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It's 505 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 start off our program this morning in western North Carolina, where recovery officials are warning that Hurricane Helene left behind more flooding, more flood damage and destroyed infrastructure. Across the mountains, hundreds of thousands of acres of downed timber is now creating what state forestry leaders describe as a long-term wildfire threat that could linger for more than a decade.
During a recent Grow NC recovery meeting, state officials and economic planners described a region struggling. with what is being described as a dangerous fuel load, weakening timber markets and mounting pressure on not only the workforce, but housing systems that need to support long-term recovery. State forestry officials estimate that Haleem damaged roughly 822,000 acres of forest land across 25 counties in western North Carolina. About 75% of that damage to forestry land is privately or state-owned, with officials also estimating approximately 616,000 structures sit within the damaged forest areas. According to North Carolina Forest Service, a regional forester, Michael Cheek, he said during the Grow NC meeting, the red and dark meat and is this situation is these highly damaged areas while presenting wildfire maps to recovery leaders during the meeting.
Forestry officials warned that the danger is not simply the number of fallen trees, but the way that storm debris is stacked up across steep mountain terrains. Large hardwood trees remain suspended off the ground, dying slowly, which will, and if there is a wildfire, will create a hotter fire with the fuel load burning much hotter. Jonathan McCall, the Southern Mountains Forest Manager with the North Carolina Resource Commission, told the committee that the stacking of these forests, the stacking in these forests helped form and add additional intensity to the fires. McCall said that the wildfire response is becoming more difficult because older roads and fire breaks are now buried under debris, saying it greatly increases the time that it takes for us to build up those lines. With officials warning that some damaged areas may remain hazardous for 10 to 20 years before the timber naturally decays enough to a point where it is no longer any additional fire risk than anything else in its way.
The wildfire discussion built on other recent subcommittee conversations about Western North Carolina's economy and whether the region has enough private sector capacity to handle the scale of cleanup that remains as we approach nearly two years since Haleen affected and devastated Western North Carolina. Officials pointed to the closure of regional mills, including the Canton Paper Mill, as a major obstacle. Before Helene, Western North Carolina's timber economy was already shrinking due to aging logging operations, mill closures, and declining markets for low-grade wood products. Halene flooded the market with damaged timber while reducing the region's ability to process it. Back to Cheek from the Forest Service.
He says there is a tremendous amount of wood out there that is available. Officials acknowledge that much of the timber may never be salvaged economically, with McCall saying in possession. Heart, even if we're giving away these fallen trees as salvage, we're not going to be able to get the sales the way that we'd like to see them. The discussion highlighted how wildfire mitigation now depends partially on rebuilding functional timber markets that are capable of removing some of this fuel that is on the ground from forests before future disaster strikes. Recovery leaders discussed possible market-based solutions, including biomass processing, wood pellet, and biochar manufacturing using some of the storm debris that remains on the ground.
Officials described forestry and biomass industries as possible economic growth sectors for Western North Carolina if private investment can attract can be attracted to the region. At the same time, economic development subcommittees warned the region faces broader structural challenges beyond wildfire recovery, with one participant. Saying during the economic development discussion, there's just extraordinary assets that we can build upon around economic development and entrepreneurship. Community members discussed strengthening manufacturing corridors, expanding startup investment, and connecting small businesses to larger regional supply chains. But workforce shortages and housing costs repeatedly emerged as a major concern in the vast majority of the conversation taking place.
According to subcommittee co-chair Laura Leatherwood, during the workforce discussion, she says, if you can't live here, you can't work here, highlighting some of the issues as it relates to temporary housing. She is also the president of Blue Ridge Community College. The comments came on the same day as Democrat Governor Josh Stein issued an executive order on housing and announced a housing policy advisor. Officials said that rising Housing costs are making it harder for businesses to recruit workers across tourism, manufacturing, and service industries. Workforce development discussions also focused heavily on apprenticeship programs, community colleges and the STEM education pipeline.
