Lawmakers were sending mixed messages on video gambling with two bills filed Wednesday. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, filed a measure that would legalize video poker, creating a centrally operated video terminal system that offers casino-style games. Proceeds would go to college scholarships and higher education building repair and construction. Another measure, filed by Rep. Ray […]
The House Public Utilities Committee has approved legislation that would make it harder for cities and towns to build their own broadband data systems. The bill is the latest in a series of efforts by telecom corporations to keep local governments out of the broadband business. Cable and phone companies argue municipalities aren’t subject to […]
Filed in response to Gov. Perdue’s veto of Senate Bill 13, this bill would grant the Governor discretionary power to find $538 million in available funds for the current budget year. The bill would allow Perdue to reduce spending and transfer funds from “non-General Fund accounts” in order to arrive at the $538 million. The […]
In their proposal today for LESS state spending — more than $2 billion less than Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue’s proposed budget — Republican legislative leaders mention one area that deserves MORE spending: highway maintenance and repaving.
Instructions to the House and Senate transportation appropriation subcommittees (attached below) include this call for a $100 million maintenance boost:
Strengthen […]
For more than 100 years, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and North Carolina League of Municipalities have advocated policies for local governments to state lawmakers.
Alamance County Manager Craig Honeycutt and Burlington City Manager Harold Owen said these advocates are vital in making sure that local issues are heard and understood by state lawmakers. […]
If legislators cut tens of millions of dollars out of public-safety spending, they’d better do so intelligently.
On the corrections side of the public-safety budget, that means spending what state money will remain after the $2.4 billion budget shortfall is closed on the most dangerous criminals while punishing others more creatively.
The Justice Reinvestment project, a bipartisan, […]
Durham, N.C. — As many as two-thirds of the people who work in Durham County don’t live there, according to local estimates, and some local officials say those commuters are getting a free ride when it comes to county services.
“(Commuters) don’t really contribute to the tax base in that way, so this is way for […]
The Greensboro City Council held a special called meeting Monday afternoon, Feb. 21 at 4 p.m., to discuss the legislative agenda – the bills that Greensboro asks the North Carolina state legislature to pass.
Only four members of the council showed up for the meeting – Mayor Bill Knight, and Councilmembers Zack Matheny, Robbie Perkins and […]
Greensboro Mayor Bill Knight has asked state officials to give cities four more years to clean up streams feeding Jordan Lake, the Triangle’s primary water supply. “Since the rules were put in place, a lot has happened in our economy,” Knight told members of Guilford County’s delegation to the General Assembly on Wednesday. He said […]
A delegation of Gaston and Mecklenburg residents fighting the proposed Garden Parkway toll road traveled to Raleigh on Wednesday to tell state lawmakers the $1 billion project is a waste. Most legislators listened with genuine interest, but group members said Rep. William Current Sr., R-Gaston, was apparently upset with the lobbying. “He was belligerent, insulting […]
