a lot of research that's done at universities.
Let's find a way to maybe bring some of that stuff into the free market. The taxpayers, in large part, are funding a lot of that university as it relates to tuition here in North Carolina. But as you just mentioned, we're not talking about just a couple of bucks being thrown to this group. We're talking about $500 million worth of taxpayer dollars being thrown into NC Innovation for them to commercialize this research. That is a whole lot of money here in North Carolina, especially as lawmakers and other folks in state government warn of potential budget shortfalls, not being able to make up revenue.
It's a large pot of money just sitting aside. Sure, exactly. And I think that is exactly what we're talking about. I've heard no arguments or very few arguments about the value of the effort, certainly, that NC Innovation is intended to create. They are building a system that helps a university identify really strong university-based research and technology and get it ready to get it over to the commercial market, get through what they call the valley of death.
A good example is over the last week or so, they've announced approval of grants for things like what to do with surplus sweet potato food products, plastic waste to jet fuel technology, chemical conversion, honeybee mite treatments, disaster-free strawberries.
So they're really working on identifying what are these valuable projects happening in universities and how can they get it out to market. A couple of things with that. One, the universities are already taxpayer-funded. The money now is at $500 million. Endowment to take taxpayer-funded research in many cases to market for someone.
This endowment is not set up so that NC Innovation can use equity in the projects ultimately to give out more grants. And so they're only able to use the plan is to use the What they earn on investing the $500 million as their grant base. And they're burning through some money. They've spent a lot of money, according to some of the board members who were there in a big meeting this past week, that they have a high burn rate. They are at this point going to be spending.
Almost all of their money over the next two years.
So, what happens after that? How do they reform, regroup, plan on, if they need to, giving back the taxpayer dollars or a big chunk of them at least? And how do they move forward as a private organization without having the oversight that seems to be creating so much crisis within the organization? Donna, you mentioned something that I think we need to go back to and make sure we iterate to our audience. Not only is much of the research that we're talking about commercializing already being paid for and funded in large part by taxpayers, then this group, NC Innovation, that we're talking about, comes forward with an additional $500 million to bring this stuff to market for companies that will profit.
We're not talking about bringing this to nonprofits. We're talking about bringing this to free enterprise companies. You've got a lot of taxpayer dollars for companies to potentially get rich on products coming out of the state of North Carolina. And you mentioned something interesting there with the lack of equity in these companies, with arguably very little, if any, benefit to the state that provided a lot of the resources to make this whole thing happen. And I think that's one of the big questions.
You know, the idea is when this all first started is: well, they're going to make sure that the companies stay in North Carolina when they bring it to the commercial market. What does that look like? It's just too early in the process to see if that really does come to fruition.
So the idea is we're trying to keep companies from coming, swooping in, taking our technology and taking it out of state to make big bucks off of it. But we don't know what that looks like just yet. And it's just too early in the process for that to be part of the part of seeing how these what they call non-dilutive grants really materialize when they're on the other side of that valley of death.
So again, I don't think that there's an argument that this doesn't exist, that folks, that the researchers do need help bringing this to market. But should this be a $500 million endowment to a private organization to do it? I think that's the question that lawmakers are making. And there's also been criticism internally about how much they're spending on lobbying to make sure they can hold on to that endowment. And how they're filing their taxes.
It's a new organization going through growing pains, but that $500 million, half a billion dollar endowment is what lawmakers are watching. Don, I think a lot of folks would immediately go to: well, there's a great solution here if the private industry believes that there is some value in a lot of this university research, not just here in North Carolina, but across the entire university system in the United States. Maybe some of these major Fortune 500 companies should get together and invest in something like this. There has been some discussion about taking this NC innovation model private. I think that's probably the last time we talked about this.
Have we heard? I know that you were closely watching the board meeting last week. Any additional discussion on that? Yes, so the board member, the board members of NC Innovation last week, they were meeting on the exact same day that lawmakers announced they have a budget framework.
So all of this is happening in real time. They're trying to figure out what to do if they're forced to go private. And lawmakers are trying to figure out how and through what vehicle and how much of that money might get clawed back.
So there was some discussion and the chairman of NC Innovation, Kelly King, said, look, we need to strengthen the private part of this public-private. Enterprise. And another board member, Art Pope, said, You need to divide these. You need to separate them into a private entity. Maybe if you do get to keep any of the public money, use that just for to benefit universities.