Infrastructure concerns also surfaced repeatedly throughout the GROWNC meeting with participants referencing an upcoming statewide economic development plan for the North Carolina Department of Commerce that places major emphasis on infrastructure investments as Governor Josh Stein announced the first and opportunity plan that we talked about back in late May. But several discussions focus less on large public projects and more on smaller known as catalyst projects as it relates to infrastructure improvements that could help strengthen local economies and workforce systems. Tourism and art leaders also warned that recovery efforts must balance economic growth with protecting the character of mountain communities. This story highlights the many different avenues in which the discussion over recovery is happening and does remain happening in western North Carolina. We have been talking about the wildfire risk for quite some time here on the Carolina Journal News Hour as there is so much timber, so much debris that is on the ground.
We have already seen, as the state has two main wildfire seasons, one in the spring, one in the fall. We already saw nearly all of the wildfires that we would expect during a normal season just in the spring months in western North Carolina, meaning that in all likelihood, as we get into the fall, we will see numbers that could be as high as double what an average wildfire season looks like in terms of amount of fires burning and the amount of acreage. That remains a major problem for folks in western North Carolina. And then, of course, the Longer-term discussion about, well, what do we do with all of this forest, all this foliage that is on the ground? What do we do with all of this timber?
As many of the facilities, the paper mills, the other manufacturing plants that would typically process this kind of material have either closed permanently or damaged so heavily that their ability to process those types of debris in a rapid manner is just not the case right now. Looking at some of their alternatives and then, of course, looking at longer term, what is done as it relates to the western North Carolina economy? What can the state and local officials do to try and bolster the economic conditions in western North Carolina moving forward so that communities are able to grow, communities are able to rebuild following the devastation from Hurricane Helene or Tropical Storm Helene, depending on who you talk to, maybe get a different name on that there. That remains a major problem. Topic of discussion out in western North Carolina.
You can read more on that story this morning. We've got the details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, Helene Debris Raises Wildfire Fears. We saw a busy day in Raleigh yesterday, a council of state meeting and additional progress in the North Carolina General Assembly. Teresa Opaca from CarolinaJournal.com will join us coming up here in just a couple of minutes to highlight that council of state meeting as the discussion, a lot of the discussion surrounded the state budget and looking at the Senate and House calendar for today.
There is a lot on the agenda for both the House and the Senate. The House is expected to work on some business later this afternoon. They will be gaveling in at 10.30 this morning.
However, according to House Speaker Destin Hall, that will be a skeleton session. There will be committee meetings throughout the early afternoon and early and mid-morning. And then House lawmakers will head back in for what is dozens of pieces of legislation that have moved through. The committee process over the last couple of weeks.
So we'll see what goes on there. We'll be keeping a close eye on those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. When you're a maintenance engineer in a beverage manufacturing plant, you keep production lines moving and quality on track because there is no room for slowdowns. With Granger's vast selection of high quality motors, sensors, belts, and hard to find parts, you can get what you need fast and all in one place.
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WBT, I'm Nick Craig. A good Wednesday morning to you. Discussions about the state's budget are all the rage here in North Carolina. To walk us through the latest this morning out of the executive branch, Teresa Opaca, CarolinaJournal.com joins us on the news hour. Teresa, you were at the Council of State meeting that happened on Tuesday morning.
The executive branch council of state includes many elected officials, obviously the governor, other individuals, state auditor, state treasurer, folks like that as well. I assume they talked a little bit about the budget as we are getting closer to what we are expecting as a date for that to be released and finalized. What's the latest that you're hearing out of the Council of State? Sure. Good morning, Nick.
Thanks for having me. Yep.
So, talking about the budget, that's what we're all talking about here in Raleigh these days. And the possible release date, which it's been floating around, that June 15th would be the release date for the budget. But, you know, while Governor Stein said he is hopeful that is the case, he's looking to, you know, the past, past experience, and he has his doubts about that. He says, you know, there really hasn't been a date set out a month beforehand that's ever been met by any General Assembly.
So he was joking, you know, if I were a wagering person, which I'm not, and there's an executive order that he just signed into law, right, about not betting on prediction markets, and he can't do that, obviously, as the governor. He said, you know, he just thinks it takes more time than people wish it would. That's basically what he said to reporters after a council state on Tuesday. You know, it's interesting, Teresa, and yes, we have been fooled by this many times here over at the Carolina Journal, as we were expecting things to happen on certain dates. It maybe gets pushed back a couple of weeks, or in some cases, it never comes to fruition.
