This Monday.com ad was created by a team of people and AI agents. The agents wrote the copy and managed the timelines, while our human creative director made sure it all made sense. Easy! Create your own AI agent today on Monday.com. It's 505 and welcome in to a Monday 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. Medicaid spending in North Carolina was a large topic of discussion throughout the budget process that we've watched unfold over the last month or so, and Medicaid spending has nearly doubled over the last four years, increasing total spending to a record $41.6 billion. The new state budget fully funds the state's projected Medicaid obligations for the coming fiscal year by authorizing $41.6 billion in spending. That total includes federal funding, state appropriations, provider assessments, and other receipts used to fund Medicaid operations across the Tar Heel State. Of that $41.6 billion, the state amount of funding is $7.46, with the remaining $34.1 billion coming from federal funds, provider assessments, and other receipts.
Only four years ago, the division's total budget was $21.6 billion. Since then, it has increased by roughly $20 billion, or nearly 93%. Over that same period of time, the state's general funds appropriation rose from $4.71 billion to $7.46 billion, an increase of roughly 58%. Brian Balfour, Senior Vice President of Research at the John Locke Foundation, said that Medicaid expansion has been the primary driver of the recent increase, he told the Carolina Journal. The dramatic rise in Medicaid spending over the last four years can largely be attributed to expansion.
Since December of 2023, more than 730,000 people have been added to the Medicaid roles just through expansion. Combine that with increasing costs of coverage per person, and we see this explosion in overall cost. North Carolina launched Medicaid expansion in December of 23, extending eligibility to adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level. With the federal government covering 90% of the benefit cost for the expansion population, putting the state on the hook for the remaining 10%. Balfour said that the surge may begin to moderate as enrollment expansion stabilizes, saying as the expansion population begins to level off, I expect the growth of Medicaid spending to likewise slow down.
But the program has established a markedly higher baseline these past few years. When federal funding and other receipts are included, Medicaid accounts for roughly half of the spending listed for agencies supported through the North Carolina's general fund budget. At $41.6 billion, the program's total budget is more than one and a half times the combined $25.6 billion that the state budgets for K-12 schools, community colleges, the UNC system, and state residential schools.
So all education across North Carolina. It is also nearly three and a half times the total amount spent on Hurricane Helene recovery so far in western North Carolina. Under the new budget that was recently signed into law by Democrat Governor Josh Stein, the program accounts for nearly 22% of the general fund, up from 16% just a decade ago. Balfour said Medicaid continues to chew up a larger portion of state spending because it is growing at a faster rate than the overall state budget. That means that other spending priorities like teacher and state employee raises, disaster relief, and public safety have fewer dollars available to fund them.
The growth places Medicaid at the center of the state's broader spending debate as lawmakers balance the cost of maintaining health coverage with demands for education funding, public safety investments, employee raises, tax relief, and of course, Hurricane Helene recovery. Balfour said that the rising obligation could become more difficult to manage if the economy weakens. He told the Carolina Journal, Medicaid's growing financial pressure is especially concerning when considering a potential economic downturn in the near future. These obligations will grow as more people lose their jobs and turn to Medicaid. With the ability to raise revenue to fund the growing obligations will decrease due to that same downturn.
House Speaker Destin Hall, the Republican from Caldwell County, also raised concerns about Medicaid's trajectory in an interview with Carolina Journal before the start of the 2026 legislative long session. My colleague Andrew Pomerant sat down with him and asked him a variety of different questions about what's going on in North Carolina. This was the response from the House Speaker when asked about Medicaid and spending here in North Carolina. You know, so the philosophy on my side of the aisle, the Republican side, is that Medicaid's a program that should be available for those as a safety net while they need it, but not forever. It's not a lifetime program.
Our friends on the other side, the Democrats and the Democratic governors under Roy Cooper and Governor Stein, it seems that their purpose with the program is to see how many more people they can get on it. And the better metric to use on Medicaid is not how many more people are we getting on there. It is how many people are we getting off of it. They've been on there because we have the good policies in the state and pro-business that they're able to go get a job, pay for their own health care, because there's a billion dollar cost overrun in Medicaid in the state, and that's not sustainable. It's just simply not.
