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You're actually listening to Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. We started with some news this morning in the North Carolina legislature as a new House proposal, and this is the North Carolina House, would impose new limits on large data centers across the Tar Hills State while adding ratepayer protections aimed at shielding residents and businesses from higher utility costs. This legislation has been introduced by a couple of different lawmakers, including state representatives Matthew Winslow, the Republican from Franklin County, Representative Dean Arp, the Republican from Union County, and Kyle Hall, the Republican from Forsyth County.
This legislation was announced last week, which was a very busy week in Raleigh with the proposed House Committee substitute to Senate Bill 730, retitling the measure to the Ratepayer Protection Act. According to Representative Winslow, he says, data centers bring economic opportunity, but they must not come at the expense of our ratepayers, our water resources, or our energy reliability. The Ratepayer Protection Act strikes the right balance, encourages responsible growth while putting North Carolina families first. The proposed changes would shift the bill's focus to new regulations on large data centers, including requirements for noise. Impact assessments, local reviews of water and environmental impacts, limits on cooling systems, and restrictions on ownerships by entities tied to foreign adversaries.
Back to Representative Winslow, he says: North Carolinians are already feeling the pinch of higher electricity bills, and we cannot allow massive data centers and unrealistic green energy mandates to make it worse. The Ratepayer Protection Act puts people over profits by ensuring that data centers pay their fair share, protecting our drinking water, safeguarding local communities, and keeping reliable, affordable power flowing to our homes and businesses. This is about common sense protections for hardworking families and job creators who call North Carolina home. The proposal would also require large data centers to cover added infrastructure and energy costs, a provision that supporters of the legislation say is intended to. Prevent those costs from essentially being 100% shifted away from those data centers and large compute factories to residential and retail electrical consumers.
This issue comes amid growing concerns over energy demands from data centers and their use of artificial intelligence. This is a discussion that is taking place all across the country right now. Nearly four-fifths of voters, 78.2% agreed that new data center facilities should have to provide for their own energy or electrical generation. According to one of our more recent Carolina Journal polls, of those surveyed, 59.8% strongly supported the measure, while fewer than 10% opposed requiring those data centers to provide, again, their own electricity. John Sanders, who is the director of the John Locke Foundation Center for Food, Power, and Life, said that the idea is worth considering as lawmakers look for ways to protect ratepayers from costs associated with this new demand.
He told the Carolina Journal: This is an idea worth exploring in order to keep our customers from shouldering the costs of constructing new power plants to meet new demands, specifically from data centers. That said, changing the law to allow data centers voluntarily to supply or contract their own power independent from the grid would shield other customers from the risks without requiring special contracts and terms with the utilities. The proposal also prevents major power plants from being retired before adequate replacement resources are available. Another provision that supporters say is intended to protect against energy shortages and price hikes and spikes across the state, with Sanders saying that the proposal would address a major flaw in the state's current Carolina carbon plan. According to Sanders, he says this proposal would prevent a major problem with that carbon plan law, which is the very real threat of retiring baseload power sources, things like coal and natural gas, and replacing them with weather-dependent renewables that cannot be relied upon to dispatch power when it is needed.
Our research shows that the cheapest and most reliable way to reach the carbon plan's goal is through nuclear power. And that is what this proposal would do. Nevertheless, the carbon plans evaluating its political goal above affordability and reliable power. Has always been the biggest problem with it. Sanders said that the proposal could go further, however, saying it would be optimal to stipulate that any retiring baseload capacity can be replaced by only an equal or greater amount of new baseload capacity.
Adequate, reliable, and affordable power is far more important to North Carolinians than an unrelated and increasingly impractical policy goal of carbon-neutral electricity. Carolina Journal polling found that 51.9% of voters said that they would support replacing retiring coal power plants with equally reliable energy sources, defined as sources capable of providing power any time of the day or night without backup, with slightly more than a quarter of voters, 27.6% opposing that approach, while 20% and a large faction in this poll remaining unsure. The proposal follows earlier bipartisan. Legislation that was filed a couple of months ago that would eliminate several sales and use tax exemptions for qualifying data setters, including exemptions for electricity, computer software, equipment, and support infrastructure as lawmakers continue to scrutinize the costs of subsidizing the expanding artificial intelligence and cloud computing industry. The measure remains in the North Carolina House, where it would need to go through multiple committee approvals before moving to the full House floor for a vote.
