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It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. We are tracking a continued busy progress in the North Carolina General Assembly as lawmakers are expected to be back again this morning for a litany of committee meetings and some main progress within the official body of the North Carolina House. Lawmakers in the House today, when they gavel in at 10.30 this morning, are expected to vote on three constitutional amendments, at least three constitutional amendments that voters will have the opportunity to decide coming up in November.
One of those proposals seeks to permanently cap the state's income tax At a rate of 3.5%. Another set to lower, the other, I should say, set to put forth what is called a levy limit, which would put a cap on how far local governments can raise property taxes at the local level in any given cycle. And the third, a pretty new constitutional amendment just being discussed over the last couple of days, one that changes how vacancies are handled within the Council of State. Those are individuals like the state auditor, the labor commissioner, agricultural commissioner, insurance commissioner, those types of individuals, those elected statewide officials that make up the executive branch in the council of state. We are going to be keeping a close eye on that in Raleigh today.
Again, as the House gavels in at 10:30, we have focused on the other two constitutional amendments, including the levy limit and a sales tax or a Property tax numbers pretty significantly here. We'll jump into details on the other. A couple of other constitutional amendments as well that are up for discussion, and however, have not necessarily expected to see a vote yet. The North Carolina House Education Committee on May the 19th advanced a proposed constitutional amendment. It has not made its way to the House floor yet, still in committee, to make the elected superintendent of public instruction the chair of the state board of education and allow voters rather than the governor to choose most members of the board, most of the board's members.
This is House Bill 144, which is called elect SBE/slash/superintendent as SBE chair. It passed the committee in a mixed voice vote. If both chambers of the General Assembly approved this measure, like all of the other constitutional amendments we are following, voters would decide the question in the November 2026 election. Currently, the State Board consists of eleven members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the North Carolina General Assembly, along with the Lieutenant Governor and the State Treasurer as what are known as ex officio members. The Superintendent serves as the non voting secretary.
Under this legislation and proposed constitutional amendment, House Bill 144, the superintendent would become a voting chair and appointed seats would be replaced by members elected from districts drawn by the legislature equal in the number of state U.S. House delegations, which is currently 14. We have 14 members of the United States House here in North Carolina. The amendment is the latest in the ongoing conflict between the GOP Control General Assembly and the Democrat-led State Board, with House Republicans having publicly criticized the board's attendance policy, pressed DPI over its framing of student achievement data, and signaled some pretty high levels of skepticism of a multi-indicator A through F school grading overhaul that the board is developing for the long session. According to Representative Hugh Blackwell, the Republican from Burke County, who is the lead sponsor of this bill, he says most people voting for the superintendent currently probably think in terms of him or her being the leader of education policy.
Whereas structurally he's more of a person carrying out the administration and operations. Blackwell pointed to outcome data to argue the current structure is not working in a sufficient manner. Only about a third of high school juniors meet the college-ready benchmark for ACT testing, and barely a third attain the career-ready benchmark. With Blackwell saying he also referenced the state Supreme Court's ruling in favor of then Superintendent. June Atkinson over Democrat Governor Bev Perdue efforts to shift power to the state board chair, saying that House Bill 144 would obliterate that problem.
In addition to the broader changes, the amendment would also change the state constitution to let bills redraw the state's board district and pass on three readings. The same treatment given to legislation and congressional redistricting maps, which bypass a governor's veto and do not go to the governor's desk for a signature. Democrats on the House Education Committee pushed back. State Representative Marsha Morey, the Democrat from Durham County, offered a failed amendment that would have moved district-drawn duties from the General Assembly to an independent redistricting committee, with Morey citing primary turnout under 20%, the cost of partisan campaigns, and the fact that the governor is already, quote, mandated to select people from across the state with a range of expertise. Morey said of the current process, it's not concentrated.
He, referring to the governor, has parameters and it has to be well representative. We will not have the results we want. We will not have the expertise we want. It will become much more of a political animal. State Representative Laura Budd, the Democrat from Mecklenburg County, also pressed the bill sponsor in Hugh Blackwell on whether tying state board districts to legislative maps would put partisanship at the center of education policy.
With Budd asking the question during the meeting, given that those maps are drawn with surgical precision to maintain the political power of the Republican Party, aren't you in fact at the point making politics front and center in the classroom? That was her question during the committee meeting. State Representative David Willis, the Republican from Union County, and the presiding presiding as the chair, and one of the other primary sponsors of the bill, twice ruled the line of questioning not germane to the topic of conversation. With State Representative Mike Sheetzel, the Republican from Wake County, defending the proposal as a transparency measure, arguing that the current process is, in fact, decided by a much smaller group than an election would involve. With Sheetzel saying in part during the meeting, Right now, this decision is made by an even smaller number of people.
