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It's five oh five, and welcome into a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk one hundred seven point nine FM WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. Democrat Governor Josh Stein signed House Bill Three, Relief at the Pump Act, at the farm of North Carolina's 11th U.S. House Democrat candidate Jamie Ager.
That is in Fairview, North Carolina, Buncombe County, on Friday morning, as fuel prices continue to climb for drivers across the state of North Carolina. This was all the rage last week. We talked about it in great detail here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. The House passed the measure. In a 111 to one vote on Wednesday, with Representative Pricey Harrison, the Democrat from Guilford County, casting the lone dissenting vote in the House, while the North Carolina Senate approved it unanimously, 41 to zero, later Wednesday afternoon last week.
House Bill 3 temporarily suspends the state's 41 cent per gallon motor fuel excise tax from officially October the 10th through November the 30th, and requires consumer prices to reflect the reflect the tax savings, except when a retailer's fuel costs include taxes that occurred before the suspension. It also codifies the governor's direction to the Department of Revenue. To temporarily suspend the penalties against farmers and other users who use red dye diesel or off-road diesel on state highways, it frees farmers from having to pay any motor tax on that particular diesel and ensures that the Department of Transportation and the Department of Environmental Quality will be held harmless for any loss of revenue. The governor said at Friday's press conference, "quote." I'm signing this bill into law because the cost of living is too high for too many North Carolinians. Grocery bills are going up, power bills are going up, healthcare bills are going up, and thanks to the Trump administration's disastrous war of choice against Iran, gas prices are sky high.
The average price of gas in North Carolina is four dollars and eleven cents per gallon. Diesel at six dollars. A gallon.
So when we have a chance to bring down the cost for families, we need to take it. But taking action four weeks before an election is not enough. This law cannot be the end of our work to lower folks' cost of living. Regardless of some of the concerns there from Governor Stein, he did sign the legislation anyway. The governor also mentioned that the high cost of housing and that North Carolina will need to make more than 750 thousand new homes to meet the demand of people moving to the state of North Carolina.
He also talked about the high cost of childcare, healthcare, and electricity. Taking a jab at the North Carolina General Assembly for. Passing laws that he says makes those prices higher. He also criticized the reduction of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, and its benefits because of the one big beautiful bill act passed back in the summer of 2025, as well as high grocery costs due to the Trump administration's tariffs. The governor said these are real problems that deserve a real response from our elected officials.
Not just when a pollster shows them something really bad. As a result, for the upcoming election, following a similar line that we heard from House and Senate Democrats last week ahead of the session in Raleigh, the governor pivoted to actions he has taken since taking office in January of 2025, including more than 6.5 billion dollars worth of medical debt being erased for two and a half million nor. North Carolinians, which he said is the largest medical debt relief effort in the history of the United States, his creation of the bipartisan Affordable Healthcare Commission, and reduced power bills for families in the Energy Star Saver North Carolina program. The governor continued with his criticism of the General Assembly's July 2025 override of his veto of the Power Bill Reduction Act, which repealed North Carolina's interim 2030 carbon reduction mandate, which is projected to save customers and consumers some fifteen billion dollars by eliminating costly compliance measures. He claimed that the legislature had failed to act on.
The measures that he had proposed, like a tax cut for working families, a refundable child and dependent care tax cut, tuition-free community college for students preparing for high-demand jobs, and free school breakfast across the state, the governor said that lawmakers have instead protected tax giveaways for corporations and the wealthiest North Carolinians. The governor making this these. The comments off last Friday in Buncombe County very political, saying in part, "The legislature priorities are upside down." So yes, temporarily suspending the gas tax is a small step forward. It matters to families who are just trying to make it until the next paycheck. What matters more is what legislators do next, now, next week, next year, any time.
I will work with anyone, Republican, Democrat, or unaffiliated, who wants to make life easier and better for North Carolinians.
So let's get to work. House Speaker Destin Hall, the Republican from Caldwell County, released a statement on the passage of the bill after the governor's signature on Friday, saying hardworking North Carolinians need relief at the gas pump, and help is on the way. Years of responsible budgeting have put North Carolina in a position to provide meaningful relief when families need it most, and pausing fuel taxes is another way House Republicans are working. To make our state more affordable for everyone, the measure includes an exception for fuel already purchased with the tax included. Retailers are not required to immediately reduce prices on a gallon of gasoline or diesel on which the motor fuel tax was accrued before the suspension took effect.