We can't print money, and so we've got to get our arms around this problem. If you look at other states like Minnesota, for example, with what's going on there, the extreme fraud that's been uncovered, you know, we're starting to look into that in our state. We got some of the data from the federal government with the providers. Various providers across the state who are paid by Medicaid. And, you know, just a cursory search of their address on Google Maps, you find places that it's supposed to be a multi-million dollar healthcare entity, but it's a rundown shack.
So, you know, not saying those particular folks did anything wrong. Maybe they changed their address, but with very little effort, you can find some things that look very suspicious. And so every dollar that goes to somebody who shouldn't be on the program or goes to a provider who's overbilling is a dollar that can't go to someone who really needs it. And so we're going to go full force and do whatever we need to do to tamp down on the extreme cost overruns in that program. That's House Speaker Destin Hall chatting with my colleague Andrew Pomerance back before the start of the legislative long session.
The increase in funding in the state budget is accompanied by new oversight and program integrity provisions. The budget provides $2.5 million in non-recurring funding to the state auditor's office to investigate waste and abuse in Medicaid and assist with an audit required under legislation passed earlier this year. The budget also requires stronger cost contamination provisions within Medicaid-managed care contracts, along with additional reporting requirements and consequences for plans that fail to meet those cost control targets. Beginning October the 1st of this year, the Department of Health and Human Services must conduct quarterly checks of income and other financial information that could affect a recipient's eligibility. This discussion about Medicaid also translates into a broader discussion about healthcare.
Costs in North Carolina. House Speaker Destin Hall also talked to Carolina Journal about that. Yeah, I think things that we can do to invest in the supply of medical providers in our state. I've recently read the idea of a medical school at UNC Wilmington. East Carolina has a great program where they largely get in-state residents through that, and they keep them in North Carolina and they go practice in rural North Carolina.
Healthcare, like everything else, it's a supply and demand problem. We have an aging population, so there's greater demand on the health care industry. At the same time, our supply side of medical providers is not keeping up.
So we need to get more doctors, nurses, you name it all across the state. There's always scope of practice issues that we can look at. We've amended those over the years as well. You know, letting folks who have the ability to maybe do a little bit more than what their current scope of practice allows, especially in rural areas, while also thinking about public safety. You know, we're not going to let folks just start doing surgery.
On somebody, but using smart approaches to making sure our scope of practice rules are the right way. Obviously, folks have talked a lot about certificate of need, and you know, it's a different issue in different parts of the state, but ultimately, the things that we can do to get supply up in terms of available medical providers, that's going to go a long way in reducing health care costs in this state because it's high everywhere, and health care costs are increasing everywhere. But in our state, in particular, they've increased, and we need to enact some policies to try to slow that increase. That's how Speaker Destin Hall has Medicaid spending in North Carolina has nearly doubled over the last four years. You can read more coverage of that over on our website this morning.
CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the headline story. NC Medicaid spending nears $42 billion after 93% growth in four years. Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. Oh, no.
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I'm gonna go It's 523. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT, nearly 22 months after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina. State officials are highlighting the rebuilding of homes while thousands of applicants remain in various stages of the recovery process. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein handed Asheville homeowner Velma Chapman the keys to a newly rebuilt home on July the 15th, that was last week, through a Renew NC single-family housing program. Chapman lost the home where she had lived for twenty eight years after Hurricane Helene caused severe damage in September of twenty twenty four.
The governor said during the event, Miss Velma's home was damaged so badly by Hurricane Helene that it would have cost more to repair than to replace it. After the longtime homeowner's insurance company denied her claim, Renew NC's single-family housing program connected her with case managers and builders, and today she got the keys to her new home. Stein said that the state's ongoing recovery efforts included additional funding approved through the recently signed state budget, with the governor saying in a statement, the budget I signed last week included $700 million for Hurricane Helene recovery, including $75 million for temporary housing funds so that people have a place to stay while their homes are under construction and for home repairs. The RENUNC single-family housing program is funded in part by a $1.4 billion community development block disaster recovery grant, that coming from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The program repairs, reconstructs, or replaces owner-occupied homes damaged by Hurricane Helene.