It's the governor with the advice and the consent of the Senate. This bill would increase transparency and knowledge about our State Board of Education's role. Blackwell brought a similar measure, House Bill 1173 in 2022. That bill cleared two House committees, but did not become law. Constitutional amendments, unlike regular legislation that we follow here, require a three-fifths majority in both chambers before going to voters, and that will require 72 votes in the North Carolina House, meaning that one Democrat or one of the two new unaffiliated or independent candidates, including Representative Carla Cunningham from Mecklenburg County, would have to vote with the Republicans for not only this, but any constitutional amendment to currently be approved.
If approved in November of 2026 by voters, the new structure would set to take effect January the 1st, 2028, applying to the state board term that would begin January 1 at 2029. As I mentioned, this is one of multiple constitutional amendments that we are following in Raleigh. Yeah. The other deals with lowering the tax cap rate from 7% to 3.5%. One of the others deals with property taxes at the local level, implementing what is called a levy limit, which would limit how much local governments can raise property taxes year over year during their traditional budget cycle.
And the third piece of legislation from all the way back in April of last year that really hasn't seen much movement at all, a constitutional amendment dealing with Council of State vacancies. We do believe that the Republican majority in the North Carolina House has the votes to pass these three constitutional amendments.
However, we will find that out for certain later on today. The North Carolina House is set to gavel in at 10:30 this morning. We are expecting votes on those amendments and potentially the votes on six veto overrides that remain outstanding as of right now. We heard some of those comments from a House Speaker destined to. Hall yesterday as he gaveled out the North Carolina House.
We'll be keeping an eye on that throughout the day over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And of course, bring you the latest right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Here, there are beaches as wide open as your plans. and waterfront towns more charming than you could ever imagine. And activities to fill every sunny second of every sunny day.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT, and some other statewide news that we are tracking this morning. Governor Josh Stein signed an executive order on Tuesday aimed at addressing the need for more affordable housing. This is as North Carolina continues to see pretty explosive population growth year over year, with the governor saying in part at the onset of the press conference, you have all heard the expression that if you build it, they will come. Turns out here in North Carolina, even if you don't build it, they will still come. People want to live and work here, but we simply do not have enough homes to meet that growing demand.
Stein, the Democrat governor, pointed out that in the last year, more people moved to North Carolina from other states than any other state in the nation. Touting the state's ranking last year as the top state for business, workforce development and economic development and the most job announcements in state history. With the creation of more than 35,000 well-paying jobs. But looking ahead to 2029, he said the state is projected to be more than 750,000 homes short of meeting the housing needs of its continuing booming population. With the governor saying that teachers in 23 of the state's counties do not make enough money to pay the average rent in those communities.
Stein also said that carpenters who build the homes in Charlotte, for example, could only afford about 20% of the entry-level homes on the market. In Raleigh, they could only afford 8% of the available, what are described as entry-level homes. He added in a press release that 53% of enlisted families in North Carolina report spending more than 30% of their monthly income on housing and utilities, and that from 2024 to 2025, North Carolina saw the ninth highest rental price increases in the country. with the governor saying in part, Housing is the single biggest expense that most families face.
So somebody's rent or mortgage takes up too much of their monthly paycheck, that means that they have much less to spend on other essentials. The governor said, In order to meet the state's housing goals, the private sector must be leveraged along with federal funds to build more affordable housing options. Current houses need to be rehabilitated to make them more efficient. Collaboration between local governments and builders needs to be encouraged for more innovation and creativity to increase housing supply, and an investment in workforce training and apprenticeships is needed. As there is a shortage of skilled trades and construction professionals that are needed to build said homes.
The governor went on to say in part, There are bipartisan efforts at the General Assembly to cut red tape and make it easier to build housing, which I support. groups from all ends of the ideological spectrum, from Americans for Prosperity and the John Locke Foundation to the Catawba River Keepers and the North Carolina Housing Coalition. They share a lot of the same ideas, and there are many common sense recommendations that would increase the state's housing supply. The ideas all revolve around freedom and flexibility, making it easier for homeowners, builders, and local governments to build and maintain more types of housing that people need. Donald Bryson, the CEO of the John Locke Foundation, said in a statement that Stein is right.
to focus attention on North Carolina's affordability crisis, saying in part, The best way to make housing more affordable is straightforward. Make it easier to build more homes. That means reducing outdated zoning restrictions, allowing more starter homes and accessory dwelling units, permitted housing near job and commercial areas, and streamline local approval processes, noting that subsidies may help some families at the margins, but sustainable affordability comes from abundance or more supply, said Bryson. The governor said that his executive order will coordinate efforts across state government to facilitate more housing construction and housing access agencies will collaborate with each other and use data and technology to gather more information on housing needs, potential solutions and locations. Again, working with local governments and corporate and nonprofit partners for these new shared goals.