Essentially, meaning. Any gas station that filled up their tanks prior to the signing on Friday will still have higher taxes and that higher gas price until they're refueled, which should be within a couple of days. North Carolina, the state itself, relies heavily on the motor fuel tax to fund transportation. With the current state budget anticipating nearly one point nine two billion dollars in motor fuel tax revenues for the highway fund. And another six hundred and thirty-six point four million dollars for the highway trust fund during this same fiscal year.
The temporary pause is expected to reduce transportation-related revenues by roughly three hundred and sixty-two point three million dollars, according to State Senator Michael Lazara, the Republican from Onslow County.
However, rather than leaving a gap in the state's transportation budget, lawmakers, as part of this legislative effort, Legislation passed last week, signed by Governor Josh Stein on Friday, it will replace the foregone revenue with funds from the state's stabilization and inflation reserve.
So we'll see about three hundred and sixty million dollars transferred from that reserve over to the Department of Transportation and their various funds. Checking AAA this morning, the current cost for a gallon of gasoline in the state of North Carolina is three dollars in ninety-one cents.
So we've seen a reduction there of about fifteen cents on average since we were last together last week, discussing some of the details on this legislation. As more and more stations go through the process over the next couple of days of having a tanker trucks bring in additional gasoline to fill up their tanks, those prices should continue to fall across North Carolina. We'll be keeping an eye on. The details you can read more from a governor Josh Stein's signing event, which was more of a seemingly a political stump than anything else. You can read those details over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal dot com.
Look for the headlines: Stein signs gas tax relief bill takes aim at GOP lawmakers. This is Rick Burgess from the Rick Burgess Show. I want to talk to you for a second about something most of us put on autopilot: car insurance. If you're just letting your Auto renew year after year without shopping around. I'm telling you, you are probably throwing money away.
Rates change all the time, and staying loyal to one company can end up costing you big time. That's why you need to go check out Insurify. I went to insurify.com to test it out myself, and I was blown away by how easy it is. In about two minutes, totally free, you can compare actual real-time quotes from over a hundred top insurance companies, all side by side in one place. No endless phone calls, no pushy.
Sales pitches. Here's what I really love. Insurify doesn't just help you once and walk away. They actually keep monitoring your rates in the background and alert you whenever prices drop, so you never miss out on a better deal down the road. Millions of drivers have already used Insurify to stop overpaying, and there's no reason you shouldn't too.
Do yourself and your wallet a favor. Go see what you could save right now at insurify.com. That's insurify.com. It's five twenty. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, one and seven point nine FM, WBT.
We've got an update on a story we brought you last week here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, dealing with Atrium Health and the State Health Plan. Pretty significant update here. The North Carolina State Health Plan, known as the SHP, has officially filed a lawsuit against Atrium Health. This is in Wake County Superior Court. They did that on Friday to stop the launch of a new program for state health plan members, which was scheduled to start January the first of next year.
The suit, which lists the state health plan, the office of the North Carolina state treasurer, and Treasurer Brad Briner in his official capacity as treasurer, seeks a temporary restraining order against what the state health plan caused an unlawful pricing scheme. Atrium said in a press release last week that its brand new health affordability protection program is intended to address the higher healthcare costs that state health plan member state health plans' new tiered provider structure imposes on patients seeking care at Atrium Health facilities. The state health plan contends that Atrium's affordability program not only violates state and federal law, but will also put the plan on a path to bankruptcy. The state treasurer told reporters after a council of state meeting last week that under state law, the state treasurer and the health plan have the authority to manage the plan, and that what Atrium is trying to do is manage its own benefits for its members. Reiner was very blunt, saying, "So you can see why that would be against the law." There's also a federal law called Stark, which essentially prohibits you from doing exactly what they're.
Referring to atrium, and so we think it's problematic from a lot of perspectives. Not not the least of which is it bankrupts the state health plan much sooner than it would if it was just left alone. And our whole job is to keep that around to benefit our members for the long run. This works against it. Through the new program, Atrium said that enrolled members will have the lowest copays and overall share of costs for care at any Atrium Health facility or provider, including primary and specialty care, outpatient and inpatient services, than any other health system across North Carolina.
Steve Smoot, who is the president of Advocate Health, who manages both the North Carolina and Georgia division of which Atrium is a part of, said in a press release last week that regardless of how Atrium Health is categorized under the state health plan's new structure, the new Atrium Health Affordability Protection Program is designed to ensure that members can continue receiving care from Atrium Health at the lowest cost share of Under the state health plan. According to a press release from the state health plan, it states state law assigns the treasurer and the treasurer alone the duty to set the plan's copays, deductibles, and co-insurance amounts. Atrium has never been given this authority yet. It believes it can change these amounts simply by posting new ones on its website. That is not how it works.