We'll be keeping an eye on this legislation and many other pieces that we've talked about in the last couple of weeks right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Quick note on that. Lawmakers are not expected to be in Raleigh this week. We have watched. A busy month of May thus far in the North Carolina General Assembly, but lawmakers are not back this week, so we will have a relatively slow week.
We are expecting one at least in the General Assembly. Nevertheless, we'll keep you up to date with the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. In some other statewide news this morning, the modernizing of elections data system, also known as MEDS, the advisory commission there, is urging the General Assembly to appropriate funding for replacing the statewide election information management system. At a meeting last week, the bipartisan 22-member commission approved a resolution requesting some $60 million from the state legislature during the legislative short session as it would go for phase three of full replacement of that system. Connecticut-based software company Reframe Solutions was selected in February as the winning vendor for phase three.
two with which is about a $15 million project this new system if it is approved and if the legislature approves the financial support of it could have the system up and running pretty rapidly before the 2028 general election It is set to streamline reporting, improving accuracy, providing real-time public access to campaign finance data with other proposed features, including automated data imports from fundraising platforms, bulk upload capacities, guided filling workflows similar to tax software, and integration with financial tools like QuickBooks. The system would also allow different levels of access for treasurers, regulators, and candidates, improving both usability and oversight. This is a very relevant topic as the current statewide election management system was initially developed all the way back in 1998. and is the central election management system that coordinates the statewide election process across the state voter registration voter roll list maintenance as well as reporting of election night results which we have seen some problems with in years past it is also used daily by the state board of elections and all 100 county board of elections uh to conduct daily operation of the election system Going through some of the details in this meeting from this new commission last week, Brooks Fuller of Common Cause NC, a commission member and sponsor of the member-initiated resolution, said the resolution adopted today reflects the commission's confidence that the State Board of Elections and the Office of the State Auditor are positioned to advance a comprehensive modernization and evaluation and eventual replacement of the management system. We are asking the North Carolina General Assembly to provide substantial funding so this work can move from planning to implementation.
We, as members of the Meds Commission, will continue to offer public review and transparency through this important process. The public has been vocal about cybersecurity when it comes to election systems. Of the 80 submissions, approximately 30 to 35 were about cybersecurity, which was the most of any topic. At their meeting last month, this same commission reviewed, received suggestions ranging from implementing multi-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, and a zero trust architecture, which is a security model that eliminates what is called in computer programming and security implicit trust. requiring strict identity verification for every person and device attempting to access resources regardless of their location, and again operating on that zero trust architecture for security.
The second most notable submission was on data integrity focused on correcting legacy data problems, validating inputs, resolving what are called duplicate records within the system, and integrating authoritative data sources to this statewide system. The North Carolina State Board of Elections, of course, will be a part of this process as well.
However, the modernizing of election data systems advisory commission set up under State Auditor Dave Boelick's office is continuing this work, asking now the General Assembly for upwards of $60 million to move forward with a complete overhaul of the system. We'll be keeping an eye on those details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. If the world were like a sleep number mattress, everything would adapt for your comfort. Because as your life changes and your body changes, Sleep Number mattresses adapt and shift to give you personalized comfort night after night. And now it's the final days of our Everything's On Sale event.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT. We are less than a week away from June the 1st, which will mark the beginning of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs June 1st through November the 30th. Each year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, known as NOAA, releases a forecast outlining what to expect for the upcoming season and hopefully some good news for the state of North Carolina and really the Atlantic Sea Board as a whole. Here's NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs at a press conference last week announcing what they are expecting for the upcoming hurricane season. For the Atlantic hurricane season, NOAA is predicting A below normal season.
for 2026. With roughly a 55% chance of being below normal, a 35% chance of near normal. and a 10% chance of a bug mull. This equates to 8 to 14 named storms with winds at or above 39 miles an hour. Of these Three to six hurricanes with winds at or above 74 miles an hour.