It is just a part of the process as it relates to state government. The only thing I'd say maybe in response to the governor's comments there is from what we followed last year, almost a year ago, exactly when these budget negotiations first began in Raleigh, during the legislative long session, there was a lot of agreement on what to spend money on. The big issue that we followed and have been following for the last year was they couldn't come together on what a tax package would look like.
So I guess maybe it's possible, Teresa, that a lot of the legwork that was done in the long session last year maybe needs to just be modified slightly. They've now agreed upon what those tax rates are going to look like moving forward. And of course, lawmakers do not want to be stuck in Raleigh any longer this year. I guess because they have to get back to their districts and campaign. They're all on the ballot card.
Coming up here in November. Right, right. Short time there, right?
So, yeah, it seems like they've got a lot of that work done last year. Maybe they just have to tweak it a little bit and stuff like that. And hopefully, that they'll get out there. You know, it may not be June 15th, as the governor said, and rightly so, because there really haven't been on time. There's a lot of states that really aren't on time.
But, you know, maybe it would be another week or two after. That's basically what he said: that probably shortly after they would have something in agreement. And you would be hopeful. I don't have a crystal ball either, but maybe before the 4th of July, they would have all this stuff wrapped up. They can get out of town, truly celebrate America's 250th and have that budget in place.
But that remains to be seen. We're going to have to see what the legislators come up with. And like I said, hopefully all that legwork done last year really will propel things along a lot faster this time around.
Well, we've been watching what has already been a busy week in Raleigh, dozens of committee meetings taking place on Tuesday. We're expecting dozens more today and over the next couple of weeks as well as a lot of some of this behind-the-scenes work is going on, a lot of private negotiations, I would imagine, as well between senior leadership in the North Carolina General Assembly. Teresa, walk us through some of the top lines on this budget. At least as we know right now, we saw a press conference back in mid-May as state lawmakers, as state lawmakers, most predominantly Destin Hall and Phil Berger, kind of laid out what their plans were for this kind of a last-minute news conference back about three or so weeks ago. Are those numbers that you're following still what you're hearing?
Yeah, I would say so. Basically, I don't think anything's really changed. There was an average of 8% for a teacher pay raise. Also, they would give start, they want to make the starting teacher pay the number one in the south for the state. Teachers would also receive bonuses ranging from $500 to $1,000.
State employees, on average, would see a 3% raise with larger increases in certain high-need areas, state government, and state employees would also get a bonus from $1,000 to $2,000. There's a lot more. There's also for law enforcement officers, they're averaging around about 16, 15% for An increase there. Correctional officers, 15.4.
So it's basically everything is the same. You know, and Governor Sign talked about all that. He's last week at a press conference. He had one of his NC strong press conferences that he tends to have from time to time, talking about different things. But he says, you know, it's all step in the right direction.
He just wants to see more. He said, you know, with the increases for correctional officers, it shouldn't just be for the correctional officers. It should be for everybody in the correction system. But he's truly, and he said it again today: we really don't know what they're working on because no one has seen the final budget. But everything is pretty much the same.
Those are like the top lines. We also have the, you know, personal income tax amendment to cap that at three point five percent, that was talked about in the budget framework. A separate constitutional amendment for property tax levy that's going to be on the ballot in November.
So all that stuff pretty much stays the same at this point. Teresa, we did chat last week about this NC Strong press conference that the governor had, where you just highlighted the things that you just brought up, as he did seemingly applaud lawmakers for some of their moves forward. As typical as we've seen in government fashion, it's good, but it's not enough. And when we talked about that last week, I asked you, you know, did you get any kind of vibe from the governor whether you thought he would move forward with this budget and actually sign it into law? We know that that's been an issue in the past.
Did you get any additional kind of feelings or vibes from the governor during the Council of State meeting Tuesday morning that if lawmakers move forward with at least what they've publicly said, that he would likely support that?
Okay. You know, he basically held the same stance he had last week. Like he said, you know, the framework, there's good points to it, there's bad points to it. You know, he said he he really can't comment on anything until he sees the final budget.
So it seems like he's He seems like he's pretty agreeable. But of course, he said he still has his disagreements on some of those points.