Briner followed up with reporters last week after the council of state. Meeting saying what Atrium is trying to do is pay copays on behalf of our members so that they can go to Atrium.
Sounds good, right? The problem is that our total share of costs go up by thirty to forty percent.
So you might be paying less tomorrow for your copay, but I assure you, you will pay a lot more the day after tomorrow, and that's the problem that we've been trying to deal with in managing the state health plan. The state health plan board of trustees voted in July on a new provider tier system, which includes preferred access, non-preferred, and out-of-network. Those who select those who select the preferred providers would save the most, while also saving the state health plan money as well. Which is a very relevant topic, as a 1.3 billion dollar deficit was projected for the state health plan coming up in 2027. But changes implemented by the board and the General Assembly were able to reverse that trend and bring the plan about 30 million dollars above its revenue rate.
That's according to the state health plan administrator in Tom Friedman, who spoke earlier. Who spoke about that earlier this year, saying that the Plan's original deficit was five hundred and seven million dollars in 2026, and between eight hundred and nine hundred million dollars in 2027. But things may be worse than first thought. Friday's press release said that due to even higher than anticipated healthcare cost increases over the last year, the plan is going to have a tough time staying in the black through the remainder of 2026. It also stated that while Atrium's The program could lower out-of-pocket costs for some members who receive care at its facilities.
It is not affordable for the plan, and in turn, its members in North Carolina taxpayers. The press release on Friday continued by saying it is intended to destabilize the perverted provider program and put the plan on a path to bankruptcy. Atrium will continue to charge the plan its current rates, which are now among the highest charged by any major hospital system. Every member, including those served by Atrium, will pay for those higher rates in the form of significant increased premiums and decreased benefits. The release also said that every taxpayer in the state will bear the burden of Atrium's proposal when additional funding is needed for the plan at the expense of other public programs, pay raises, and cost of living adjustments.
A spokesperson. For Advocate Health said in an emailed statement on Tuesday to the Carolina Journal, we designed the Atrium Health Affordability Protection Program to meet the needs of our patients in the North Carolina State Health Plan, teachers, first responders, and state employees. We are disappointed with the characterization of this program that it was designed to harm the financial stability of the plan. The Atrium Health Affordability Protection Program's sole purpose is to make healthcare more affordable for North Carolina's dedicated public servants and their family. The spokesperson said that in July, multiple proposals from Atrium submitted to match the same discounted rates offered to the plan by other providers within the preferred tier were rejected.
The spokesperson said, as a result, nearly 100,000 North Carolina State Health Plan members at Atrium Health would have faced substantially higher out-of-pocket costs to continue seeing the same physicians and care teams that they already know and trust. Doubling down and saying the Atrium Health Affordability Protection Program solves this problem by lowering member costs, not increasing them. Saying in essence, Atrium. Health is absorbing these additional costs so that the North Carolina State Health Plan members don't have to. The State Health Plan countered in its Friday release that while Atrium offered the plan discounts, quote they were never equal to what other systems offered, and that their offer came weeks after contracts had already been signed.
State health plan officials are also extending the open enrollment, which began or begins today, actually Monday, October the twelfth, and was scheduled to close on October the thirtieth. It is now extended the closure through Friday, November the sixth, as they say that they were blindsided by Atrium's proposal, and many of its members may have been as well. Officials say that the extension gives them time to ensure that they are choosing the best option. Option for themselves and their families with the state health plan. Also noting that the.
Atrium Health program does not affect coverage for Humana Medicare Advantage plan members that may be getting some of their services through Atrium Health. This situation has gone from zero to one hundred very quickly. It was just last week that Atrium Health made this announcement. We saw and heard some of the very blunt comments there from State Treasurer Brad Briner. We now have a lawsuit filed in the Wake County Superior.
Court as the state health plan, the North Carolina State's Treasurer's Office and the State Treasurer himself, Brad Briner, in his official capacity, are all listed on this lawsuit. It is not immediately clear how quickly this will be dealt with, but we do have a deadline. Obviously, coming up January the first, twenty twenty seven, is when some of these new rates are supposed to take effect. Open enrollment beginning today for those that are on the state health plan. We will be keeping a close eye on this as it.
