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Budget, Taxation & Economy
Three Truths of Tax Reform: Senate, House plans would spur growth, create jobs
Budget, Taxation & Economy
The Best Solution From Both Budgets: “Reverse Logrolling” shows the best option for government spending and tax reform
Regulation
Not Written in Stone: How sunset laws can improve North Carolina’s regulatory climate
Latest Articles
Research Brief
Agriculture
Why North Carolina’s Regulatory Sandbox Needs Agriculture
North Carolina’s Regulatory Sandbox waives certain regulations for promising new products in finance and insurance. We could all benefit if the state’s largest industry, agriculture, could also avail itself of…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Tax Revenue from Online Sports Betting Exceeds Expectations; Where Will the Money Go?
How will legislators distribute the tax dollars generated from sports betting?
Elections & Public Integrity
What are the Impacts of HB237’s Campaign Finance Changes?
The North Carolina Legislature presented the conference report on its masking bill, HB237. While the bill had garnered some controversy over its broad language banning masks, a recent conference report…
Elections & Public Integrity
Will the State Board of Elections Try Again to Stop Third Parties that Democrats Fear?
(Photo of Cornel West by Gage Skidmore.) UPDATE (June 27): The Democratic-controlled North Carolina State Board of Elections voted to deny three parties ballot access. Republican board member Kevin Lewis…
Research Brief
Energy
Congress Should Stop the EPA’s Dangerous Power Plant Rule
The EPA power plant rule would effectively close down all baseload coal power plants and prevent them from being replaced with natural gas plants. The rule coincides dangerously with the…
Liberty
“A government official cannot do indirectly what she is barred from doing directly.”
In National Rifle Association v. Vullo, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed that principle and applied it to the superintendent of New York State’s Department of Financial Services. According to the NRA,…
Freedom Focus
Freedom Focus
Markets, Not Politics, Are The Real Problem-Solver
Politics has a terrible track record at solving problems and is zero-sum. In fact, politics typically makes the problems worse. Markets are a problem-solving machine, characterized by win-win interactions.
Elections & Public Integrity
Prepared Public Comment in Favor of a Citizen-Only Voting Constitutional Amendment
Below is my prepared public comment before the North Carolina House Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform Committee on June 5, 2024, in support of House Bill 1074, Constitutional Amendment/Citizens-Only…
Education
How Does a School District Go Broke with $1.1 Billion in Revenues? When It Spends $1.3 Billion.
That’s the title of a cautionary tale posted last week by Chad Adelman on the web site, The 74 Million. Adelman tells the story of how bad decisions and incompetence…
Research Brief
Education
Revised K–12 Healthful Living Standards Raise More Questions Than Answers
The North Carolina State Board of Education will decide whether to adopt new academic content standards for K–12 Health and Physical Education in June It’s unclear whether changes incorporated into…
Education
So How Did School Districts Spend Federal Covid Dollars?
That’s a question many have been asking over the last three years that the federal government has been distributing money to schools. Since 2021 North Carolina has received about $6.2…
Energy
Is a Bad Hurricane Season Because of Man-Made Climate Change? No
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year. The prediction hinges on “a quick transition to La Niña conditions, which are conducive…