So basically, it's. Pretty much status quo at this point, as far as where he's going to be. I think he will probably sign it, but again, Who knows, right? We all can't predict the future, or we're not going to be betting on the prediction markets at this point. But yeah, I think he is a bit more agreeable as far as maybe, say, maybe Governor Cooper in the past, seems to be more like a compromising nature.
I think he is more in that tone as far as working and signing a budget. But basically, it's the same stance as last week.
Well, and Teresa, this is uncharted territory, even though the governor has been in office well over a year at this point, going on close to a year and a half. We did not see a budget last year. Governor Stein is a first-term governor. He was in the Attorney General's office before that.
So he's never even had the opportunity to sign or veto or just allow a budget to come into law.
So we really are very much in uncharted territory to see what he's going to do here. Very much so. Yeah, right. This is all new for him and for this General Assembly, you know, seeing what's going to happen.
So he has vetoed a couple of bills, but again, nothing like the previous governor. And this would be his first budget. You know, it's been over a year he's been in office, but yeah, we're definitely into some new territory here. And a quick reminder for our audience, the three different options that the governor has. He can agree with the budget, sign it into law.
He can veto the legislation, which would be the budget. It would come back to the legislature for a veto override or something that we have seen in the past with his predecessor and former governor Roy Cooper. If it sits on his desk for 15 days, Teresa, it automatically becomes law.
So a couple of different options there that definitely could lead us into the month, the early parts, maybe even middle of July, depending on when lawmakers get to this. We'll be keeping a very close eye, not only on the Council of State and as they play into this budget, but also the North Carolina General Assembly as well. You can read more on Teresa's story this morning by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update. Teresa Opeka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Uh 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. The North Carolina Court of Appeals is dealing with a case as it relates to the Catawba Nation 2 Kings Casino just outside of the Charlotte metro area.
Oral arguments taking place in this case Tuesday to bring us up to date with the latest. Mitch Coke from the John Locke Foundation joins us here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, what's the latest you're tracking out of the second highest court here in North Carolina? Nick, this dispute involves both the Catawba Indian Tribe and a group called Kings Mountain Land Development Partners.
Now, KMLD is the acronym. Owned all of the property at one point that now includes the casino. And then, as the process of this casino moved forward, first a tract that was going to hold the casino itself was sold. The federal government's involved because you're dealing with an Indian tribe, and the tribe has complete control over what's called the trust land.
Meanwhile, the KMLD, the company, continued to own property around that trust land. And so, as the construction process was moving forward, there were easements involved to get from KMLD land to the land with the actual casino. And now, the debate and the legal dispute is over whether the Indian tribe violated. The rules of the easement, the provisions in the easement as it moved forward with its construction project. And there are a couple of main pieces to this.
Probably the largest one is that KMLD argues that at one point, when a second piece of the property was sold to the Catawba tribe, that there was a promise made that the parking deck that would go along with this project would sit on KMLD's land and they would get to benefit from having the parking deck that would serve the casino.
Well, what ended up happening was that the land that was conveyed in the second part of the deal, which had the temporary parking for the original temporary casino, the tribe promised.
Well, we aren't going to build a parking deck on that property. But then they ended up building their own property deck on another piece of the property that was not covered by the deal. And so KMLD is arguing that that was a misrepresentation and that to get the easements, the Indian tribe misrepresented what they were going to do on the parking deck. There's also some concern about rocks and other material being removed from the KMLD land and used on the tribe's land, and also some accusations that some grading was done and sloping of the property that now makes the KMLD land unusable for other purposes.
So that's really the dispute between the land company that's a neighbor of the casino and the tribe. What is really at issue for The State Court of Appeals, though, is whether the tribe gets to get rid of some of KMLD's claims because of sovereign immunity. And an Indian tribe has federal sovereign immunity because of the rules dealing with Indian tribes that are federally recognized. And a trial judge said, yes, some of the claims can be dispensed with because of sovereign immunity. And KMLD argued before the State Court of Appeals that, no, these easements were really broad and basically said that anything that the tribe was doing as part of the construction of this casino, they've waived their sovereign immunity because of these easements.
And the tribe is saying, no, only things that are really tied directly to the construction process that was tied to the easement. That's the only place where there's a waiver of immunity. Otherwise, much of what KMLD is arguing. They lose because of the tribe's sovereign immunity.
