Wallet feeling light after the holidays, recovery starts with TikTok slashin free, pick products, share the link, and watch the price drop to zero. Download TikTok, search slash free, and start slashing today. It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Tuesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
We start off with some business news across the state of North Carolina this morning as late last week, Democrat Governor Josh Stein announced a $100 million investment from a company known as Borg Warner. They are said to expand their operations at their Hendersonville location, promising some 378 jobs. The governor said in a press release, we congratulate Borg Warner on its new expansion in Henderson County. This decision to reinvest in our state underscores the advantages of investing in western North Carolina. Thanks to our manufacturers.
Manufacturing economy and our world-class workforce. North Carolina remains the best place to do business. Borg Warner has been the leader in innovative mobility solutions for every major automotive or original equipment manufacturer, also known as an OEM. You've probably seen that if you've purchased any parts for your vehicle over the years, they are the leader for that worldwide for over a century, according to a press release. The expansion will add some 140,000 square feet to a current Hendersonville location and expand the workforce to more than 37,500 across 81 facilities across the globe.
According to the president and chief executive officer of Berg Warner Incorporated, Joseph Fadel, he said, Borg Warner is proud to continue to invest in the state of North Carolina to bring new technologies to the market and provide jobs to local residents. We appreciate the grant and the continued support from the state of North Carolina to expand our manufacturing footprint here in the United States.
Now, with many of these job announcements, salaries will vary by position.
However, the average salary will be a little over $67,000 a year, exceeding the average Henderson County salary of, which is currently a little over $54,000 by almost $13,000 a year, according to the press release. The positions will include technicians, production staff, alongside logistical personnel. All of this, if the project hits its target, these new positions could create an annual payroll impact of more than $25.3 million per year. Put a pin in the meeting its objectives there. We've got a lot to talk about on that front.
Brian Balfour, the vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation, said: Governor Josh Stein, who objects to lowering the corporate tax rate that applies to all corporations, nevertheless champions targeted tax giveaways to specific corporations. Paying playing political favorites like this is not only bad economics, but it invites political corruption as corporations lobby to get access to favoritism. And let us not forget what a poor track record this JDIG program has. More than 80% of completed jobs have ended with a failure to meet their stated job goals. It is long past time for North Carolina to level the playing field and tax all.
Businesses the same, allowing those businesses the most efficiently to most efficiently meet consumer demand to thrive rather than rewarding those businesses with the most well-connected lobbyists. The expansion is being partially funded, as we have seen with many of these announcements over the last couple of years, by a job development investment grant, also known as a JDIG, that has been awarded to Borg Warner Industrial Solutions LLC. That is the full name of the company, which was in fact approved by the North Carolina Department of Commerce Economic Investment Committee. The statement claims that the project will grow the state's economy by $1 billion over the 12-year period. Using a formula that accounts for new tax revenues generated by job creation and capital investment, the JDIG agreement allows for potential reimbursements to the company totaling more than $3.5 million over 12 years.
According to the recent press release, the state payments are contingent upon annual verification by the Department of Commerce and Revenue, confirming, in fact, that the company has achieved its agreed-upon job creation targets and investment milestones. Henderson County is also described as a tier two county under the state's economic tier system. Tier 1 includes 40 of the most distressed counties economically in the state, with tier 2 the next 40 most distressed, and then moving your way up to tier 1.
So this is going into an area that is in the middle of the road as it relates to the state's economy. But of course, as we have talked about a lot over the last couple of months now, this is yet another announcement through the JDIG program. It was exactly the same time last week that this business announcement was being made by Governor Josh Stein and company officials that Jet Zero. An aerospace manufacturing startup has pushed back its hiring deadline here in North Carolina. That company, which only announced its plans to build a major facility over at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, with the plan to invest some $4.7 billion on its facility, expected to hire more than 14,000 individuals by 2036, is now pushing back at some of those deadlines.