The governor said through Renew NC's work, our partnership with volunteer organizations, we have repaired and rebuilt more than 1,000 homes for Western North Carolina. Stephanie McGrath, the deputy secretary of the Division of Community Revitalization, said that Chapman's homecoming reflects the purpose of the program. McGrath recently said, today is about Ms. Chapman and the joy of seeing her walk through the door of a safe, secure place to call home. With nearly four hundred more homes currently in preconstruction with the Renew NC Single Family Housing Program, we look forward to celebrating many more homecomings like this one in the months ahead.
According to the Renew NC program dashboard, as of july the fifteenth, The program had received thousands of applications from counties impacted by Hurricane Helene. The dashboard showed 7,924 active applications with 5,366 of them listed as inactive or ineligible. The program defines inactive or ineligible applications as those who have withdrawn or did not meet the program criteria. It is unclear where those who are deemed ineligible are currently living. The program reported 89 completed single-family homes, 71 homes under construction, and more than 390 applications and pre-construction.
The number reflects the continued scale of recovery more than 20 months after Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina. In Rutherford County, where flooding destroyed homes and infrastructure in communities along the Broad River, including very popular, well-known places like Chimney Rock, Lake Lore, as well as Rutherford and Renew NC reported 384 total applications, including 142 active applications. Neighboring counties also continue to have significant demand. Henderson County reported 958 total applications with more than 340 active. Buncombe County reported more than 2,100.
total applications with 765 having the active status and McDowell County reported 626 total applications with 163 currently active. Other western North Carolinas, Western North Carolina counties with the high number of applications include Haywood County as well, 508 total there, 163 active. Mitchell County, 335 total, 90 active. Yancey County, 474 with 118 active there. And Avery County with 344 total applications, 93 active at this point.
Renew NC officials said that the program works with local governments, community partners, and contractors to move eligible applicants through the process. According to the governor's office, they said recently to Carolina Journal, to facilitate moving homes into the construction phase, Renew NC is coordinating with the state of North Carolina, trusted community partners, and approved general contractors to provide temporary relocation assistance to single-family housing program applicants who have exhausted all. Other relocation options. The program prioritizes low to moderate income households, including seniors aged 62 and older, families with children under 18, and households with disabled members. The state has also launched additional recovery programs, including $55 million worth of infrastructure and funding opportunities for Western North Carolina communities and $70 million for a multi-family construction and repair program for affordable rental housing.
Renew NC also created a commercial district revitalization program to assist businesses and local economies damaged by Helene. The recovery process includes a federally required design to prevent duplication of benefits when homeowners have received other disaster assistance. Applicants must verify any previous assistance, including fundraisers, before receiving final awards, and any unresolved duplication issues must be addressed before moving forward. While state officials continue to point to completed home as evidence of progress, many homeowners, thousands, remain in the application and review process throughout the program.
However, for Miss Chapman, the milestone marks a return to stability after losing the home that she had known for nearly three decades. We continue to keep a very close eye on recovery efforts in western North Carolina as we approach the month of September and hit the two-year mark of the devastation and destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Helene. We'll be keeping you up to date with that over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And as always, right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Lots of places can expose you to identity theft.
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Terms apply. It's 537. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBTA topic getting a lot of discussion in some of our major cities across North Carolina over the last couple of months. Teen Takeovers. This is prompting local governments across the state to look at some of their curfew and policies as it relates to those under the age of 18 years old.
One of the more recent examples as thousands of young people flooded Raleigh's Briar Creek and Glenwood South areas over the July the 4th weekend, leaving police to respond to shootings, fights, arrests, and recovered firearms. A similar gathering as similar gatherings continue across the state. North Carolina cities are facing growing pressure to crack down on large social media-driven youth gatherings known as teen takeovers. The gatherings Continue to draw concern from local officials as crowds of teenagers converge on downtown areas, parks, and nightlife districts, with some incidents escalating into fights, gunfire arrests, and curfew violations. John Guzay, a senior fellow in legal studies at the John Locke Foundation, said that North Carolina law defines a riot as a public disturbance involving three or more people whose violent or disorderly conduct or imminent threat of such conduct results in the injury or property damage or creates a clear and present danger of injury or damage.
By that standard, many and possibly most of these teen takeovers could be considered riots legally. William Allen, the grassroots outreach coordinator at the John Locke Foundation and a former North Carolina police officer, said that these unplanned gatherings present major challenges for law enforcement. Allen said it can be very difficult. To manage a mass-scale event or riot like what happened on Saturday, July the 4th in Raleigh. Especially since this came without any formal warning to the law enforcement community.