So that's really the issue for the State Court of Appeals to decide. It's a very interesting story. And obviously, we're dealing with some disputes here over land and easements. And so, Mitch, I guess it makes sense that this was obviously filed here in the state of North Carolina as property transactions and things like that are all covered here in the state. But as you highlighted at the open and just mentioned, you're dealing with Indian tribe land.
And that is obviously a lot of federal regulation as it relates to that as well.
So it's almost an interesting issue where you've got the federal system involved, even though the suit is not in federal court. It's being dealt with here in North Carolina. It's got to make something like this rather tricky. It is tricky. What's also tricky is how much of the original lawsuit survives.
I mean, that was one of the main sets of questions that the judges in this case, it's a three-judge panel, and they asked several questions. Among the first one was, well, is there any reason for this case to be before the Court of Appeals now? Because the case isn't over. The trial judge did allow some claims to move forward. And so one of the arguments was, well, maybe this doesn't even belong before the Court of Appeals now, and that KMLD should wait or the tribe should wait for a final ruling on the rest of the claims and then they could appeal.
That was one set of arguments. The other was the judges were asking lawyers on both sides, well, What parts of the initial complaint are still live and active, and what parts aren't? And KMLD's lawyer says, well, we really don't know. If you look at the trial judge's ruling, it's hard to tell because it's very difficult in the language of the trial court's order to suss out which parts of the initial complaint could still move forward and which parts are now killed off because of sovereign immunity. On the other side, the tribe said, well, we put together a list of things that we think are still active and not.
And it appears that the trial judge used that list in making the order. But didn't actually put that list in the order, so it's not necessarily clear. One thing that did seem to be clear, though, was that the parking deck piece was certainly knocked off by the sovereign immunity argument. And that's one of the reasons why KMLD wanted to go to the Court of Appeals and address the sovereign immunity issue now to say, Are some of these claims gone because of sovereign immunity? Or is everything that was in the easement?
tied to the things that are argued in this lawsuit. If everything that's complained about in the lawsuit is tied in with the easement, then basically there's a waiver of the sovereign immunity and all of the claims remain active. But if the trial judge was right that sovereign immunity blocks some of these claims, including the claims about the parking deck, that would be a real knock against KMLD and a real legal win for the Catawba tribe. Mitch, we talk about a lot of legal issues here. You join us a couple times a week, and typically we're talking about briefs and various motions that are filed.
One of the unique things about oral arguments is, well, they are exactly what they are. They're oral arguments. In this case, a three-judge panel is asking questions to both sides. For those that have not watched any of these online or maybe gone to one of them in person, it's kind of an interesting process, specifically because you can kind of get a sense, or sometimes you can get a sense where the judges' heads are at based on the kind of questions they're asking. You had the opportunity to view this Tuesday morning.
Any idea where the judges were?
So much confusion over what parts of this case are alive or not that they're kind of maybe just as confused as everybody else. I'm not sure if the judges are confused, but I would say that their questions didn't really give you a 90% to 10% or 80% to 20% betting guess on which way they're going to go on this. A lot of it was procedural. A lot of the questions were, is this appeal right now? Or, you know, what is the proper standard?
One of the things is on an easement, would the argument be something that's directly or indirectly related to the easement? And if so, what that means? Does this arise out of the easement? Is it based on the easement?
So very technical legal terms that will help decide this. And it wasn't really clear from the judges' questions which way they're going to go.
Now, I think one of the more interesting questions was Judge Chris Dillon, the chief judge of the appeals court, who was the chief of this panel, asked at one point, well, if the Catawba. Indians came onto my property and took a bunch of rocks and other material and took it away. Do I have any recourse to sue them? And basically, the judge for the tribe said, well, no, because they have federal sovereign immunity. The only thing that stopped them from the federal sovereign immunity is the easements that were signed and the specifics of the easements.
So that's really what the Court of Appeals is going to have to deal with. what what's in the easement and Are the things that are being argued by KMLD covered by that easement or are they not? At the trial judge level, it was a sort of a split ruling. The trial judge did not throw out the case entirely, but he did say that some of the claims have to go away because of sovereign immunity. And KMLD is asking the appeals court to say, no, everything that we claimed in our suit is...
There is a waiver of immunity for all of those claims because of these easements.