A new position, the senior advisor for housing policy was also created under the executive order. An individual by the name of Janky Ratcliffe, who recently served as the vice president of the housing and communities division at the Urban Institute, will serve in that role. She said in part during the press release included within this executive order. We can't just build more high-end homes and luxury apartment buildings. We need more multi-generational options like backyard cottages.
We need starter homes so that younger households can put down roots right here in their communities. And we need more innovation from factory-built housing, for example. Ratcliffe also said that over 40,000 households are on the wait list for subsidized housing units and that homelessness rose in 2024, especially among family with children. Ratcliffe also gave examples of different communities' future needs, like Jones County, which may need a few hundred homes to close the forecast gap through twenty twenty nine, which would be more than ten percent of its existing housing stock. Chatham County, which needs to close the biggest gap, needs a 33% increase in housing stock.
It also has the highest median list price for a home in the state at over $800,000. Both Jones and Chatham are also in the Our State, Our Homes Affordable Housing Project, with her saying that Way County needs more than 100,000 units as well. Last month, a bill was introduced to create a $50 million revolving loan fund to help nonprofit developers cover upfront infrastructure costs for affordable housing projects across the state. That legislation is House Bill 1072, titled Affordable Housing Infrastructure Development Act. That legislation would direct the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency to establish and administer a below market rate loan program.
For qualifying nonprofit organizations developing affordable housing. Under the bill, loans could be used for early stage development expenses, including land acquisition, site preparation, utility connections, water and sewer infrastructure, permitting and related preconstruction costs. Supporters say that the measure addresses a financial gap that often delays or prevents affordable housing developments from moving forward, with nonprofit developers frequently struggling to secure funding for infrastructure and site work before construction begins. That bill would appropriate fifty million dollars from the state's general fund during the twenty six, twenty seven fiscal year to capitalize the revolving loan fund with loan repayments that would return to that fund for future projects moving forward. There is a lot of discussion in many counties across the state of North Carolina as it relates to affordable housing.
We are seeing work at the local level and now some pushes at the state level as well. We will keep our eye on this executive order and that piece of legislation, as I just mentioned, House Bill 1072, moving through the North Carolina General Assembly. And as that continues during the legislative short session, we'll bring you the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5.37. 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. We have consistently talked about how agriculture is not only a major business in North Carolina, it's the number one business across the Tar Heel State. There's been a lot of economic uncertainty over the last year and a half as it relates to the agricultural industry that's having a major impact on small, medium, and large farms here across the state of North Carolina. We're keeping on the topic of agriculture, but actually talking about fertilizer.
There's some interesting things going on there to walk through some of those details. This morning, Katie Zender, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Katie, for anybody that even maybe plays around in their backyard with a small little garden, fertilizer is a major portion of growing crops, which we see here in North Carolina. Looks like maybe some global shortages there. What's the latest that you're following?
Yeah, good morning Nick. Thank you for having me back on. Yeah, so fertilizer has kind of become the center of some attention recently with all the geopolitical disruptions and different wars going on. Fertilizer has really kind of taken a front seat because, you know, because of all these geopolitical conflicts, the supply chain is being disrupted, which is, you know, causing the price of fertilizer to go up.
So that's having an impact on North Carolina farmers, even just small family farms. And, you know, Nick, we've talked about this many, many, many times, but farmers are kind of being hit from all sides right now between hurricanes and tariffs and diesel prices and now fertilizer. Yeah, it's a really big impact on North Carolina farmers. Yeah, I mean, you look at the labor side of it as well. I remember a story that you did.
I mean, it's probably been over a year now, Katie, talking about parts for tractors and other sorts of farm equipment.
Some of that stuff has skyrocketed as well. It seems like, unfortunately, farmers just literally can't catch a break here, not only in North Carolina, but across the rest of the nation. Right, and so Corey Rosenbusch, who's the CEO of the Fertilizer Institute, had some really insightful thoughts on this. And he said that fertilizer is produced and consumed globally. And you know, a lot of people think of America as the number one agricultural country in the world.