And one to three major hurricanes, that's your category three to five. with winds at or above one hundred and eleven miles an hour. That is the voice of Neil Jacobs. He is the NOAA administrator providing that information at a press conference in southern Florida last week. And as meteorologists say that the below average season is due to El Niño conditions in the Atlantic, Jacobs expanded on that.
What's driving this forecast is largely An El Nino event. There's a 98% chance. of El Niño conditions occurring later this season. and an eighty percent chance that this El Niño will be moderate to strong. In the Atlantic, the El Nino increases the vertical wind shear, which disrupts the outflow at higher levels, makes it harder for development of the eastern.
Waves coming off of Africa to strengthen in the storms.
So, that is some good news for those that keep a close eye on the Atlantic. Those El Niño conditions likely providing at least a not super active season, slightly below a normal, according to NOAA and the National Weather Service.
However, NOAA's National Weather Service director and Ken Graham says although El Niño impacting the Atlantic basin can often suppress hurricane development, there is still, of course, uncertainty in how each season will unfold. This is why it is essential to review your hurricane preparedness plan now, as it only takes one storm to make for a very bad season. According to Commerce Secretary Howard Luttnick in a recent press release, he said, With the most advanced forecasting models and hurricane tracking technologies, NOAA and the National Weather Service are prepared to deliver real-time storm forecasts and warnings. Our experts are integrating cutting-edge tools to ensure communities in the path of storms receive the earliest, most accurate information possible. With the NOAA administrator Neil Jackson stressing the importance of using some of this new technology for the upcoming Atlantic season, of course, highlighting artificial intelligence, which is being used now all over the sector.
We're introducing an AI-based version of the GFS as well as an AI global ensemble forecast system, the hybrid GEPS. We also have a new AI-based hurricane forecast model that we've developed in partnership with Google DeepMind, which we used experimentally in last year's hurricane season. As you heard, they're using some of those experimental AI models to track alongside the traditional GFS, Euro, NAM, and other computer models that have traditionally been used in more modern times to track hurricanes, their development, and their paths moving forward. With Jacobs saying these new capabilities, combined with the unmatched expertise of our National Weather Service forecasters will produce the most accurate forecasts possible to protect communities in harm's way. The first named storm on the list when it does form at some point during this Atlantic hurricane season will be the name of Arthur.
Earlier in May, the National Weather Service hosted its annual National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Alongside state agencies in North Carolina, the Weather Service hopes to improve readiness ahead of the June 1st start date of the season. Going back to National Weather Service Director Ken Graham, he said there's no such thing as just a category. one, just a tropical storm, or just a category two. This is absolutely not the case.
It doesn't matter what it is. You go look at the size of the storm, the forward movement, even the smallest storms. If it's slow enough and big enough, it's going to create a catastrophic flooding event and storm surge, noting that there's no such thing as a hurricane justa. He went on to say, you have just got to make sure that the public pays attention to every single one of these systems and the actual impacts, not just the categories, not just the name, but the actual impacts associated with that storm. That includes things like tornadoes, heavy rain, damaging winds, even the high surf and rip currents as well, including storm surge.
Unfortunately, that is something that we are very familiar with here in North Carolina. We are rapidly approaching the two-year mark from Hurricane Helene's unimaginable amounts of devastation. And destruction in western North Carolina. And when Helene was bearing down on the western half of North Carolina, it was in fact slowly and actually very rapidly weakening from a Category 1 hurricane down to a tropical storm, as most of the damage was felt in the western half of our state. Really bolstering the point there from National Weather Service Director Ken Graham that the name of the storm and the category of the storm, which many folks latch on to, of course, say a tropical storm is significantly weaker than a Category 3 or a Category 4 hurricane, but continuing to note and stress the importance of making sure that the public is prepared, regardless of whether they are in the coastal plains or inland, anywhere on the eastern seaboard.
