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We continue with coverage of what has been a very busy week in Raleigh as the North Carolina General Assembly gets very close, at least as we understand it right now, to ending their legislative short session. Earlier in the week, Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation joined us to talk about House Bill 958, which is titled Election Law Changes. That sweeping election bill that had appeared was heading for a vote in the North Carolina House, was stalled this week after being removed from the House Rules Calendar Tuesday afternoon. This was amid intense pushback from Democrat Governor Josh Stein, Democrat lawmakers, and voting right advocates in Raleigh.
The legislation, House Bill 958, was reported favorable out of the House Elections Law Committee on Tuesday morning and referred to the House Rules Committee, the final step before it headed to the House floor. But the bill never reached the floor, leaving its future rest. relatively uncertain this morning. The bills, sponsored by Representatives Hugh Blackwell, the Republican from Burke County, Sarah Stevens, the Republican from Surrey County, proposed broad changes to North Carolina's election law, including post-election audits by the state auditor, changes to voter challenges, restrictions on overseas voting, new election board rules, campaign finance changes, and a ban on ranked choice voting. Dr.
Andy Jackson, the director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, praised the bill, writing Tuesday that House Bill 958 was back, bigger, and mostly better than ever. Noting that most of the provisions in the bill, old and new, will improve North Carolina's elections and make them more secure. But the reaction from those on the opposite side of the political aisle has been anything but, in a social media post, Governor Stein urged lawmakers to stop the bill, arguing that it would weaken confidence in elections rather than strengthening it. The governor putting out a post on his social media channels this week saying. People should be able to trust our elections and know that their votes count.
Yet this bill erodes trust by injecting more politics into the state board of elections and limiting access to the ballot box. It makes it harder for service members overseas than other North Carolinians to meet voter ID requirements, makes it easier for the state board of elections to hire partisans rather than election professionals, and invites the auditor and state board to sow mistrust in elections. This legislature must stop undermining our elections and inventing new ways to cling to power. I encourage all North Carolinians to contact their legislatures and make their voice heard.
Some very pointed comments there from Democrat Governor Josh Sein claiming that Republicans are attempting to overthrow and sow levels of distrust in elections. During Tuesday's committee meeting, Blackwell defended the bill as an effort to balance access and election security, with one of the bill's primary sponsors saying, In part during the meeting, we want voting to work efficiently and with integrity. And that means everybody entitled to vote should be able to vote. Blackwell went on to say that the bill was intended to give election officials more time to identify potential problems while still protecting eligible voters. The bill cleared the committee in a 12 to 8 vote.
However, the hearing revealed significant concerns about both the bill's substance and the speed of the process. With Blackwell acknowledging that the bill was still being negotiated, even as it was expected to move quickly, saying, We're obviously dealing with a 35-page bill. There are several areas that we are continuing to work on. Democrats on the committee objected to provisions expanding post-election challenges and reviews of voter eligibility. Representative Pricey Harrison, the Democrat from Guilford County, said that her overall concern was how the bill would affect voters and the potential for people to be removed from the rolls.
With Harrison saying in part, it doesn't seem like what's going on here is going to happen when you're going to have eligible ballots getting tossed. Harrison also warned about the extended timeframe for voter challenges, which would run from election day to five business days after election day. She said that this could create incentives for losing campaigns to search for ballots to challenge in close races. An interesting thing to note about this: the previous deadline was seven days. Republicans had previously made that three business days and heard similar comments from Democrats in Raleigh that shrinking that timeframe for voter challenges from seven to three days was not sufficient and it was going to suppress votes, create a whole bunch of different problems.
Now, those same individuals are arguing that expanding the challenge from three days to five days is going to have some of those same effects.
So, an interesting argument there from those on the more political left. Harrison went on to say: we've got a lot of local elections that might be decided, or even state legislative elections that can be decided with less than 50 votes. Votes, and it just seems like there's an incentive to go out and hunt down ballots when there's nothing there. One of the bills and most debated provisions would have authorized the state auditor to conduct post-election performance audits. With Blackwell saying that the audits would occur after elections are complete and would not affect any election outcomes.