Now, seemingly transitions into a legal issue. We'll keep you up to date with the details over on our website carolinajournal dot com, and as relevant, bring you updates right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. This is Rick Burgess from the Rick Burgess Show. I want to talk to you for a second about something most of us put on autopilot: car insurance. If you're just letting your policy auto renew year after year without shopping around, I'm telling you, you are probably throwing money away.
Rates change all the time, and staying loyal to one company. Can end up costing you big time. That's why you need to go check out Insurify. I went to Insurify. dot com to test it out myself, and I was blown away by how easy it is.
In about two minutes, totally free, you can compare actual real time quotes from over a hundred top insurance companies, all side by side in one place. No endless phone calls, no pushy sales pitches. Here's what I really love: Insurify doesn't just help you once and walk away. They actually keep monitoring your rates in the background. And alert you whenever prices drop, so you never miss out on a better deal down the road.
Millions of drivers have already used Insurify to stop overpaying, and there's no reason you shouldn't too. Do yourself and your wallet a favor. Go see what you could save right now at insurify. dot com. That's insurify.
dot com. It's 5:37. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good Monday morning to you.
Regardless of what election results look like on November the third, there is some major changes coming to the North Carolina General Assembly, more particularly the North Carolina Senate. Walks through some of those details this morning, Andrew Palmer. CarolinaJournal dot com joins us on the News Hour, going all the way back to March. Andrew, we kept an eye on a very influential primary here in North Carolina, up in Rockingham County. That is where Senate Leader Phil Berger has represented.
He lost his primary in March to Sheriff Sam Page, and so we've been tracking for months now the potential leadership changes in the Senate. What's the latest that you're tracking? Yeah. Hey, Nick. As so many of our listeners probably remember, that primary, like you mentioned, up in Guilford County back in March, was kind of a record-breaking primary in a number of ways for for North Carolina.
Right, the most expensive primary in state history, with you know millions of dollars being sent spent in both in favor and against Speaker Leader Senator Berger. Right, he's going on now 16 years in the Senate Pro Tem position. Since Republicans came to control the chamber in 2011, and so his defeat a real wake up call for a lot of Republicans across the state, and also, you know, I think points to I think the the frustration this year. He only lost by what ended up being less than two dozen votes after a recount and after some contested ballots came back. Right, so a very tight race there.
After millions of dollars, now the Senate is left without a leader looking into the beginning of next year. And over the past couple months, like you mentioned. Been trying to you know build down a list here. You know, thirty Republican senators currently representing, and who could be that next leader? And initially, there's a lot of hesitation, right?
You know, Berger is still elected through the end of this year, and so had another full session at the time in which he lost his primary to be the leader of the body. And so, voices were, I think, hesitant to speak up about their interest in the role. But as we get closer and closer to Berger's expiration date here after the November election, we hear we're hearing more and more voices say that they are interested in the role. And so, publicly now, we've got four. Different individual senators who have expressed their interest in the role.
Senate Majority Leader Michael Lee, out of New Hanover County, Deputy President Pro Tem. Senator Heise out of Mitchell County out west, Senator Ted Todd Johnson out of Union County, and then also this week Senator Brent Jackson out of Sampson announced his interest in the role as well. And so four different senators this point come out publicly express their interest in this role, and so it'll be interesting to follow this as we get closer to election day, November third. Yeah, and this has been something that obviously we've been tracking. But as you just kind of noted there, Andrew, it has been a little bit on the back burner because we we knew that this was going to come forward.
The election, the primary election, happened so much earlier this year. But we did still see, obviously, a very lengthy general assembly session that you tracked in great detail. The passage of the state budget, but we are getting every ever closer to when Senate Leader Phil Berger's time in Raleigh will be done. Obviously, this isn't. Incumbent on Republicans keeping control of the North Carolina Senate, which does seem highly likely based on our Civitas partisan index and a couple of the other details that we have been following as it relates to how the the election may shake out.
This the kind of last minute announcement by Senator Brent Jackson, the Republican from Sampson County, last week. What is what is he saying? Yeah, the Senator Jackson, one of the longing longer serving senators in the body currently, and you know a farmer from Eastern North Carolina, and he's been on the forefront of a lot of the agricultural issues, a lot of the environmental issues, and and handling a lot of the hurricane recovery efforts, especially on in Eastern North Carolina over the past fifteen years now, and so him coming out and saying this, I think, caught a lot of us off guard. He had his name had not been circulated. As much as the others, I think you know.