This is all on the heels of VinFast as well. This is a Vietnamese car manufacturer that we have talked about. Our friend Teresa Peika here on the Carolina Journal News Hour in great detail. The company is set to have a facility up and operational, I believe, by the end of this year, is still very far behind on that project. There are now questions and discussions about lawsuits being brought against the company over its lack of meeting its hiring goals here in the state of North Carolina.
As we already heard from Brian Balfour, an 80% failure rate as it relates to the JDIG program here in the state of North Carolina, meaning that all of these announcements that are taking place, we are getting almost more terminated of programs than we are that are coming to fruition as of the most recent information that we have got over again at the John Locke Foundation. And I'll note these numbers are from late last year when the most recent Data was available from state officials for the fiscal year 2025. It indicated that since the JDIG program was created, which started all the way back in 2003, 449 JDIGs were awarded across the state of North Carolina. Of those, 177 remain active, 50 have been completed successfully, and a whopping 222 have been either terminated or withdrawn. In other words, nearly half, 49.4% of all JDIG projects have already failed here across the state of North Carolina.
Folks over at the John Locke Foundation note that the picture grows even more concerning when examining only the projects that have reached an end point. Of the 272 non-active JDIG agreements, only 50 have been successfully completed. The remaining 222, more than four out of five were terminated or withdrawn, which brings us to that 80% failure rate among concluded projects, which is an abysmal rate here in the state of North Carolina. We also have seen in recent days an announcement of a door and window company that was set to open a major facility in Johnston County. They have recently contacted Commerce Department officials here in North Carolina with some of the same concerns, some of the same issues that they are pulling back on that facility.
And so that will go into the box of another either terminated or withdrawn JDIG program here in the state of North Carolina. This is highly relevant as we are going to be talking about state spending and the budget a lot throughout the month of June. Even coming up a little bit later on this morning, Brian Balfour, the vice president of research over at the John Locke Foundation, will join us to talk about some of the priorities that he has. He sees very relevant for state lawmakers to move forward with as these budget conversations continue to take place in Raleigh. As the General Assembly has got a very busy Tuesday here scheduled committee meetings starting as early as 9 o'clock this morning, those will take place all throughout the day today.
Looking at a similar situation tomorrow as well, alongside some press conferences and other work, as lawmakers all hope to have all of their business wrapped up by the end of June. As I look at the House calendar, which was originally published by House Speaker Destin Hall back just a few short months ago, lawmakers' final possible voting day as it stands right now should be July the 2nd. That is leading into the July the 4th weekend. We are going to be keeping a very close eye on a packed few weeks in Raleigh. We'll bring you the latest over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
And of course, right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. 21 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM. WBT keeping our close eye on a busy week scheduled in the North Carolina General Assembly.
As I mentioned just a couple of minutes ago, lawmakers are set to make their way back to Raleigh today. Meetings taking place as early as 9 a.m. That's when the House Finance Committee meets. The House Commerce and Economic Development Committee meets at 10. We'll see a litany of press conferences from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate State and Local Government, the Senate Commerce and Infrastructure Committee also meeting today as well.
The operations rules calendar of the House meeting this afternoon as well. K through 12, Judiciary 2, all of those committees meeting today. Then we'll see tomorrow the Senate Agricultural, Energy, and Environmental Committee meeting, regulatory reform, healthcare, education. Slash higher education, transportation, a lot going on in Raleigh. One of the things that we'll be keeping an eye on as we head into the later half of the week is the North Carolina House Oversight Committee, where they have summoned Mecklenburg County and state child welfare officials to testify following the death of six-year-old Dominique Moody.
Moody was allegedly starved and neglected despite previous reports to child welfare officials across Mecklenburg County. The committee request states very bluntly: Dominique Moody was six years old. She weighed 27 pounds when she died. That fact should stop every person in Mecklenburg County government cold. The request names Mecklenburg County Manager Mike Bryant, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Chief Estella Patterson, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden, interim DSS Director Letitia Lodeholt, Halode Holt, and NCDHHS Division Director.