In our state capitol, Police Chief Erico Boyce told the Raleigh City Council at a recent meeting that an estimated 8,000 young people gathered across Briar Creek and Glenwood South over the July the 4th weekend, where four shootings were reported. Boyce recently told the council, the actions of what we saw Saturday was something I've never seen in my 26 years here at the Raleigh Police Department. What happened across our city on the 4th of July is both heartbreaking and unacceptable. We remain committed to identifying those responsible, holding them accountable, and working alongside our community to prevent this from happening again. The police chief described the teens and young adults involved in the Raleigh gatherings as unruly, undisciplined, and unsupervised.
The size of the crowd was not the only challenge facing law enforcement. As Boyce said, we were prepared for crowd size. What we were not prepared for was the amount of firearms that were recovered off of individuals. Boyce said that the police made 29 arrests and recovered 11 firearms and had four juvenile petitions currently pending. Following the Raleigh events, Boyce Called for a curfew of those 17 and younger, along with additional regulations, possible backup restrictions, youth programming, and stronger monitoring of social media.
Raleigh Mayor Jeanette Cowell said that the city council would begin drafting a curfew ordinance, though the earliest a curfew could be implemented would be in August, as the mayor there said that she would be willing to use emergency measures if a similar incident occurred before then. She recently, she told during the discussion during the city council meeting, the mayor said this entire council is backing you and the police department on this curfew. The Raleigh violence has put a sharper focus on a problem that local leaders say is not just isolated to the capital city. In Greenville, North Carolina, Mayor P.J. Conley issued a state of emergency in late June, establishing a temporary curfew for juveniles under 18 in the city's.
Downtown area. The order barred unaccompanied juveniles from the designated downtown area. This move came after Greenville officials said that the city had experienced a gathering similar to a teen takeover event that had been seen in other cities and had received information about possible additional gatherings. In a social media post online, the mayor urged parents to keep their children away from the downtown areas. and these potential events and said that young people need stronger guidance and accountability from adults.
Mayor PJ Conley said in a statement announcing the curfew that it was meant to give law enforcement additional tools while protecting public safety, particularly for young people. The mayor said this protection of our citizens, especially our youth, is the city's top priority. This temporary curfew and additional authority provides law enforcement with additional tools and will help us maintain a safe environment for them. The Greenville Proclamation also authorized police to restrict or deny access to streets or areas when needed to protect public safety. Violations of the emergency restrictions, those that do violate, could be charged with a misdemeanor crime.
The mayor pretty blunt on social media saying, I'm just going to say it. If you have a child under the age of 18 who is planning to attend a teen takeover event downtown, I would strongly encourage you to tell them to stay home. I can't imagine being. 15 to 17 years old and choosing to go downtown at night, creating situations that strain our police department and disrupt our community. We need parents, mentors, coaches, teachers, and families to step up to be a positive role model who teach young people right from wrong.
It's disappointing that we have reached this point where this event has to be said. Our kids need guidance, accountability, and expectations, and it starts at home. Rant over. Writing there officially from Mayor of PJ Conley and his social media activity. The Charlotte Mecklenburg police responded in June to a gathering of more than 200 teenagers in downtown Charlotte, resulting in 24 arrests, including 23 juveniles.
Police also cited 13 parents for contributing to juvenile delinquency. Under Charlotte's existing curfew ordinance, children younger than 13 must be off the public streets. By 10 p.m., while teenager while teens aged 13 to 15 must be home by 11.
However, there could be some changes to that very shortly. In a statement posted on social media, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Chief Estella Patterson, who used to be the police chief in Raleigh, warned parents about the potential consequences of these gatherings. Patterson said: if your child is out late at night participating in an organized takeover, they are not in a safe environment. These gatherings have led to violence, property damage, and innocent people getting hurt. Parents, if your child is out contributing to violence or committing illegal activity, you can be charged.
We need your help in keeping our community and your children safe. Know where your kids are at, know who they are with, and know what they are doing. The issue has also drawn attention, no surprise, from Charlotte City leaders. The City Council Safety Committee held a special emergency meeting back on Tuesday, July the 14th, to discuss possible responses to some of these juvenile curfew violations. At the meeting, the police chief and Estella Patterson warned that consequences could become fatal if officials fail to address the growing problem.
