John Locke Updates: Local Government

Over the summer, there’s been a lot of media attention focused on the Wake County Register of Deeds office.  I blogged about it back in early August, and if…

On Thursday night, Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted 7-2 to hold a public hearing on using tax dollars – for the next 20 years – to build a proposed…

Sometimes, local governments seem to create solutions to problems that may not even really exist in the first place.  And usually, when they do, those “solutions” create tremendous burdens on…

This week, the City of Kannapolis approved an incentive package.  This sort of thing has become commonplace in recent years, and there’s nothing particularly unique about the Kannapolis deal. …

Over the past year, I’ve spent quite a lot of time writing about Rocky Mount’s ill-conceived event center, so when I received an invitation to a discussion about economic…

This week, the North Carolina General Assembly released its 2017-18 conference committee budget.  And there are certainly implications for local governments!  I’ve spent this week trying to figure out just…

Senate Bill 434 has a pretty inspiring title: “An Act to Amend Certain Environmental and Natural Resources Laws.”  But the significance of the legislation is far greater than the…

The North Carolina House of Representatives has released its budget and, as I expected, there are few policy changes that affect local government operations.  But there is, on page 300,…

Since the idea was announced in 2015, I’ve been keeping an eye on a proposed ballpark in downtown High Point.  No one who’s read anything I’ve written…

This week, the Senate budget was released.  There are plenty of other provisions inserted into the budget bill that affects cities and counties, but those are mostly related to public…