Lisa Cowley, among those called to testify, those groups were required, or all of those parties, I should say. We're required, according to the notice from these individuals, to submit all of their answers and all of their testimony in writing. That was due at noon yesterday.
So, lawmakers will have a couple of days to look at those details before they are set to meet coming up Thursday morning. House Majority Leader Brendan Jones, the Republican from Columbus County, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, requested the testimony saying the death of Dominique Moody is a tragedy that should have never happened. Because of the serious failures within Mecklenburg County, the House Oversight Committee has called these individuals to testify as to what went wrong and ensure that this never happens again. The request cites a corrective letter from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which found that four out of five reports involving Moody's guardians met the definition of abuse or neglect, but were quote, screened out with no further assessment. Of the child's safety.
The committee very bluntly also said: simply put, Mecklenburg County failed Dominique Moody. According to the committee, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services also found that contacts were not frequent enough to ensure safety. Child protective service history was not reviewed. Significant collateral contacts were not made. And inaccurate case decisions resulted in, quote, no services being provided to ensure the safety of children.
The committee request also goes on to say this is not a bad judgment call. It is not a paperwork mistake. It is a child protection system failing at the one job that matters the most, protecting children. The committee also points to broader findings from NCDHHS beyond Moody's case. According to the request, the department reviewed 122 unrelated child protective service reports and assessments and found a, quote, broad systematic lack of appropriate.
Safety planning. The committee's request includes 15 written questions for county officials to answer before the hearing. That's what I was just mentioning. All of those answers were due by noon yesterday, as the questions center on when Mecklenburg County leaders first learned of reports involving Dominique Moody's family, when they became aware that DSS had received prior reports, and what actions were taken after Moody's death, and whether any employees have been held accountable. And finally, the big, probably one of the most substantial questions asked by the committee: why should the General Assembly have confidence that Mecklenburg County can correct these failures without further state intervention?
This hearing comes into light as lawmakers are already considering legislation named for Moody. We've talked about this in the past over the past few weeks as well. House Bill 1144, named the Dominique Moody Safety Act, would make changes to North Carolina's law governing abuse, neglect, and dependency cases involving juveniles. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation. The primary bill sponsors include Representative Carla Cunningham from Mecklenburg County, recently switched her party affiliation from a Democrat to unaffiliated, Representative Alan Chesser, the Republican from Nash County, Representative Francis Jackson, the Democrat from Cumberland County, and Representative Donnie Lambeth, the Republican from Forsyth County.
As I mentioned, that committee meeting, according to the legislative calendar as of right now, is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning. Excuse me. Where they will be bringing in some, if not all, of the individuals that they summoned in front of the North Carolina General Assembly. It is not immediately clear who will be in person, who will just be submitting some of that written testimony.
We will likely find out more details about that Thursday morning as lawmakers are set to grill Mecklenburg County officials over the process failure that they see or they determine took place as it relates to this. 15 different questions asked to those individuals, which again include the Mecklenburg County manager, law enforcement officials, the sheriff, and a police chief and other DSS and North Carolina DHS officials that should have been responsible for making sure that something like this could not happen. The committee again goes on with those 15 questions. All of those answers are due to lawmakers at noon on Monday. That was yesterday, June the 1st.
We'll be keeping an eye on that as we will a very busy Busy legislative calendar this week. We'll have continuing coverage of all of this over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And of course, plenty of clips, summaries, and rundowns right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:36. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM.
WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good Tuesday morning to you. We continue our coverage this morning of what we are expecting to be a very busy month of June in the North Carolina General Assembly. If you'll remember back just a couple of weeks ago, we got an announcement from both the North Carolina House and Senate that lawmakers were, in fact, moving forward on a budget framework. That was the middle of May.