As we've seen, many of these storms do significant amounts of inland damage over the last couple of decades. And even though NOAA continues to provide information and show. That we are expecting a below normal or a below average hurricane season in the Atlantic, stressing it only takes one storm in one area for it to be a quote-unquote bad hurricane season for those that are impacted. We will, of course, keep an eye on the developments in the Atlantic and potential impacts here across the state of North Carolina. Important to note that our peak season will not be here for a couple of months, even though the Atlantic season starts in the month of June.
North Carolina typically does not see its biggest threats until we get into the months of August and September.
However, again, I will note that then meteorologists will note at any given point throughout the year, the risk of a development in the Atlantic could bear down on a coastal state like North or South Carolina. You can read more on the Atlantic hurricane season. We've got a full press release and conference from the National Weather Service linked up there over on the website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for this. With the headline below average hurricane season predicted in the Atlantic.
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 Tuesday morning to you.
Well, heading into the Memorial Day weekend, it was a busy Friday for the North Carolina Supreme Court releasing a bunch of different rulings to walk through some of those details this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, before we get into anything, I want to encourage our audience, as always, to head on over to our website, CarolinaJournal.com, to dig into all of the various rulings that we're going to be talking about here this morning. The first one I want to start with is an interesting situation out of the Wake County Superior Court system where, what, Mitch, a judge had lost his life, or a judge had won an election, but was still practicing as a lawyer while he was a judge. It's an odd situation.
What does the state's high court have to say about that? Yes, the high court issued a censure of this judge, Sean Cole. He was elected in November of 2024. He's a Democrat. He unseated the Republican incumbent, Becky Holt.
And according to the court records, he normally had a caseload of about 40 cases by the time of the election that had dropped down to 25. But then the judicial conduct, the code of judicial conduct calls for him to end all of his practicing of law by the time he takes the oath of office. But by the time that happened at the beginning of 2025, he still had about 12 active cases.
Now, the court documents said that he wasn't just ignoring this. He wasn't trying to be a lawyer on the side while being a judge. He was working with the judicial and court officials to try to get this resolved, end his practice, but not leave his clients in lurch. But as this was happening, he was dealing with the court officials, but he was still filing motions. There is some.
'Kay. Possibility that he was still telling people that he was working on behalf of his clients, and the court system had told him that it was okay.
Well, the Judicial Standards Commission looked into this and said, no, this is against the code of judicial conduct. There has to be a complete separation between your work as a judge and working as a lawyer. Your practice had to have been wound down and finished by the time you became judge, but he was actually still doing legal work as a lawyer about four months into his term as a judge.
So the Judicial Standards Commission voted 6-1 to censure him, and the Supreme Court agreed with that. They wrote a percurium opinion, which means no particular author, but they went along with what the Judicial Standards Commission did and gave the judge, Sean Cole, a censure.
Now, in addition to this, one side note, a little caveat is that Justice Phil Berger Jr. wrote. That he wanted to make sure that the Supreme Court realized that it has a very limited role in this process. It could either accept Or reject what the Judicial Standards Commission said, or send it back to the Commission and say, you know. Hold further proceedings dealing with this issue.
And he's concerned, Justice Berger, that the Supreme Court. Is of the opinion that it could actually do other things besides what the Judicial Standards Commission said. And so he had a very strongly worded concurrence saying, no, we don't have any authority beyond that. We can only accept, reject, or send the case back to the Standards Commission. Otherwise, everyone else was on board, censure for this judge because he had been continuing to practice law.
One other little side note for those who might say, well, you know, he was winding down his practice. It wasn't necessarily that big a deal. There was also some sense in what the record showed: that A, as he was continuing to practice law, he was suggesting that the court system had told him it was okay. And the other thing. Is that there were some documents that he asked some fellow lawyers to file on his behalf or to get some stuff done with the senior resident Superior Court judge.
And there was some concern raised that perhaps because he was a judge, that these lawyers or court officials were feeling pressured by a judge to do things on his behalf, which was another thing that was a black market against him. That's what I was going to ask you, Mitch. This is a relatively new story to me, not something that I've been following. And I would venture to say that the vast majority of folks here in North Carolina haven't been following this case as well. Is this a situation?