Blackwell said during the committee meeting, it's more of an evaluation or an assessment of how well the process works and where we can make improvements.
However, not everybody in the committee room, no surprise, agreed with giving the state auditor the ability to do that, which many argue he already has said authority due to his widesweeping authority here in North Carolina. Representative Alan Bussini, the Democrat from Orange County, said he agreed that election procedures should be reviewed, but objected to giving that authority to a partisan elected official. Noting the auditor is a partisan elected office. He's a partisan actor. He campaigns for candidates.
In response to those concerns, state auditor Dave Bollick defended the audit proposal, saying that independent reviews would increase public confidence in elections. With the state auditor saying in part, audits work to instill trust and integrity through professional, independent examinations. An audit by the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor examining the process and procedures of elections would bring transparency and accountability to voters. What sows mistrust is a partisan governor who chooses political posture over constructive dialogue. Representative Hugh Blackwell defended the audit concept, writing that the election performance audits are not about retabulating election results, but about ensuring that the results are accurately reflecting voter intent.
These audits are about correcting problems, not auditing said results. The bill would have also banned ranked choice voting in North Carolina primaries and elections. Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank candidates by preference rather than selecting just one. Back to Representative Pricey Harrison, who questioned why lawmakers were eliminating the option, saying, I don't know why we're eliminating it. It works in other states, and I think we ought to leave the option there.
Other provisions would have required a faster address verification mailings for new voter registrations, allowed nonpartisan candidates to be appointed election observers, changing campaign finance reporting thresholds, barring foreign nationals from contributing to referendum campaigns, banning payment per signature petitions, and directed a study on possible absentee ballot signature verification pilot programs across North Carolina. That hearing ended on Tuesday, again, with the intent that this legislation would move through the House Rules Committee and make its way to the House floor potentially as early as Wednesday of this week. But even as House Bill 958 stalled in the House, one of the most debated provisions. Did resurface in the Senate. Senate Bill 1087.
Filed on June the 17th this week by Senator Brad Overkash, the Republican from Gaston, and Warren Daniel, the Republican from Burke, and Ralph Heist, the Republican from Mitchell, would require the state auditor to conduct post-election audits of election systems and controls after general elections. The Senate bill would allow the auditor to select counties for review after elections are certified. The number of audits and selection of counties would be left to the auditor's discretion, as the bill states that the audit findings could not be used as grounds to challenge final results of an election. The filing suggests that lawmakers still may try to move at least part of this stalled House election package separately, even as the broader bill remains in House rules.
However, for now, the sweeping election law proposal does remain in that stalled position with no votes scheduled and its next steps remaining pretty unclear. And the time is ticking in Raleigh if lawmakers intend to revive this legislation, which seemingly came back onto the scene and died all within the span of just a couple of hours this week in Raleigh. Lawmakers had previously scheduled to wrap up all voting during the short session of the North Carolina legislature by Thursday, excuse me, July the 2nd, right ahead of the July the 4th holiday. That leaves one more full week of votes before that July the 4th deadline, at least as it was stated. That is not an official deadline that lawmakers have to legally follow.
However, that was the proposed. Calendar published by House Speaker Destin Hall just back a couple of weeks ago before the legislative short session started in the month of April. We are expecting votes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Raleigh next week. And not immediately clear what will happen in the first week of July. Nevertheless, we're keeping an eye on all of the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour and over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
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Mm. It's 521. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT turning our attention to Washington, D.C. United States Senate Armed Service Committee has advanced the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act known as the NDAA. That was a vote of 18 to 9 last week in Washington.
with several provisions set to benefit North Carolina's military installations. We'll get into those in just a couple of minutes. It moves to the Senate floor for a vote in the coming weeks as the House Armed Service Committee voted 44 to 12 back on June the 4th to advance their version of the NDAA. The House is expected to take up the bill by the July recess, so we'll see that coming up here in the next week or two as well. If both chambers pass their respective bills, lawmakers will then work on a compromise bill in their respective committees before sending the bill back to the House and Senate for final votes before it would make its way to President Donald Trump's desk for a signature.