And as we turn the calendar into June and watch what happens in the General Assembly over the next couple of weeks, we are patiently awaiting a budget deal from state lawmakers to walk us through some of the main priorities that Republicans should be focusing on. It's my pleasure to welcome the Senior Vice President of Research over at the John Locke Foundation, Brian Balfour, back to the Carolina Journal News Hour this morning. Brian, fingers crossed, waiting a year plus for a state budget at this point. You've got a great article over at the John Locke Foundation about some of these priorities. Walk us through some of them, if you would.
Yeah, yeah, great. Thanks for having me on today. Appreciate it. Yeah, so we're looking forward over the next month to see what sort of a budget deal gets worked out. And so I figured I'd put down on paper kind of a 20,000-foot view of a handful of priorities that we at the Locke Foundation are hoping these legislators keep in mind as they work on this budget process.
And kind of starting obviously with. Let's try to keep spending in check. Governor Stein put out his budget proposal a little while ago, and that. Showed an 11% increase year over year in spending. Double-digit percentage increase is just completely uncalled for and unsustainable.
It would mark a 27% increase in spending over just the last four years.
So let's kind of dial that back, have some more realistic total spending goals. A couple other things that I'd like to look at is. This whole shell game that they started a few years ago of putting money into special reserve funds. And then they withdraw the money out of that reserve into the spend into the general fund, but it's not counted under the general fund spending because it's considered, they classify it as a receipt-supported expenditure because it's supported by a receipt from that reserve fund that they just dumped the money into. And we looked back at the last actual full budget bill they passed in 2023.
They did this to the tune of $7 billion, moving these monies into these various reserve funds. And there was 30, a total of 30 of these reserve funds. That they had to choose from, basically, 20 of which had been created just since the year 2020.
So, this was kind of a new, really emerging trend that really obscures any sort of budget transparency and kind of hides the The true nature of the full spending of the general fund.
Well, let me ask you about that.
So, let's say that the final budget is $30 billion. Let's just use that as a benchmark number. They transfer $7 billion from these rainy days, the technology fund, all these other reserve funds. The final spending is $37. But as you're saying, what the people are seeing and what the final announcement is, is only a $30 billion budget, which I guess is, in this case, with $7 billion worth of additional funding, Brian, is nowhere near the final total.
Yeah, yeah, exactly right. And kind of budget nerds like myself, insiders, they call that above the line, that money that they move into reserves like that. And so it's. Considered not available for spending, but then it's withdrawn from the reserve fund immediately, and it's counted, as I said, as receipt supported, which then does not count against the general fund total. And that was a recent phenomenon, like I mentioned.
And I look back, even just a handful of years ago, even monies that they would put into the Rainy Day Fund, the Savings Reserve Fund, that would count. Against the general fund total.
So they were counting all those monies being put into reserve funds, and that shifted just in the last handful of years, really.
So I, you know, I. I just think that's a really bad budgetary practice, especially to what it does to transparency. It just does not fully express the amount of funds that are being appropriated by the state budget. Yeah, I mean, it's a large sum. We're not just talking about a couple hundred thousand dollars squeaking out here there, Brian.
We're literally talking about, in some cases, could be 15, 20% of the budget, depending on what some of those final numbers look like.
So, some big-time dollars there. Before you get into a couple more of your bullet points, I want to go back to the first thing you mentioned. You know, the state of North Carolina, no question about it over the last 15 years, has really been exploding in terms of growth. A lot of folks moving here, a lot of businesses being here. Brian, we're seeing something different than in other states.
Florida, for example, has seen similar amounts of population growth. Their state budget has actually gone down year over year with the leadership of Governor DeSantis and their Republican-led legislature. We have not seen that here in North Carolina. The budget continues to creep up each and every year. Or was it maybe a fairy tale or a fantasyland dream here to believe that we can get to a period of time in which we continue to see that growth, but spending actually goes down here in the state of North Carolina?