Even with that, Nick, only about 10% of fertilizer consumption is from the United States. 90% of fertilizer gets consumed outside of the United States. And so there are many different varieties and products of fertilizer, but probably the three of the major ones and the ones that we'll focus on today are nitrogen. Phosphate and potash. Phosphate and potash are mined products, and then nitrogen is chemically manufactured.
But there's more than 30 different products of fertilizer. They all have their own markets, their own prices, their own impact on plant growth and yields for the farmer. But we're going to focus on those three main ones today. And like I said, fertilizer is consumed globally. Only about 10% is consumed in the U.S.
The top two countries for fertilizer consumption are China and India. China is number one overall for fertilizer consumption, but the big difference between China and India is that most of China's fertilizer consumption is domestically produced.
So they're keeping most of their fertilizer in-house. Whereas with India, most of their fertilizer consumption is coming from the global market.
So India is technically the number one consumer of fertilizer on the global market, but China is number one overall. And so in China, one-third of all nitrogen produced comes from China and about 43% of phosphates are produced there as well. And then Irian is the second largest exporter of urea, which is a form of nitrogen. And about 12% of the global market share comes from Iran. And then Trinidad is actually one of the US's largest suppliers of ammonia, which again is a form of nitrogen.
Well, we know that Iran has been in the news a lot over the last three months or so. We won't dive into all of those details here this morning. Katie, one of the interesting things as it relates to the agricultural industry is we typically see these prices kind of lag, right? Often now you plant for farmers across the state. They are planting crops months or years in advance and having them available and ready to sell to these suppliers.
They show up on the grocery store shelves. They show up at roadside stands all across the state of North Carolina, very popular time now for strawberries and things like that. But many of these prices are actually lagged and delayed.
So we might not actually see some of the impacts of this potentially towards the next couple of growing seasons, depending on the product or the crop that we're talking about. That's exactly right, Nick. And you know, another factor that plays into this is something we've been talking about for over a year now is tariffs.
So, most of the fertilizers were actually exempt from tariffs on November 14th, except for ammonia, sulfur, sulfuric acid, and calcium ammonium nitrate, according to Rosenberg. And then he said, you know, the United States is fairly self-reliant when it comes to ammonia, but about 50% of our imports do come from Trinidad and Tobago. And this is another issue with fertilizer plants, especially those in the Middle East, but also in Trinidad and Tobago. A lot of these plants have been shut down due to a lack of natural gas supply, port access, tariff-related issues. A lot of plants in the Middle East have been shut down due to infrastructure damage from missile strikes or different war-related War-related mishaps, and China dominates the global fertilizer consumption, as I said before.
But foreign governments use these policies to influence the market. And India is a great example of this. Is something that Corey said: he said, India procures all of their fertilizer as a central government. As I said before, Nick, they are the world's largest consumer of fertilizer on the global market, but then they heavily subsidize it and they sell it to their farmers very cheaply. And for them, it's a political tool, it's a form of social welfare for their smaller farmers.
There are 108 nitrogen-producing companies that serve the U.S., 38 phosphate suppliers, and 16 potash suppliers. And those are only the companies that serve the US. And then, when we talk about nitrogen and phosphate in particular, China has increased their total production by about 20% from 2025 to 2026 year over year, but they're still maintaining a lot of their restrictions on exports. Um and so they're not sharing with the global marketplace and something that Rosenberg said or Rosenbush said was you know China's official reason is that they need it for their farmers and and Corey said you know while this is probably true he also believes it's kind of an intentional policy move because and this is really important Nick China knows that if they control the fertilizer market it makes them more powerful and so if they can control fertilizer they can control food production and if they can control food production they can control national security that's a verbatim quote from corey and that is really important point Yeah, it's not only an incredibly important point. We just saw the president of the United States and Donald Trump in China last week meeting with the Chinese president.
This ongoing kind of tariff and trade back and forth between the United States and China does have major implications here in the United States, as the United States. We're seeing at least with the oil market right now, Katie, has this attempt to try and produce as much oil domestically and kind of secure that national supply here for the United States. Hopefully, in the years to come, seeing something similar with fertilizer as well. I want to go back to something you said about India, how they are purchasing this fertilizer themselves as a nation, heavily subsidizing it and selling it to their small farmers. Obviously, we don't do that here in the United States.