Because we really didn't know about it until it came before the Supreme Court. All of this stuff happens behind closed doors until the Supreme Court came up with this opinion, which is why I think a lot of people were very interested in this because they hadn't heard anything about this before. Walk me through a little bit of this.
So I guess the idea here is, okay, you're a practicing attorney. You run for political office, even though it's a judicial seat, but you're running for a political office here in the state of North Carolina. Our judges are partisan, whether you like that or not.
So in this case, you win and you've got this period to kind of off-ramp your current employees if you're somebody that not only has a law license, but actively practicing and helping clients deal with things. What's the issue here? Is the problem that you then being a judge and also helping clients, there's some sort of potential conflict of interest that could take place here because you now are a sworn judge in the state of North Carolina? Yes, that is exactly it. The idea of a conflict of interest, also the idea from other people who have to deal with the court system that maybe you don't get a fair shake from this judge because he's representing people who might be against your interests.
Now, in a lot of cases, if you have someone who is not already a judge and they're running for office, they're in a law firm. And so, if they win, their cases get pushed to other members of the law firm.
Now, Sean Cole had an individual practice, so he's in a different situation. All of his clients had to be offloaded to an entire different firm. But that's not something that's entirely unheard of. And one of the things that comes out in this court opinion is that the court officials, the judicial officials in working with him, Had him meet up with someone else who went through the exact same situation, being a solo practice lawyer who had to off-ramp his clients to other people. But even as this was taking place, Judge Cole was still filing motions, was still having relations with his clients that would be beyond the realm of what he should have been doing as a judge.
And that's one of the reasons why we ended up with the censure.
Now, one of the things that also comes out from this is on his behalf is that no one is saying that he was trying to do this and be secretive about it and go against what the code of judicial conduct calls for. He was working with the officials and trying to get this resolved. But in the meantime, it was taking four months to do it rather than having everything resolved by the time he took his oath of office in January of 2025, which is what should have happened. In many other cases when the word and the term censure is used, it is more of kind of a slap on the wrist. It doesn't typically carry any serious penalties, or in many cases, any penalties at all.
Is this the same case here? Yeah, I mean, there could be other things that could happen, but as Justice Berger talked about in his concurring opinion, that would be something that ought to be left to the Judicial Standards Commission, not something that the Supreme Court should come up with. And Justice Berger's concurrence showed that he was concerned that the Supreme Court was thinking that perhaps it could have gone beyond censure if it wanted to, you know, removing someone from office or taking some other penalty that would be beyond just, as you suggested, perhaps a slap on the wrist. Let's transition to another one of the rulings from the state's high court on Friday before the Memorial Day weekend. Mitch, all the rage on social media, a lot of news reports across the states around Duke Energy and people being very unhappy with their rising electricity bills across the state of North Carolina.
Back in 2023, there was a rate hike in conjunction with the North Carolina Utilities Commission. That is the process. Utilities like Duke have to go to the Utilities Commission and say, hey, we want to raise rates. They have to agree on the rates. And then, in fact, those new rates are allowed to be charged by Duke Energy.
There was, I guess, a lawsuit against that 2023 rate hike. What does the High Court have to say about that?
Well, the short answer is the high court, by a split 5-2 vote, said the Utilities Commission made a decision that was fine, that it followed all of the law and the process that it should have. Remember that this 2023 case was different in some respects because it was the first time that Duke went forward, and this is in both of its eastern and western North Carolina branches, Duke Energy Progress and Duke Energy Carolinas, and asked for rate increases under a new law that allowed them to seek multi-year increases rather than having to ask for a new increase every year. And so the Utilities Commission went through this process, set a rate increase for Duke Energy Carolinas, set a rate increase for Duke Energy Progress. And then the Attorney General and then a number of other groups intervened challenging this. And the case has gone on now for well over two years until now the state Supreme Court ruled in.