I think that's going to be real difficult. And one of the biggest challenges is the recent expansion of Medicaid. We've seen Medicaid expenditures explode in the last few years since we expanded. I think there's 700 creeping up on 800,000 people now that have signed up on the expansion part of Medicaid. And that just becomes really unsustainable.
And so, Just that and all the other pressures, the majority, when you stop and think about it, the majority of the money that the general fund, that the state budget spends, is paying employees, right? Salaries. Benefits and retirees, their pension benefits and health care benefits. That's the overwhelming majority.
So, until we take a closer look at that, there's no way we can really kind of rein in spending.
So, what we mean by that is agencies looking at how can they become more efficient, how can they do more with less and still provide the services that they're duty-bound to provide to the North Carolinians, and also look for ways maybe that they could. outsource the labor, contracting with third parties where they just pay a flat fee and therefore the state's not on the hook for these benefits and retiree benefits and pensions for decades to come. Yeah, I mean, you can pay somebody $50,000 or $100,000 a year. You, of course, incur all of those extra fees associated with that versus going to an outside party who, by the way, also could be located here in the state of North Carolina, Brian, pay them $100,000 and not have to deal with any of the retirement, the health care, all of the other things associated with having an employee on the payroll.
Some interesting work that could be done there by some of these agencies. All right, back to your list over at the John Locke Foundation. A couple of other major priorities. You do highlight the importance of setting aside dollars, dealing with the Rainy Day Fund, of course, coming off, almost hitting the two-year anniversary, the devastation of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. That's something that the state did not have 15 years ago after 100-plus years of Democratic control.
The state was, for all intents and purposes, practically broke. Yeah, yeah, exactly right. And even going back to 2008 when the economic recession hit. the Democrats in control, they were not setting aside money into the Rainy Day Fund, even though revenues were growing pretty dramatically year over year. They just They just spend it as soon as they got it in.
It was very short-sighted. And so North Carolina was caught really flat-footed when that recession hit and revenues dipped. They didn't have any savings to dip into.
So right now we're up at $3.6 billion in the Rainy Day Fund. There's another $800 million in a stabilization and inflation reserve fund.
So almost $4.5 billion right there. But I'd like to see them continue to try to aggressively put some money aside, maybe get up more closer to like $6.50 to $7 billion in reserves. As I mentioned in the article, I'm in good economic times. They don't last forever.
So, I think legislators would be far more responsible to continue to prepare for that rainy day that's going to come so that. When it does hit, They don't have to get. take desperate measures like quote unquote temporary taxes or anything like that, then they have a nice, healthy cushion to buy them some buy them some time and absorb the drop in revenues when a recession hits. And so I think they would be well served to continue to stock that rainy day fund. Yeah, great points there.
And you mentioned some of these temporary taxes that we have seen in the past during some of these economic issues or natural disasters, whatever the issue might be that has the state on the hook for potentially billions of dollars. You do, however, highlight that lawmakers do need to continue their process over the last 15 years of reducing the tax burden on not only individuals, but corporations across the state of North Carolina. Brian, this has been all the rage in North Carolina politics over the last couple of weeks, a real ideological battle between the political left and right. Why do you think lawmakers should continue down the path they have been walking the last couple of last 15 years or so? Sure, yeah, absolutely.
I mean, a few important reasons. Number one, just look at the economic success that is brought to North Carolina. Economic growth, income growth, job growth have been really bolstered by these tax cuts, making North Carolina a far more attractive place for investors and job creators. Secondly, other states are being more aggressive. Neighboring states like South Carolina, Georgia, other states like Louisiana are getting more and more aggressive about cutting their taxes.
Some even having discussions about eliminating their state income taxes altogether.
So, if North Carolina stands still, we have you know we risk getting passed over by other regional states like that. And thirdly, all the warnings, we've been hearing the warnings for nearly 15 years now about how tax cuts are just going to starve the state budget. We're going to be facing constant shortages, but the opposite has actually been true. We've enjoyed massive surpluses basically year in, year out, for the last dozen years, significant surpluses, revenues come. Coming in far ahead of what expectations and projections are because those projections always overstate the decrease in revenues from tax.