In addition to increased funding for North Carolina's military installations, the bill includes numerous provisions to strengthen military air power and enhance U.S. counterterrorism operations. The Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, the Republican from Missouri, said in a press release that the threats facing America have never been more complex or urgent. The chairman said, an axis of aggressive challenges of America's interests across the globe and the character of warfare is rapidly changing. Reorganizing this critical need for our military to be capable of deterring these threats and, if necessary, to prevail against them, the fiscal year 2027 NDAA marks a huge breakthrough for America's military.
Though a historic level of investment and bold innovations in organizations and procurement, this legislation facilitates the modernization of America's arsenals that will defend the next generation of warfare. Wicker added that the bill addresses and demands of modern battlefields with methodical approaches on things like artificial intelligence, anonymous weaponry, low-cost munitions, and cyber operations. With the chairman saying its provisions will pave the way for a manufacturing revitalization and expansion of existing and emerging industries throughout the American economy, a reindustrialization of this scale. which we have not seen since the Second World War. Senate Armed Service Committee Ranking Member Jack Reid, the Democrat from Rhode Island, said that the bipartisan bill strengthens national defense and enhances oversight and accountability, noting that it forces the Secretary to be more accountable to Congress and will prevent many errors of the past from being repeated in the future.
Noting that advancing this bill is a necessary step in a multi-step process in which he and others said they will continue to fight for improvements in the bill. United States Senator Ted Budd, the Republican here from North Carolina, who is a member of the Senate Armed Service Committee, continued to show his ongoing support for the state's military installations by voting on the bill and securing 49 provisions in the committee markup process for North Carolina. Senator Budd said in a press release, investing in our nation's defense not only ensures that our military remains the most lethal fighting force in the world, but also drives economic growth and strengthens Americans' manufacturing competitiveness. I am proud that North Carolina leads the nation in military readiness as a strategic hub for several of our nation's largest military installations, while also serving as a reliable center for defense manufacturing. As the senator representing Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, I have led several provisions focused on rebuilding our defense industrial base to maintain air superiority and preserve America's air power in modern warfare to compete with China.
Budd also said that he secured funding needed for military construction projects at installations across the state of North Carolina and prioritized strategic funding for counterterrorism efforts in the Middle East, which will bolster defense cooperation with key allies. Bud said, above all, the historic NDAA puts our national security first by making critical investments in the men and women who wear our nation's uniform and helping to build these capabilities needed to defend the homeland against evolving threats. Many of the provisions led by U.S. Senator Ted Budd, enhancing military strength, were included in the bill, including ones that he says will further expand aircraft production, provide financial stability to the defense industrial base, save taxpayer dollars, upgrade aging aircraft with modern fighters, and retain mid-career Air Force aviators, specifically the from his Air Power Acceleration Act, the Retention Enforcement for Tactical Air Crew Innovation Act, and the Fighter Crew Career Flexibility Act, which he led alongside Senator Janine Shaheen, the Democrat from New Hampshire. Several other Budd-led provisions focused on advancing cooperation and strengthening defense capabilities with U.S.
allies, also included in the version of the NDAA passed by the Senate Armed Service Committee, specifically the bipartisan United States-Israel Framework for Upgraded Technology, Unified Research and Enhanced Security Features Act, which he led alongside Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democrat from New York. Senator Budd says that the bill expands the cooperation between the United States and its allies, helping benefit the United States national security here at home. The fiscal year 2027 NDAA authorizes some $651 million for military construction projects, which includes funding for planning and design at facilities across North Carolina. Bud successfully worked to include authorization provisions to support a bunch of these projects. Including $13 million in funding for air crew readiness facility over at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base at Fort Bragg, $50 million in funding for special operation forces and a training facility there, $31 million in funding to complete the aircraft maintenance hangar, and $54 million in design funding for a new headquarters at the Joint Deployment Warfighting Complex.