At this point, we've heard a lot about Senator Michael Lee and Senator Ralph Hyes as kind of the presumptive potential frontrunners in this race. And so, his announcement here, I think, came to the surprise of many. But you know, when you look at his qualifications, and he currently chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, so handling the budget, and then also, like I mentioned, Agriculture Committee there. You know, kind of makes sense for his candidacy to run in this kind of pro-agriculture. I've been here more experienced, laying and potentially say, you know, we've had Berger, you know, in his vast experience in this role.
I can kind of fill in in that same way with my vast experience in comparison to some of the others, and so definitely a newer face in this in this moment in this election. And it'll be interesting to see if he's able to pick up some momentum here as we get closer to June. Yeah, no question about that. Let's talk about the other three individuals. You already mentioned them back just a couple of minutes ago.
We'll take them as they're listed in your article over at CarolinaJournal dot com. How about Senate Majority Leader Michael Lee, the Republican from New Hanover? What are we hearing from there? Yeah. Also, one of the chairs on Senate Probes and Education, he has been out on the campaign trail, you know, talking about his interest in this job now for months.
And so, spoke with some folks down the general assembly this week, and they said, you know, at a campaign event, he seemed very leaderly this week. And you know, as he is out on the trail, continuing to talk about this position for him, I think you know his biggest challenge here is he is in a swing this. District in the Senate, and he has to win that district before it can be considered.
So he's in that Senate District Seven, which includes New Hanover County. It's a district that he lost back years ago, and then he was able to win and win largely this last time. But the Simotas Parson Index has it as an R plus one, right? And so in it's just one of three Senate toss-up seats statewide. And so in a you know Democratic swing year and in a blue wave, like so many people are predicting.
You know he's going to have to win his seat first and prove that he can do so comfortably before being considered for this top role. Yeah, before we move on from Senator Lee, you've got in your article over at our website that he's brought in roughly one point three million dollars through June thirtieth. That is a sizable amount of fundraising to bring in for a North Carolina General Assembly race.
Well, and you know, longtime Senate leader Phil Berger has been kind of the atlas for for fundraising for the North Carolina General Assembly, right? He's you know been able to outfundraise both Democrats and all of the other members of the General Assembly for years now, and has kind of held that purse and been able to distribute funds for they were needed to redistrict folks for different maps, for different seats, and so there's a going to be a large gap there in fundraising advantage. When Leader Berger leaves, and so there's been a lot of questions about who's going to step into that role. And as of through June 30th earlier this year, Senator Mike Lee has taken that reins. He's raised, like you mentioned, nearly 1.3 million dollars through about halfway through the election cycle, and that is out-raising all the other candidates for Speaker Pro Tem that we've mentioned.
And they together have only raised 2.7 million.
So he's done about half of what they've done just himself alone, right? And I think. That points to potentially his early favorite in becoming the next race, as senators look to him as someone who will be able to back their campaigns and raise money needed to, you know, as we continue to get more expensive in North Carolina politics. Here, someone they can turn to and trust to bring in the necessary funds to continue to win Senate majority. Yeah, great point there on the fundraising.
All right, let's transition on over to Senator Ralph Heist, the Republican from Mitchell County. Andrew, he has risen in prominence over the last couple of years, unfortunately not for a good reason, but the devastation out in Western North Carolina. He has led the charge in a lot of these discussions as it relates to the General Assembly's funding to make Western North Carolina whole, and has become a lot more prominent since that period of time. Yeah, I think what people say, you know, quiet leader carries a big stick. He is the current deputy president pro tem, and so Berger's right hand man right now, his number two in leadership, and so you know, puts him in a very favorable position to move into this role.
And like you mentioned, out in Western North Carolina, been a you know really forward. Facing member of the Senate when it comes to funding things like hurricane relief, but also has gotten a lot of attention because he chairs the redistricting and elections committees in the Senate, and so has been on the forefront of really redrawing a lot of the North Carolina maps over the last you know odd many years in terms of you know looking at NC one and NC three, trying to figure out how to you know make that two more stable Republican districts, and then redistricting a lot of his own state Senate race seats right. There's only three toss-ups in the entire state, and largely because of the effectiveness of Senator Heitz in that redistricting elections committee. And so, someone who maybe flies under the radar in a normal day-in, day-out basis, but has a lot of influence and a lot of power in the General Assembly is very well respected. And so, it'll be interesting to see his coalition as yeah support as they build.