Rate decreases, but that doesn't happen. The additional economic activity that the tax rate reductions encourages creates more revenue than they anticipate.
So we want to continue to do that. And then, lastly, again, when and if we do hit a recession, we'd be far better poised to absorb that if. our tax burden is lighter on workers and businesses. It has very much become a boy who's cried wolf situation as it relates to the impending fiscal cliff, Brian, that we have been apparently looking over over the last 15 years here as Republicans have consistently, and in some cases, more than cut the tax rate in half as it relates to the personal income tax that everybody and most small businesses, I'll note, pay here across the state of North Carolina. Your final out of your five priorities for state lawmakers is something that we've been keeping a very close eye on over at CarolinaJournal.com and at the John Locke Foundation, a group that I don't think a lot of people actually know the name of, NC Innovation.
We're not talking about a couple dollars here, Brian, as well. Half a billion dollars worth of state funding just a couple of years ago. Yeah, half a billion dollars to NC Innovation. And for those who are unfamiliar, this was a new group that was formed basically to try to fund research ideas taking place in universities across North Carolina and try to take those ideas and new innovations and bring them to the market, commercialize them to a commercial product. But that's.
Taking taxpayer dollars. and putting it into basically a venture capital fund. And that's not the role of state government. Taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook for these kinds of often risky investments. Of course, the taxpayers aren't themselves going to get any sort of return on that investment.
It's going to be the private companies, if they are successful, that get that return on any sort of investment.
So it's just outside of the realm of what state government should be doing with our taxpayer dollars. And somewhat surprisingly, Governor Stein has even recognized this. And in his budget proposal, he proposed to claw back that half a billion dollars from NC Innovation and put it towards other uses.
So in this, This could be a very unique opportunity for the state legislature and Governor Stein to be in lockstep on a policy proposal, and the Lock Foundation would be certainly supported as well. Yeah, we don't often see a lot of bipartisanship as it relates here in the state of North Carolina between some members of the executive branch, including Governor Josh Stein and the Republican-led legislature. An interesting marriage on this issue of NC innovation. As I mentioned at the top, we are expecting a lot of movement on many of these priorities and more from Republican lawmakers in Raleigh over the next couple of weeks. You can read more on Brian's story by visiting our website this morning at johnloc.org.
We appreciate the information. Brian Balfour, the senior vice president of research at the John Locke Foundation, joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Yeah, go ahead. Good morning again. It's 5:55.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, we've been talking about what a very busy day we are scheduled to have in Raleigh as lawmakers for the North Carolina General Assembly. Round out the legislative short session here, looking to wrap that up here in the month of June. It is also set to be a very busy night in our state capital as the Stanley Cup final begins in Raleigh tonight. As the golden Vegas Knights will take on the Carolina Hurricanes at 8 o'clock, games one and two will both be in Raleigh.
Game one tonight, game two taking place on Thursday before both teams will pack it up and head out to Vegas for game three on Saturday. With the game taking place tonight, this is the first Stanley Cup final since 2006 for the Carolina Hurricanes. That was the same year. Fact that they won their first championship in franchise history after going 12-1 in the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They are a very hot team right now throughout the NHL, obviously making their way into the final against the Golden Knights, who have been very competitive over the last couple of years since their introduction into the NHL, making multiple appearances, winning multiple Stanley Cups during that period of time.
So a busy day in Raleigh for lawmakers and a busy night for our Carolina Hurricanes fans as well. Again, games one and two, both taking place in Raleigh. Game one tonight, 8 p.m. Game 2 Thursday night, 8 p.m. as well.
Both of those taking place at the Lenovo Center. We'll be cheering on our friends over at the Carolina Hurricanes as they look to win their first Stanley Cup championship in 20 years. We'll keep you up to date right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. 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 at 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM WBT.