All of that at Fort Bragg. Over to Camp Lejeune, $15.5 million in funding for ammunition supply point upgrades, $77.5 million in funding for the 10th Marines operational complex, $30 million for combat water survival training and a facility there, $80 million in funding. For Marine Raider Battalion operation facilities and $72 million in funding for a special operation command support facility. And finally, over at Cherry Point, $47.5 million in funding to complete aircraft maintenance hangars, $89 million in funding for F-35 aircraft sustainments, and $62.5 million in funding for maintenance facilities and Marine Air Group headquarters.
Some very significant dollar amounts coming to facilities here across the state of North Carolina. Again, the way that the process will play out for this, both the United States House and Senate will have to pass the versions of their bill. This is the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. After both chambers do that, they will come together on a compromise bill. Presumably, it would move through both chambers and then make its way to President Donald Trump's desk for a A signature.
We've got a full breakdown of everything that could potentially be coming to North Carolina. Head on over to our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. You'll see the headline: U.S. Senate NDAA includes funding for NC military installations. And down towards the bottom of the article, we've got bullet points on all of the funding heading to Seymour Johnson, Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, and Cherry Point.
Those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. It's 5.38. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good Friday morning to you.
Consistently talked about how agriculture is not only a major business in North Carolina, it's the number one business across the Tar Heel State. There's been a lot of economic uncertainty over the last year and a half as it relates to the agricultural industry that's having a major impact on small, medium, and large farms here across the state of North Carolina. We're keeping on the topic of agriculture, but actually talking about fertilizer. There's some interesting things going on there. To walk through some of those details this morning, Katie Zender, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour.
Katie, for anybody that even maybe plays around in their backyard with a small little garden, fertilizer is a major portion of growing crops, which we see here in North Carolina. It looks like maybe some global shortages there. What's the latest that you're following? Yeah, good morning Nick. Thank you for having me back on.
Yeah, so fertilizer has kind of become the center of some attention recently with all the geopolitical disruptions and different wars going on. Fertilizer has really kind of taken a front seat because, you know, because of all these geopolitical conflicts, the supply chain is being disrupted, which is, you know, causing the price of fertilizer to go up.
So that's having an impact on North Carolina farmers, even just small family farms. And, you know, Nick, we've talked about this many, many, many times, but farmers are kind of being hit from all sides right now between hurricanes and tariffs and diesel prices and now fertilizer. Yeah, it's a really big impact on North Carolina farmers. Yeah, I mean, you look at the labor side of it as well. I remember a story that you did.
I mean, it's probably been over a year now, Katie, talking about parts for tractors and other sorts of farm equipment.
Some of that stuff has skyrocketed it as well. It seems like, unfortunately, farmers just literally can't catch a break here, not only in North Carolina, but across the rest of the nation. Right, and so Corey Rosenbusch, who's the CEO of the Fertilizer Institute, has some really insightful thoughts on this. And he said that fertilizer is produced and consumed globally. And you know, a lot of people think of America as the number one agricultural country in the world.
Even with that, Nick, only about 10% of fertilizer consumption is from the United States. 90% of fertilizer gets consumed outside of the United States. And so there are many different varieties and products of fertilizer, but probably the three of the major ones and the ones that we'll focus on today are nitrogen. Phosphate and potash. Phosphate and potash are mined products, and then nitrogen is chemically manufactured.
But there's more than 30 different products of fertilizer. They all have their own markets, their own prices, their own impact on plant growth and yields for the farmer. But we're going to focus on those three main ones today. And like I said, fertilizer is consumed globally. Only about 10% is consumed in the U.S.
The top two countries for fertilizer consumption are China and India. China is number one overall for fertilizer consumption, but the big difference between China and India is that most of China's fertilizer consumption is domestically produced.
So they're keeping most of their fertilizer in-house. Whereas with India, most of their fertilizer consumption is coming from the global market.