But the rest of it, if you really want to get private investment and you don't want the oversight that taking state money requires, then give it back. And encourage other companies, philanthropists, whatever organizations to invest in this idea, but don't take the state money. Yeah, and there are a lot of examples of very successful, profitable, nonprofit groups all across the state of North Carolina that do an incredible job fundraising from private business entities and in large part even individuals. We're seeing some of that right now in Western North Carolina, Donna, with the incredible work being done by many of these private groups to get folks back in their homes. Let's go to the logistics of clawing back some $500 million.
As you noted, NC Innovation seems to claim that they're burning through cash at a pretty rapid rate. I mean, what does this even look like for state lawmakers as they continue with this budget negotiation process in Raleigh? Right.
So earlier, if we go rerun the clock a little bit, when they were State and Senate and the State House were proposing budget the last go-round, both of them proposed, the House proposed clawing back 100%, all $500 million, and giving it to Helene disaster relief, while the Senate proposed Proposed clawing back $400 of the $500 million and giving it to a new children's hospital in Apex, just outside of the triangle, and then allowing NCI to keep $25 million a year for the next four years, kind of an off-ramp to state funding.
So, you know, those are the two options that have been floating out there. And I think from here, the big question is: how is it going to look if it shows up in the state budget? We don't know for sure that it will. It's just something that both chambers have appeared to be in support of. And certainly, Senate Leader Phil Berger said we've only resolved it to the degree that we need to know it's going to be resolved.
They've committed only to discussing how to resolve it.
So we don't know for sure it's going to be in the budget. But if it does, it's where does that money go? Where is that $500 million going to go? And how would it be spent? And would it be spent at all?
Would it be saved? Would it go to this children's hospital? Would it go to Halleen Recovery? The governor, Governor Stein, in his budget recommendations, he wanted to claw it all back, all $500 million and put it in disaster recovery as well. Let me ask you about that.
I want to end on that note. What do you make of the governor, who for the most part, typically is not in agreement with largely most of what comes out of the North Carolina General Assembly, with he agreeing with House lawmakers and saying, yeah, this is a lot of money that this private entity has. Let's just claw this entire thing back and give it to Helene. That's pretty unique in our current political climate. It does seem to be unique.
I was surprised to see it. It does mean that folks are paying attention to it. They're more cognizant of our budget process and things like earmarks and special projects and things like that. And that's something that, you know, North Carolinians, particularly the ones that we've polled, have said that they really want to see the state get away from these pet projects and things like this, particularly when they're talking about half a billion dollars. Yeah, again, a very large sum of money here.
We'll be keeping an eye on NC Innovation as the legislative short session does continue and budget negotiators between both the North Carolina House and Senate get together and eventually, hopefully, get to some sort of final agreement on a budget deal. You can read more on NC Innovation by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Donna King joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. If the world were like a sleep number mattress, everything would adapt for your comfort.
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Sleep Number to a Good Life Sleep. Good morning again. It's 554. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT keeping our eyes peeled on the busy North Carolina General Assembly. As I mentioned earlier in the show, a lot of hearings, a lot of committees set to meet and take place today.
One of the most consequential votes is expected between the North Carolina House and Senate as each chamber, at least as of right now, could vote today to put a new constitutional amendment on the ballot for this year that would cut the state's highest allowable income tax rate from 7% to 3.5%. If this sounds vaguely familiar, well, eight years ago here in North Carolina, voters approved an amendment lowering the maximum possible income tax rate for individuals and corporations from 7% to 10%.
However, this brand new proposed amendment would lower that cap to 3.5%, meaning moving forward, no North Carolina legislature, no North Carolina General Assembly would have the ability to raise that rate above 3.5% without going back to the voters and passing another constitutional amendment. Late last night, a Senate committee approved the amendment with lawmakers moving forward with that, the legislation. It was then sent to the Senate rules and operations of the Senate. It is expected to make its way to the Senate floor for a vote today. We could also potentially see this same legislation run through the North Carolina House and make it to the House floor as well, as voters will be asked to vote on a litany of different constitutional amendments.
We were just mentioning a little bit earlier in the show a new right-to-farm constitutional amendment that could be coming to voters as well.
So that will make what will already be a lengthy ballot coming up here in November for the midterm elections, even lengthier with a couple of these proposed constitutional amendments. As Republicans in Raleigh look to codify in the state constitution some of the major policy preferences that they have brought forward over the last 15 years, one of the hard to argue, probably the largest being the tax reform and tax policy coming from Republicans in Raleigh going all the way back to 2000. When they first took control of the North Carolina General Assembly, we will be watching this and a lot of other activity in the North Carolina General Assembly on your Tuesday. We'll bring you up to date with all the latest over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And of course, coming up tomorrow morning, right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
That's going to do it for a Tuesday morning edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9, WBT.