Favor of what the Utilities Commission did. The two Democrats on the court, Justices Anita Earls and Allison Riggs, dissented. Earls wrote for the two of them and said that it seemed that the court was being too deferential to what the Utilities Commission did, and also thinking that the difference in the rates being charged for the two different branches of Duke Energy showed that there was some problem in the way that this process moved forward. But the bottom line is the rate increase is allowed to go forward because of the 5-2 decision from the Republican justices on the court. And let me make sure we lay this out.
This was not the state Supreme Court saying, we love these rate increases, Mitch, as I understand it in reading your story over at CarolinaJournal.com. The question was, was the process followed in an appropriate manner? You can argue that the process is stupid, that we don't like the process, but the real question was, was the process filed? And I guess in that 5-2 decision, they said yes, regardless of whether people like their rate increases or not. Yeah, that's exactly right.
And that was something that Justice Trey Allen pointed out very clearly: is that it's not the role of the Supreme Court to come in and say, oh, these rates make sense or these rates don't make sense. The role in this case is to look at what the Utilities Commission did and ensure that it followed the law and its decision makes sense based on what the law calls for. And that's what the majority decided, that the Utilities Commission did what it was supposed to do and came up with the accurate decision based on its findings. And that whether you like the rates or not, and probably most people who have to pay an electric bill don't like those rate increases that much at all, but that the Utilities Commission was justified in what it did. Yeah, and there is a pretty lengthy process that we've covered that in other stories over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com interviews here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, and it's lengthy.
The request has to be made. There's a public hearing. There's a whole lengthy process as it relates to these rate increases, not only for Duke Energy, but anything else that is considered a public utility here in the state of North Carolina. Unfortunately, we don't have time to jump into all of the decisions from the North Carolina Supreme Court.
However, we've got an extensive piece over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We encourage our audience to go and read through some more, some interesting things in there as well. We really appreciate the time and information this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters.
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It's 5:53. Good morning again. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT keeping an eye on some other statewide news this morning. Last week, Governor Josh Stein, in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Commerce, announced the state's new First and Opportunity Economic Development Plan for growth, competitiveness, and development of opportunity across the state. The governor said in the press release: The First and Opportunity Plan is about ensuring that North Carolina remains competitive while creating opportunities in every corner of our state.
As our state continues to grow, we must invest in our public schools and workforce development efforts, attract and sustain thriving businesses, and drive economic success for all people. The plan outlines a four-year vision for statewide. Economic progress through what is being described as a holistic approach that builds on the success of the 2021 First in Talent strategy rolled out by the state, expanding the focus to address current economic priorities and drivers, according to the press release. The plan reads in part: over the past decade, North Carolina has maintained its position as a top economic performer. Supported by a robust education system, a highly skilled workforce, and a diverse industry base, sustaining our progress and ensuring that all North Carolinians have the opportunity to thrive will require strategic reinvestment in our very foundations of success, our people, businesses, and communities.
Input from stakeholders and communities across the state is reflected in the plan while recognizing that North Carolina is among the top states for economic performance, according to the press release. Brian Balfour, the vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal: all economies are planned. The economic dispute dominating the last 100-plus years has been this question: who does the planning? Are individuals allowed to script and follow their own plans, or is one centralized plan to be imposed on everyone? The plan has four major goals: modernizing and strengthening state infrastructure to support sustainable growth, accelerating economic competitiveness through innovation and strategic industrial investment.
Well, we've seen some major problems with that, as well as improving community well-being by expanding access to affordable housing, childcare, and healthcare, and finally, building a resilient, future-ready workforce through stronger statewide coordination and workforce development.
However, Brian Balfour said he disagrees with some of the premise of this level of planning, saying government central planning has been a disaster everywhere it's been tried. The last thing we need is for politicians to further strengthen their grip on North Carolina's economy, imposing their plans and in doing so, overriding the plan of individuals. We can look at the JDIG program and how 82% of completed projects failed to meet their job creation goals. To thrive, our economy needs less centralized government direction and greater freedom for individuals and enterprises to drive growth. You can read more on the plan from Governor Josh Stein as well as some of the comments from Brian Balfour over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
That's going to do it for a Tuesday 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 WBT. That sound could mean a lot of things.
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