So India is technically the number one consumer of fertilizer on the global market, but China is number one overall. And so in China, one-third of all nitrogen produced comes from China, and about 43% of phosphates are produced there as well. And then Irian is the second largest exporter of urea, which is a form of nitrogen. And about 12% of the global market share comes from Iran. And then Trinidad is actually one of the US's largest suppliers of ammonia, which again is a form of nitrogen.
Well, we know that Iran has been in the news a lot over the last three months or so. We won't dive into all of those details here this morning. Katie, one of the interesting things as it relates to the agricultural industry is we typically see these prices kind of lag, right? Often now you plant for farmers across the state. They are planting crops months or years in advance and having them available and ready to sell to these suppliers.
They show up on the grocery store shelves. They show up at roadside stands all across the state of North Carolina, very popular time now for strawberries and things like that. But many of these prices are actually lagged and delayed.
So we might not actually see some of the impacts of this potentially towards the next couple of growing seasons, depending on the product or the crop that we're talking about. That's exactly right, Nick. And you know, another factor that plays into this is something we've been talking about for over a year now is tariffs.
So, most of the fertilizers were actually exempt from tariffs on November 14th, except for ammonia, sulfur, sulfuric acid, and calcium ammonium nitrate, according to Rosenberg. And then he said, you know, United States is fairly self-reliant when it comes to ammonia, but about 50% of our imports do come from Trinidad and Tobago. And this is another issue with fertilizer plants, especially those in the Middle East, but also in Trinidad and Tobago. A lot of these plants have been shut down due to a lack of natural gas supply, port access, tariff-related issues. A lot of plants in the Middle East have been shut down due to infrastructure damage from missile strikes or different war-related War-related mishaps.
And China dominates the global fertilizer consumption, as I said before. But foreign governments use these policies to influence the market. And India is a great example of this, is something that Corey said. He said, India procures all of their fertilizer as a central government. As I said before, Nick, they are the world's largest consumer of fertilizer on the global market, but then they heavily subsidize it and they sell it to their farmers very cheaply.
And for them, it's a political tool, it's a form of social welfare for their smaller farmers. There are 108 nitrogen-producing companies that serve the U.S., 38 phosphate suppliers, and 16 potash suppliers. And those are only the companies that serve the U.S. And then when we talk about nitrogen and phosphate in particular, China has increased their total production by about 20% from 2025 to 2026 year over year, but they're still maintaining a lot of their restrictions on exports. Um and so they're not Sharing with the global marketplace.
And something that Rosenberg said or Rosenbush said was: you know, China's official reason is that they need it for their farmers. And Corey said, you know. While this is probably true, he also believes it's kind of an intentional policy move because, and this is really important, Nick, China knows that if they control the fertilizer market, it makes them more powerful. And so if they can control fertilizer, they can control food production. And if they can control food production, they can control national security.
That's a verbatim quote from Corey, and that is a really important point. Yeah, it's not only an incredibly important point. We just saw the president of the United States and Donald Trump in China last week meeting with the Chinese president. This ongoing kind of tariff and trade back and forth between the United States and China does have major implications here in the United States. As the United States, we're seeing at least with the oil market right now, Katie, has this attempt to try and produce as much oil domestically and kind of secure that national supply here for the United States.
Hopefully, in the years to come, seeing something similar with fertilizer as well. I want to go back to something you said about India, how they are purchasing this fertilizer themselves as a nation, heavily subsidizing it and selling it to their small farmers. Obviously, we don't do that here in the United States. And so, when you look at farming, Katie, I would assume that some of these larger national groups that control and have purchased up a lot of farm and a lot of farmlands over the last couple of decades, they can probably bulk order some of these products and maybe get some discounted rates. But when you dive into these small mom and pop and medium-sized farms here across the state of North Carolina, they don't have that buying power.
They likely don't have the agreements with some of these major suppliers. I would expect that they're getting kind of an outsized impact on some of these rising prices. Yeah, that's exactly right, Nick. Like you said, like a lot of the larger farms, they are able to buy in bulk, maybe negotiate a little bit of a discount, but the smaller to medium-sized farms, you know, these farmers are barely making ends meet as it is and barely staying afloat as it is with all the factors that we've talked about. And so it's really, you know, we kind of talked about this on the global market as well, but when one country or government has the capital to be able to pay whatever they need to pay for fertilizer, everyone else has to compete with that price.