And so, when you look at farming, Katie, I would assume that some of these larger national groups that control and have purchased up a lot of farm and a lot of farmlands over the last couple of decades, they can probably bulk order some of these products, maybe get some discounted rates. But when you dive into these small mom and pop and medium-sized farms here across the state of North Carolina, they don't have that buying power. They likely don't have the agreements with some of these major suppliers. I would expect that they're getting kind of an outsized impact on some of these rising prices. Yeah, that's exactly right, Nick.
Like you said, like a lot of the larger farms, they are able to buy in bulk, maybe negotiate a little bit of a discount, but the smaller to medium-sized farms, you know, these farmers are barely making ends meet as it is and barely staying afloat as it is with all the factors that we've talked about. And so it's really, you know, we kind of talked about this on the global market as well, but when one country or government has the capital to be able to pay whatever they need to pay for fertilizer, everyone else has to compete with that price. And so if you aren't compete, if you can't, then you're kind of then it's going to be hard for you. And it's the same with on the local level. Like the larger farmers are able to, they have the capital to be able to pay whatever they need to pay, whereas the smaller to medium-sized farmers don't have that ability.
Yeah, and you've mentioned plenty of times in the past as we've talked about agricultural issues here across North Carolina. It is these small and medium-sized farms that are barely scraping by if there is drought, if there is disasters like we saw a couple of years ago in Western North Carolina with Hurricane Helene. Katie, they don't have hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in their savings accounts to go forth and keep up with that stuff. They are literally putting all their dollars out as it relates to their product and hopefully recouping that when they're selling their products to market. And if they have a bad year, a bad crop or prices are fluctuating dramatically, many of these farms, unfortunately, can just kind of go under.
Right, that's exactly right. Most of these small to mid-sized farmers, like you said, they don't have hundreds or thousands or millions of dollars. They're lucky if they've got probably a couple thousand dollars in surplus. If they're breaking even, they're doing well. And so, yeah, a lot of them, unfortunately, we could see, unfortunately, you know, a lot of these farmers are being offered really good deals from housing developments, and they don't want to give in, or most of them don't want to sell.
But if this keeps going on, Nick, and all these factors that we see with fertilizer, and then we got drought and diesel prices, and a lot of them that don't even want to are probably either going to be selling to developments or being bought out by larger farmers. Yeah, and you can't necessarily fault them for that when you're barely breaking even or losing money on the product that you're selling. It is not sustainable long term. Katie, you've got a lot of additional details on this, some additional quotes from the experts that you spoke to. Where can folks go and get those details this morning?
Yeah, they can read the rest of the article along with all the quotes and facts at CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the agricultural update. Katie Zender joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. 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 5:54. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. We are keeping a very close eye on the North Carolina General Assembly this morning, as today, or this week, I should say more accurately to say this week is the last week that we are expecting in the month of May for any major progress for legislative action in Raleigh. According to the House calendar published back just a couple of months ago by House Speaker Destin Hall, the 18th through the 22nd, that's this week, are days where votes could happen, where lawmakers are expected to be in Raleigh.
They are not expected to be in there the following week, and those lawmakers are expected to be back the first week of June. On that first Tuesday, I believe it's the second, that they will be making their way back there. Looking at the House calendar for this morning, well, it is a busy one at 10.30 when lawmakers gavel in. There are three constitutional amendments that are on the calendar right now. Lowering taxes for all NC, that would lower the current tax cap rate from 7% to 3.5%.
House Bill 1089, a constitutional amendment for property tax levy limits. That would limit what local governments, counties, and cities can do year over year in their budget cycle in terms of how much they raise their property tax rates. And finally, House Bill 443. Which is a constitutional amendment for Council of State vacancies. It would change how those vacancies currently, how those vacancies are filled currently.
They are appointed by the governor, regardless of political party. There would be some changes there. A supermajority is required in both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly to pass through any of these constitutional amendments. And then, of course, it is you and I, the voters here in North Carolina, that will decide coming up in November whether we support these additional measures or not. The lower taxes for all NC Senate Bill 1080 has already passed the Senate.
So if it receives a proper vote, a yes vote, with 72 members voting in favor in the North Carolina House today, that will be headed on to the ballot. House Bill 1089 started in the House, so it will make its way over to the Senate if it receives 72 votes in the House. Same thing with House Bill 443. Lawmakers are expected to gavel in in Raleigh at 10.30. There are also six veto overrides that are listed as unfinished business on the House calendar.
We've been watching these pieces of legislation for months, and there could be the possibility of some votes on those today. We'll keep you up to date with all the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. 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, 5-6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9, WBET.
