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 Thursday 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. As Western North Carolina continues recovering from Hurricane Helene, seven regional projects are set to receive a combined $34.2 million worth of federal grants aimed at rebuilding infrastructure, strengthening the workforce, and supporting long-term economic growth. Governor Josh Stein announced the awards earlier this week, saying that the funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, that is the EDA, will help communities move beyond immediate disaster recovery and invest in projects designed to strengthen the region's economy for years to come. Um The governor said during a statement, Western North Carolina is working hard to rebuild from Hurricane Helene, and these grants are going to help communities build on that momentum.
We are grateful to our federal partners for investing in the region's recovery and creating new opportunities for people and businesses. Let's keep at it and work together to build a stronger Western North Carolina. The grants are part of the EDA's fiscal year 2025 disaster supplemental grant program. Congress made approximately $1.5 billion available nationwide for communities that received major disaster declarations in both 2023 and 2024. The North Carolina governor's office said that the Stein administration partnered with local governments, colleges, and nonprofit organizations and private entities to support more than 20 EDA grant applications.
Following Hurricane Helene. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce in Paul Dabar said this week, President Trump is delivering on his promise to rebuild Southern communities impacted by hurricanes. Today's grant announcement in North Carolina invests in long-term economic growth and resiliency that will benefit generations in these communities. The Department of Commerce is committed to providing communities with the resources that they need to recover from the economic impact of natural disasters and encouraging public-private partnerships that drive economic growth.
The largest award is $29.2 million, which will fund construction of a new 70,000 square foot advanced manufacturing workforce and innovation hub through a partnership between the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and Buncombe County itself. State officials said that the facility will bring together universities, community colleges, and economic development organizations to expand workforce training and support advanced manufacturing opportunities in western North Carolina. The other funding includes for the town of Murphy, they will receive $2.1 million to construct a new lift, a new sewer lift station, which is intended to support local businesses. Western Carolina University will receive $1.2 million for infrastructure improvements to the WCU Cullowey Dam, supporting the area's recreational economy. The Land of Sky Council of Governments will receive $500,000 to expand recovery capacity for Madison, Buncombe, and Henderson counties.
The Western Piedmont Council of Governments is also set to receive half a million dollars there to establish a regional disaster recovery coordinator serving the communities affected by Hurricane Helene. Another Economic Development Commission will receive $400,000. That will be to conduct strategic planning focused on protecting major employers and critical Facilities from future natural disasters. And finally, Ash County is set to receive a little more than $267,000 for engineering, design, and permitting work associated with three shell buildings planned for the Ash Industrial Park. Matt Calabria, who is the director of Grow NC, said that the investments are intended to strengthen the region after emergency as emergency recovery work concludes.
He said in a statement, long after the immediate recovery work is done, economic opportunity will continue to shape the future of Western North Carolina. These investments will help communities build strong foundations for long-term growth. We need to keep investing in the people, businesses, and infrastructure that will carry this region forward for years to come. Sharon Decker, Grow NC's Senior Advisor for Long-Term Recovery. Said that the projects recognize the region's existing strengths while helping communities prepare for the future.
She said, in part, Western North Carolina has so many strengths that will power our recovery for years to come, from its people and small businesses to its natural beauty and vibrant communities. These investments recognize the incredible potential of this region and will help bring long-term recovery projects to life. We are grateful to our federal partners for recognizing what Western North Carolina has to offer and for helping us build a stronger future for the region. The announcement follows an additional additional state investments focused on rebuilding infrastructure serving Western North Carolina and its various business districts. Earlier this year, the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
announced that they would be allocating nearly $8.5 million in new small business infrastructure grants, also known as SM Biz Awards, which are supporting 13 recovery projects across Ashe, Caldwell, Jackson and Mitchell counties. The latest funding will bring the total SM Biz awards to nearly $30 million since November of 2025, a little more than a year after Hurricane Helene and when these projects originally began. The program was created with a $55 million appropriation approved by the North Carolina General Assembly and provides grants of up to $1 million to local governments for infrastructure projects that directly support commercial districts and economic corridors in western North Carolina. The governor said that restoring public infrastructure is essential for small businesses. That is something that has been echoed by many that have been part of this very challenging recovery efforts in Western North Carolina.