Let's wrap it up with Senator Todd Johnson, the Republican from Union County. What do we know about him? Yeah, yeah, youngest and least experienced member of this group. You know, he's only been serving in the Senate since 2019. He currently serves one of the chamber majority whips, and so you know, role that's important.
I think Todd Johnson here represents a really different lane, right? We talked about Senator Heis being the deputy president pro tem, and Senator Lee being around and having the swing district having influence in that way. I think Senator Johnson gives the those Folks who are looking for change inside the Senate caucus, someone to vote for it. You know, someone who will definitely differ in leadership strategy and philosophy from current leader Berger.
Someone who you know isn't inside that inner circle currently kind of poses as that outsider who could come in and maybe make some changes. And so, I you know, it'll be interesting to see how much they're willing to push back on that Berger legacy, especially with the success that the Senate has had and holding. Super majorities, even until today, right? And when the House lost theirs, the Senate still has theirs, and so would be interesting to see if senators are looking for a change. But he would be the change candidate here.
Obviously, a lot of this and all of this is incumbent on Republicans maintaining their majority in the North Carolina Senate. We will, of course, be tracking that through the November the third, a midterm election. Obviously, then a legislative session coming up in mid-November, and then votes ahead of the new year. We'll be keeping an eye on all of those details. We have continuing coverage of this story over on our website, carolinajournal.com.
We appreciate the update this morning. Andrew Pomerantz joins us on the Carolina. Journal News Hour. This is Rick Burgess from the Rick Burgess Show. I want to talk to you for a second about something most of us put on autopilot: car insurance.
If you're just letting your policy auto renew year after year without shopping around, I'm telling you, you are probably throwing money away. Rates change all the time, and staying loyal to one company can end up costing you big time. That's why you need to go check out Insurify. I went to Insurify.com to test it out myself, and I was blown away by how easy it is. In about two minutes, totally free, you can compare.
Actual real-time quotes from over a hundred top insurance companies, all side by side in one place. No endless phone calls, no pushy sales pitches. Here's what I really love: Insurify doesn't just help you once and walk away. They actually keep monitoring your rates in the background and alert you whenever prices drop, so you never miss out on a better deal down the road. Millions of drivers have already used Insurify to stop overpaying, and there's no reason you shouldn't too.
Do yourself and your wallet a favor. Go see what you could save right now at insureifi. dot com. That's insureifi. dot com.
Good morning again. It's five fifty-four. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, one hundred seven point nine FM, WBT. Recapping our big story from Friday morning: Democrat Governor Josh Stein signing House Bill three. This piece of legislation passed during a specially called session of the North Carolina General Assembly last week, known as the Relief at the Pump Act.
The governor signed that at the family farm of North Carolina's 11th U.S. House Democratic candidate Jamie Ager. That is in Fairview, Buncombe County, where he signed that Friday morning. The General Assembly passed it overwhelmingly last week, passing the House 111 to one, with Representative Pricey Harrison, the Democrat from Guilford County, casting the lone dissenting vote there. While the Senate approved the.
Measure unanimously at forty-one to zero. House Bill Three temporarily suspends the state's forty-one cent per gallon motor fuel excise tax that is official as of October the tenth through November the thirtieth, and requires customer prices to reflect those tax savings.
Now that could take potentially a couple more days for some of that relief to be felt as at the pump, as many stations across North Carolina. Have already filled up their underground tanks with gas, including that forty-one cent per gallon motor fuel excise tax.
So, as those tanks are depleted and new tankers bring in additional gasoline, we expect those prices to continue to drop here across the state, according to AAA. As of this morning, the national or the the average in North Carolina for a gallon of regular unleaded gas three dollars and ninety. Cents that is significantly cheaper than the national average, according to AAA, at four dollars and thirty five cents. We expect that that three ninety one figure will continue to drop in the coming days as many of those stations refuel. Part of this legislation, as well, also releases.
And gets rid of some of the penalties for those in the agricultural industry that use what is called red dye diesel, which is not taxed and is supposed to not be used on the road to provide farmers with some relief. Both this legislation and the governor calling for there to be no enforcement on red dye diesel through the end of the calendar year. We'll be watching those gas prices continue to fall here across North Carolina. Continuing coverage, you can read the direct quotes from the governor over on our website this morning at carolinajournal dot com. That's going to do it for a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour.
WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We are back with you tomorrow morning, five to six, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, one hundred seven point nine FM, WBT.