Patterson, very bluntly at the meeting, said, my specific concern is that if we don't get a handle on this, the consequences may become fatal. Trying to mitigate these takeovers is taxing on personnel resources, and while we can put a price on those resources, Sources, we cannot put a price on the lives that might be taken if we don't act swiftly to revise this ordinance. While city leaders are considering curfews or new restrictions, John Guzay adds that the state may already have legal tools to respond to violent or disorderly gatherings. Guzay told the Carolina Journal: It's possible that North Carolina may need to modify existing statutes or create new offenses to address teen takeovers. But I would suspect it would be more efficient to focus on enforcing the laws that are already on the books.
That means deploying more police officers as peacekeepers in areas where these gatherings are likely to happen and having prosecutors and judges who are willing to hold offenders accountable after the fact. William Allen from the John Locke Foundation added that juvenile offenders can pose additional challenges because the process differs from that of adult criminal cases. Allen said that alone causes more challenges for law enforcement officers. Allen said that juvenile cases often involve additional steps, including a complaint to a juvenile counselor, a possible formal petition, appointment of an attorney, and custodial or other hearings, depending on the seriousness of the case. In Charlotte, recent discussions, as I just mentioned, have taken place at some recent meetings with the Charlotte City Council getting one step closer to implementing a 9 p.m.
curfew for anyone under the age of 18. We will continue to watch as that process plays out.
However, it is important to note that the issue is not just limited to North Carolina. Cities across the country have been grappling with large youth-led gatherings organized or amplified through social media. Similar incidents have been reported this summer in cities across the country. In Pensacola, Florida, police said a 4th of July teen takeover ended in a shooting that killed a 19-year-old and injured 7. Six others.
In Newport Beach, California, officials reported more than 400 arrests after thousands of juveniles and young adults flooded the peninsula during what officials described as a TikTok takeover.
So, this is something that governments are grappling with across the country and here in North Carolina. You can read some additional details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline: NC Cities Crack Down on Teen Takeovers after Raleigh violence. You're great at protecting your data, but lots of places could still expose you to identity theft. I thought it was safe.
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terms apply. Good morning again. It's 5:54. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT taking a look at the legislative calendar. We are expecting another week of not really much activity, if any, in the North Carolina General Assembly.
However, as we turn the calendar into the final month of July, we are expecting lawmakers to make their way back to the General Assembly. One week from today, both the House and Senate have sessions that are set to begin at 12 noon, as what we are hearing over at Carolina Journal indicates that lawmakers could spend as just a couple of weeks, maybe two, three weeks in Raleigh as we head into the portions of early August. And that should be it for the remainder of the General Assembly's legislative short session here over the next couple of weeks as lawmakers. In the General Assembly, the entirety of the North Carolina House and Senate will be on the ballot coming up in November. Our General Assembly re-elected every two years.
Lawmakers, as you would imagine, want to be back in their district campaigning and fundraising ahead of the very pivotal midterm election coming up here in the month of November. And so there does remain a movement on a variety of different priorities, including that major elections bill that we have talked about over the last couple of weeks. There remains a major veto override in Senate Bill 50, dealing with constitutional carry that does remain stalled in the North Carolina House. As Republican legislative leaders, at this point, from all accounts, do not have the votes to override the veto from Governor Josh Stein back last year. And so, as lawmakers look to head back to Raleigh next week, those are some of the major priorities, probably a technical correction or two on the state budget that is.
A pretty typical as we saw that a major budget go through the legislative process over the last few weeks signed into law by Governor Josh Stein, not last week, but the week prior. And so it is going to be an interesting end of July, first couple of weeks of August, as lawmakers make their way back to the Capitol, round out the legislative short session, and then will be done until after the elections in November. What we have seen in years past, not immediately clear whether that will happen this year, is that lawmakers do convene and can convene after the elections in November as new lawmakers are not sworn in until the beginning of 2027.
So while we are expecting a pretty dead week in Raleigh in terms of legislative activities, we could see a pretty big ramp up in that as early as one week from today coming up on Monday, July the 27th. We'll be keeping a close eye on that. The Carolina Journal team will be down at the legislature and we'll keep you up to date right here on the Carolina Journal. News Hour. That's going to do it for a Monday 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.