The governor said small business can't operate without reliable infrastructure. These investments will help communities repair essential systems, reduce future risk, and ensure that local entrepreneurs Have the dependable services that they need to serve customers and grow. Commerce Secretary Lee Lilly said collaboration between state and local governments does remain central to recovery efforts, saying in part, rebuilding after a disaster requires both urgency and partnership. Through this program, we're working hand in hand with local leaders to restore the systems that keep their economies functioning day in and day out. The Department of Commerce also modified the program to allow recipients to receive funding upfront rather than waiting for reimbursements, a change that state officials said it was intended to accelerate construction and reduce project delays.
And unfortunately, we have covered a lot of project delays over the last almost 24 months in Western North Carolina. The new federal funding also builds on other recovery initiatives announced during the past year. Earlier this month, The Cleveland County Community College received a $1.7 million EDA grant from the federal government. That was to support construction of a healthcare workforce training facility in Shelby. Back in July, or earlier in July, I should say, Governor Josh Stein signed Senate Bill 257, enacting North Carolina's first full state budget in more than two years.
That budget, coming out of the North Carolina General Assembly, included more than $700 million for Hurricane Helene recovery, representing the state's third largest recovery package since Stein took office in January of 2025.
Meanwhile, the Department of Commerce continues accepting applications only for a couple more days through August the 4th for its Commercial District Revitalization Program, which offers grants to support local governments and nonprofit organizations for projects intended to strengthen commercial districts and support economic recovery in western North Carolina. It has been a very long road travel. No pun intended for those in western North Carolina. As coming up in late September, we will be officially hitting the two-year mark since Hurricane Helene first showed up in Western North Carolina and laid out so much devastation and destruction, killing more than 108 people in the state of North Carolina, causing an estimated $60 billion worth of damage, wiping away entire communities and devastating businesses, families, and towns throughout the western half of our state. We continue to track these recovery, the recovery process that continues at a variety of different levels, money from FEBA and the federal government, these new grants here today from the U.S.
Economic Development Administration, state government as well. We continue to keep an eye on all of those efforts over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. And as always, right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. This Monday.com ad was created by a team of people and 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 521. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. Turning our attention to the North Carolina General Assembly this morning, the North Carolina Senate passed a pair of rewritten election bills that would shorten the early voting for primary elections, require the state auditor to review election procedures across all 100 counties.
Talked about this earlier in the week with Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation. We'll start with House Bill 958, which is just called election law changes. It passed 28 to 13 on a party-line vote, with House Bill 834, known as SBOE Administrative Changes, passing 42 to nothing. Strong bipartisan support there.
Because senators revised much of the language previously adopted by the House, representatives must vote to concur. With the changes before either bill can go to Democratic Governor Josh Stein, with the House scheduled to return to Raleigh next week. Among the most significant changes awaiting House approval is a provision in House Bill 958 that would reduce early voting from 17 days, which right now is the second longest in the country, to 10 days for primaries, second primaries, as well as runoff and municipal elections. Andy Jackson, the director of the John Locke Foundation's Civitas Center for Public Integrity, argues that shortening the early voting period would reduce the financial and administrative burden on county election boards. Jackson said in part, early voting is not free.
County election boards must stretch their budgets to cover personnel, equipment, and in some cases, short-term facility rentals. Each additional day of voting requires them to stretch that much further. A responsible compromise would be to reduce the early voting period from 17 days to 10. Senator Warren Daniel, the Republican from Burke County, made a similar argument, saying that the reduction would ease the administrative burden on county election boards and candidates in elections that typically produce very low voter turnout. Democrats unsuccessfully sought to preserve the 17-day period through an amendment during the floor debate that took place this week in Raleigh.
Senator Muhammad, the Democrat from Mecklenburg County, argued that primary elections are increasingly divisive because many legislative and congressional districts strongly favor one party. He said in part during the debate, our primaries are critical in deciding who runs this legislature, and our primaries have been critical in who runs the United States Congress.
So let people come out and vote. Don't shorten that period. Republicans tabled Muhammad's amendment to retain the 17 voting day period in a 28 to 13 vote. House Bill 958 would also direct the state auditor to conduct post-election performance audits for election systems and produce in randomly selected counties. Every county board of elections would have to undergo an audit at least once every six years.
