John Locke Updates: Local Government

With six weeks to go until the May primaries, voters in at least a dozen North Carolina counties should start considering whether they should vote for or against proposed…

At last count, 12 North Carolina counties will include an increase in the local sales tax on their May ballots.  In all 12 of those counties, it’s a bad idea. …

Liberals like small homes that are close to shopping and attractions, while conservatives prefer to have larger properties and drive longer distances to the store. This is one of the…

In 2007, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation allowing counties to impose an additional quarter-cent sales tax to raise revenue within their jurisdictions.  These taxes must be approved by…

In mid-February, the Charlotte Observer ran a long piece about “The little-known trend that’s hurting housing affordability in Charlotte.”  And while it’s interesting, there’s nothing about the piece that’s…

The incentives game just keeps getting worse.  It used to be that state and local governments would put together a package to help lure a large company for a major…

North Carolina House Bill 56 got a lot of press earlier this autumn when the General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto of the legislation.  But most of the discussion…

On November 7, people in cities and towns across North Carolina will go to the polls to vote in local government elections.  These are municipal, not county, elections, but not…

This week, the bids were all finally submitted for Amazon’s new HQ2.  Raleigh shipped a 32-pound box (!) containing its proposal.  Charlotte set up a website.  Winston-Salem, Greensboro,…

Back in the spring, I wrote about a “bicycle superhighway” idea that was just starting to be kicked around.  The concept was a five-mile path along I-40 between Raleigh…