So it's probably likely to be a very technical legal decision that comes out, but it will have really interesting real-world implications for both the Catawba Indian tribe and its neighbor. No question about that. All right, Mitch.
Sounds like we're very much in the weeds with a lot of these discussions here. Do you suspect that this is a lengthy legal battle that continues here in North Carolina with, again, questions over some of these things as it relates to sovereign immunity from the federal government? I mean, is this something that's quick or is this probably another lengthy, drawn-out legal process that we'll be keeping an eye on for months, if not years? My guess is it's going to be lengthy only in the sense that it's hard to tell how long it will take the Court of Appeals to rule. They had the oral arguments on Tuesday, which means that there could be a ruling in a matter of weeks or months.
It may take a year or more if it ends up being a very complicated decision and has any sorts of concurrences or dissents. But then remember, however long it takes the Court of Appeals to decide, whoever loses this issue is likely to try to appeal to the state Supreme Court. And the issue for both the Appeals Court and the Supreme Court is really not the fight at this point between the Catawba tribe and KMLD, but the extent. To the tribe's sovereign immunity against the claims in this suit and whether the easements. And the way that they are written allows the suit to move forward in full, or if many of the claims, including the claims about the very lucrative parking deck, get thrown out because of sovereign immunity.
So the case's outcome will have a lot of real-world implications, but the outcome will be determined by a very tiny. Legal issue that deals with an Indian tribe's sovereign immunity and the extent to which that immunity is waived when it signs an easement. It's very interesting. We'll be keeping an eye on the details. We've got a full write-up this morning for folks that want to read more and maybe dive into some of the details.
That's over at our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Mitch Coke from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:54. Good morning again.
Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, it was a busy night in Raleigh as the Carolina Hurricanes made their way to their first Stanley Cup final appearance in 20 years. An incredible game in Raleigh last night. Unfortunately, the Canes falling one goal short as the Vegas Golden Knights scored and added an additional goal with less than three and a half minutes remaining in the third period to advance over the Canes in game one, five to four. Game two will be taking place in Raleigh Thursday night before both teams pack up and head out to Vegas for games three and four.
A lot of energy, a lot of activity in Raleigh. We'll be keeping you up to date throughout the Stanley Cup finals right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Over to some statewide news this morning, as we've been talking about all week, a lot of movement ongoing in Raleigh. During the day, outside of the Carolina Hurricanes game, as the North Carolina General Assembly is attempting to wrap up their legislative short session here in the month of June, maybe a few days in July, but trying to get all of their important work done here over the next month or so. Lawmakers yesterday hosted dozens of committee meetings in both the North Carolina House and Senate.
Dealing with a plethora of different pieces of legislation, and we are expecting a long day. Those are the words right out of House Speaker Destin Hall's mouth in the North Carolina House today. They are set to gavel in at 10:30 with what is known as a skeleton session. There will be committee meetings throughout the day, and lawmakers are expected to be in attendance in the House sometime coming up later on this afternoon. There are more than a dozen pieces of legislation that are on the official House calendar for this Wednesday, June the 3rd.
There remains multiple veto overrides. The one that everybody has remained talking about is Senate Bill 50. That is a constitutional carry, which would require one more vote from either a Democrat or unaffiliated member of the North Carolina General Assembly, as that legislation was vetoed almost one year ago, back on June the 20th of 2025.
Some additional constitutional amendments, three of those that could be discussed by lawmakers. In the North Carolina House today, plus some second readings and third readings of other public and local bills as well.
So we are expecting a lot of movement there. And of course, the budget, as we all of our sources over at CarolinaJournal.com indicate that lawmakers have the week of June the 15th on the calendar for when they would start the process of introducing a full budget. We would expect a lengthy debate in both the North Carolina House and Senate before a final budget deal is voted on by both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly and then sent to Democrat Governor Josh Stein for a vote, whether he decides to sign the bill, which would be the budget into law, veto the legislation, or the third option that could sit on his desk for 15 days and it becomes law automatically.
So we are going to remain very busy as it relates to state politics throughout the month of June. We've got reporters all throughout the General Assembly. And they'll be keeping you up to date over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, throughout the day. And of course, the latest coming up the next morning right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. That's going to do it for a Wednesday edition.
WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT.