The reviews could examine things like a voter list maintenance, voting equipment testing. Ballot records, chain of custody documentation, and handling of absentee and provisional ballots. It is important to note that throughout this process, as we discussed with Dr. Andy Jackson, this is an audit of the process as it relates to voting, not votes that are actually being cast themselves. And the auditor would have no ability throughout this process to look at voter outcomes.
Senator Val Applewhite, the Democrat from Cumberland County, argued that this arrangement would create a conflict because the state auditor already makes appointments to the state board of elections, which oversees the county boards that would be audited. Applewhite said he audits his own people. He grades his own homework. How does anybody perform oversight on themselves? Representative Daniels said that the provision is not intended to give state auditor Dave Bollock the authority to overturn election results.
He pointed to language specifying that the audits would occur after. Results are certified and cannot be used to contest any election outcomes. Daniel quoted the bill by saying, no findings in audits under this section shall be used as grounds to challenge the final result of an election. Dr. Andy Jackson said during a committee meeting in which he spoke in favor of these provisions that it would make North Carolina's elections better run and more secure, adding that the performance audit provision was especially welcome.
He went on to say, to be clear, performance audits are not about influencing election outcomes. As noted in the bill, performance audits are conducted after the certification of general elections. These audits are designed to identify and correct systematic problems in how our elections are conducted. The House passed an earlier version of House Bill 958 by a 66 to 47 margin vote after weeks of Republican concerns, Democrat opposition, and repeated revisions. This version includes provisions addressing military and overseas ballots, foreign money in referendum campaigns, absentee ballot processing, and deadlines for resolving problems with absentee and provisional ballots.
The Senate removed many of those provisions while retaining the performance audits, voter list maintenance changes, and long and longer party affiliation requirements. Senators also added the reduction in primary early voting.
Some of the absentee and provisional ballot efforts resurfaced in House Bill 834. Senators removed the bill's original language and replaced it with a package to governing ballot processing, absentee ballot delivery, and judicial review. of state Board of Elections decisions. Senator Brad Overkash, the Republican from Gaston County, described the rewrite bill as making, quote, targeted changes to help the Board of Elections properly administer elections in the state. House Bill 834 would extend several post-election deadlines from three business days to five.
Voters would receive additional time to correct missing information on registration forms, provide required information, and fix certain problems with absentee or provisional ballots. The bill would also prevent an absentee or early ballot from being counted if the voter died after casting it, but before 11:59 p.m. on the day before the election. Most of the major provisions in both bills would set to take effect January 1 of 2027, meaning that these changes would not apply to North Carolina's upcoming November 2026 bill. Midterm election.
The House next week now must decide whether to accept both Senate rewrites or seek additional changes before the bills advance to the governor's desk. We've seen a lot of back and forth on these bills over the last couple of weeks, and it is going to be very interesting to see if the North Carolina House just moves forward with what senators have approved or if they try and take a stab at it again in committee and make additional changes. If they do, it will not only have to pass the House but go back to the Senate and could very likely delay this process for months moving forward as lawmakers do not expect to spend much more time in Raleigh for the remainder of the year as they look to wrap up their business here in the legislative short session. You can read more details on this legislation. We've got the details over on our website this morning.
CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline: NC Senate passes election bills shortening early voting, adding all Audits. This Monday.com ad was created by a team of people and AI agents. Reese, our content agent, wrote the copy based on our best practices, like mentioning Monday.com three times. That was the second.
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT, we covered a story earlier this week as it relates to energy bills. Duke Energy looking at rate increases of nearly 9.5% over the next two years. We'll continue to track that. This week as well, we learned that Duke Energy has joined the Trump administration's rate payer protection pledge, promising to support measures intended to prevent households and small businesses from paying for power plants and grid infrastructure changes that are needed to serve rapidly expanding data centers.
The utility's participation drew praise from Democrat Governor Josh Stein and Democrat Jeff Jackson, who must convert its voluntary federal commitment into legally but enforceable protections. By the North Carolina Utilities Commission, so both the AG and governor are calling for that. The pledge calls on technology companies, utilities, and data center developers to ensure large energy users build, bring, or buy the additional power needed to serve their facilities and pay the full cost of new transmission, distribution, and other infrastructure. Participants also agree that pursuant separate rate structures require large customers to pay for power and infrastructure reserved for them, even when they ultimately use less electricity than expected. The White House says that more than 300 organizations have committed to the pledge, including utilities, electric co-ops, major technology companies, and data center developers.