And so if you aren't compete, if you can't, then you're kind of then it's going to be hard for you. And it's the same with on the local level. Like the larger farmers are able to, they have the capital to be able to pay whatever they need to pay, whereas the smaller to medium-sized farmers don't have that ability. Yeah, and you've mentioned plenty of times in the past as we've talked about agricultural issues here across North Carolina, it is these small and medium-sized farms that are barely scraping by if there is drought, if there is disasters like we saw a couple of years ago in Western North Carolina with Hurricane Helene, Katie, they don't have hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in their savings accounts to go forth and keep up with that stuff. They are literally putting all their dollars out as it relates to their product and hopefully recouping that when they're selling their products to market.
And if they have a bad year, a bad crop or prices are fluctuating dramatically, many of these farms, unfortunately, can just kind of go under. Right, that's exactly right. Most of these small to mid-sized farmers, like you said, they don't have hundreds or thousands or millions of dollars. They're lucky if they've got probably a couple thousand dollars in surplus. If they're breaking even, they're doing well.
And so, yeah, a lot of them, unfortunately, we could see, unfortunately, you know, a lot of these farmers are being offered really good deals from housing developments, and they don't want to give in, but, or most of them don't want to sell. But if this keeps going on, Nick, and all these factors that we see with fertilizer, and then we got drought and diesel prices, and a lot of them that don't even want to are probably either going to be selling to developments or being bought out by larger farmers. Yeah, and you can't necessarily fault them for that when you're barely breaking even or losing money on the product that you're selling. It is not sustainable long term. Katie, you've got a lot of additional details on this, some additional quotes from the experts that you spoke to.
Where can folks go and get those details this morning? Yeah, they can read the rest of the article along with all the quotes and facts at CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the agricultural update. Katie Zender joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Big color, bigger savings.
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The charter school sector in North Carolina has hit a new high watermark this year, reaching a record of 213 schools and more than 161,000 students, according to the 2025 annual charter school report. This was presented to the state charter school review board back just a couple of weeks ago. Charter schools now represent around 10% of the state's public school enrollment, nearly three decades after the first charter school opened back in 1997. Demand keeps climbing. 138 schools report wait lists, topping 59,000 students, though the report notes that some names may be duplicates.
Overall, North Carolina ranks fourth in the nation for charter school enrollment growth over the past six years, behind only Texas, Florida, and California. According to the new report, charter score performance grade improvements year over year, with the share earning an A or B rising from 26% in the 23-24 school year to 30% in the 24-25 school year, with academic growth also ticking up with 72.3% of charter schools meeting or exceeding expectations. That's up about 2.5 percentage points from where that was just one year ago. And the share of low performing schools has fallen to 24.9% down from 28% back in 2022. Proficiency, however, continues to lag behind pre-pandemic levels.
Grade level proficiency was at 61.2% in the 24-25 school year. That is still six points below 2019. And the college and career and college and career readiness fell to 38.9%, down two points from the prior year, and more than 13 points below 2019. With the report calling on readiness as the clearest academic concern. The report notes that these gaps are the largest for students with disabilities.
They posted a college and career readiness rate of just 10.3%, the lowest of any subgroup in the report. On the positive side, however, it was noted that economically disadvantaged enrollment has climbed from 24% in 2019 to more than 40% in 2024, while proficiency for that group held relatively stable across the state. According to, again, some of the details out of this report, there were issues raising the issue of whether the state has appropriate capacity to oversee and support the growing charter school network. The Office for Charter Schools grew from monitoring 96 schools in 2009 to more than 213 this year, while its staff has largely stayed flat. Here in North Carolina, charter schools are public schools.
They are not private schools. They are part of the public school system. You can read more on some of these academic numbers over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline: NC Charter Schools Hit Record Enrollment as Sector Approaches 30. Years.
That's going to do it for a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you Monday morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT News.