The pledge also calls for investments in local workforce development and cooperation with grid. Operators to improve reliability during electricity shortages. Duke announced its participation on July the 23rd, alongside a broader effort to promote what the company calls its Customer Protection Plus framework. The CEO of Duke Energy and Harry Siders recently said data centers will provide billions of dollars in customer benefits. Duke Energy remains laser focused on ensuring that data centers not only pay their fair share, but also yield savings for our existing customers.
Duke says that the framework requires engineering studies before new data centers are connected to the system and relies on long-term agreements intended to protect existing customers. Those agreements can include customer-funded connection costs, upfront financial security, termination charges, and provisions allowing temporarily curtailed electricity used during emergencies. The company argues that revenue from large new customers can exceed the cost of serving them, producing savings for other customers while supporting investments in power generation and the overall electric grid. The Duke CEO went on to say, we've always put our customers first, and these agreements are designed to do exactly that. Through long-term commitments, financial protections, and careful planning, we're working to ensure growth supports reliability and creates lasting value for our Customers.
According to Sasha Wantraub, Duke Energy's executive vice president and chief customer officer said that the company is examining the potential benefits of developing data centers amid the industry's enormous electricity demands. The chief customer officer said, a lot of the discussion around data centers focuses on how much energy they use. We're equally focused on what the growth can mean for all customers. We are committed to an ongoing collaborative and transparent partnership with our customers, regulators, and other stakeholders to ensure projects create meaningful customer benefit, all while ensuring the energy system is prepared for future growth. The governor and the attorney general welcomed Duke's participation, but said that the company's contracts and public commitments are not substitutes for an enforceable rate structure.
Jeff Jackson said in part, Duke. Just promised the federal government that it won't ship the cost of data centers onto families. We agree, but a promise in Washington doesn't lower a power bill in North Carolina. We're calling on Duke to make the same promises to the Utilities Commission in writing where it can be enforced. Governor Josh Stein echoed those calls, calling on Duke and state utility regulators to establish a separate tariff for data centers and other large electrical users.
The governor is saying, I am pleased to see that Duke Energy has signed on to the ratepayer protection pledge.
Now, Duke Energy must make the voluntary pledge real. The North Carolina Utilities Commission and Duke Energy must create a legally binding large load tariff to charge data centers their full freight. And they must establish a program that allows data centers to directly select and pay for their generation. The governor continued by saying North Carolinians are struggling to make ends meet, and data centers must pay their own way to protect family from rising electricity costs. A large load tariff would place data centers in a separate customer class with minimum payment requirements and other safeguards that would be intended to prevent infrastructure costs from being shifted to residential customers if a proposed facility is delayed, canceled, or consumes less electricity than projected.
Duke Energies Carolina, the Utilities Commission, public staff, and other parties recently agreed to participate in a fast-track process to consider these large load tariffs. Jeff Jackson's office plans to participate in the process and is separately asking regulators to create a distinct rate class for data centers in Duke Energies in the Duke Energy progress territory. John Sanders, who is the director of the John Locke Foundation Center for Food, Power, and Life, said that policymakers should consider a less regulatory approach that allows large users to secure their own electricity. Sanders told the Carolina Journal: keeping North Carolina's power grid reliable and shielding ratepayers from rising costs while still allowing data centers and other large load industry customers to meet their power needs is a challenge for policymakers, but they do not have to solve everything. Everything.
They can give the private sector the freedom to build, bring, or buy power from systems off the grid. Duke's pledge comes after North Carolina lawmakers spent much of the legislative session debating how to prevent data center expansion from increasing costs for households and small businesses across the state. Lawmakers advanced Senate Bill 730, that was the Ratepayer Protection Act, which would require large data centers to cover certain energy and infrastructure costs while imposing additional requirements related to water use, local development approvals, and grid reliability. The House passed its version of the bill in June, but the Senate has not agreed to the changes. The measure remains in the Senate Rules Committee.
Lawmakers also considered House Bill 1213, the bipartisan Protect Taxpayers and Consumers Act. Which originally sought to eliminate several sales and use tax exemptions for qualifying data centers. That bill followed Stein's request from his Energy Policy Task Force to examine whether North Carolina data center incentives should be repealed or modified. The final state budget stopped short of repealing all the incentives proposed in House Bill 1213, but eliminated the exemption for electricity consumed by data centers. The legislative efforts reflect broader public support for placing a greater share of the energy burden on the data centers themselves.
Nearly four-fifths of voters, 78.2%, agree that new data center facilities should have to provide for their own energy generation. That is according to recent Carolina Journal polling. Of those surveyed, 59.8, almost 60%, strongly support the measure, with fewer than 10% opposing requiring data centers to provide their own electricity. Sanders said that the idea is worth considering as lawmakers look for ways to protect ratepayers from costs associated with the new data center demand. He told the Carolina Journal, this is an idea worth exploring in order to keep other customers from shouldering the cost of constructing new power plants to meet new demands, specifically from data centers.
That said, changing the law to allow data centers voluntarily to supply or contract their own power independent from the grid would shield other customers from the risks without requiring special contracts and terms with utilities. Duke's pledge places the utility publicly behind the broad principle that data centers should pay the costs they create. The next Dispute will be whether Duke Energy's existing contracts provide sufficient protection or whether the Utilities Commission must place those commitments into a separate enforceable rate structure. This again all comes on the heels of another 9.5% proposed rate increase from Duke Energy over the next two years. We will continue to track the progress on the rate increase as it will make its way in front of the Utilities Commission over the next couple of months and some of the additional information here as Duke Energy says they are on board with the Trump administration's rate payer protection pledge.
We'll keep an eye on both of those stories over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com and right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour. 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.
Monday.com Ah. Good morning again. It's 553. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. State Representative Aaron Perre, the Republican from Wake County, says she has raised concerns with the Wake County public school system and its leadership after receiving complaints from parents and educators about a transgender music teacher at a southern Wake County elementary school.
In a series of social media posts this week, Perre said that her office has received emails and phone calls regarding the biological male who dresses as a woman and teaches music. Perret wrote in part, I have brought your concerns to the attention of the Wake County public school system leadership. Perre made it abundantly clear that she has no issue with how adults choose to live outside of work, but argued that schools have a responsibility to shield young children from discussion. surrounding gender identity. She said, I don't care how adults choose to live outside of the professional workday, but I will always protect our children.
Perret also said that she is considering introducing legislation that would require sex-based professional attire for public school employees, arguing that Wake County schools do not appear to have a policy addressing the issue. Saying maybe it's time to introduce a bill requiring gender-appropriate professional attire for public school employees, as the Wake County public school system does not have a policy addressing this issue as far as I can tell. Speaking with the Carolina Journal. Perez said that public school employee standards should prioritize maintaining an age-appropriate environment for younger students. Perez told the Carolina Journal: it is important that public school employees' standards prioritize the protection of children from being exposed to more complex and mature gender identity questions and concepts at too young of an age.
She also said that she believes schools can respect employees while addressing parents' concerns about what children are exposed to in elementary school. She said, every employee deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. And at the same time, parents need to be able to send their children to elementary school, feeling assured that their 5- to 11-year-old isn't being exposed to confusing age-inappropriate topics that they are not yet ready for. Paray's comments come just weeks after the North Carolina General Assembly overrode Democrat Governor Josh Stein's veto of Senate Bill 227, legislation eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion. Those are DEI efforts in North Carolina's public schools.
The new law places limits on DEI offices, training, and certain instructional practices in K-12 schools, reflecting a broader push by Republican lawmakers to refocus public education policy. After these series of posts on social media this week, Pere also shared a screenshot of a social media. Media message that she received from an unnamed individual. Perret went through the process of redacting that information, which read, I hope you end up kirked. A likely reference to the late 2025 assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Perre quipped back to that by saying, I woke up this morning to a death threat. I guess some people really want grown men wearing dresses while teaching elementary school children in public school. You can read more on this. We do have, unfortunately, a picture of that screenshot and more of the commentary there from Representative Aaron Perre, the Republican from Wake County. Those details available this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
Look for the headline: Perret Raises Questions About Professional Standards in NC Public Schools. That's going to do it for a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, 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.
