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Elections & Public Integrity
Bring out your dead! Elections boards to remove 34,000 deceased voters
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) approved rules for removing non-citizens from voter rolls on a 3-2 party-line vote in April. Part of that process involves matching voter…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
North Carolina’s Medicaid expansion financing gap that no one is talking about
A provision in last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” mandates that beginning in 2028, the maximum provider tax rate states are allowed to charge will be reduced from 6…
Research Brief
Health Care
Four steps NC legislators can take right now to make health care more affordable
People of all political stripes agree that health care is unaffordable for too many. A major campaign buzzword this year is the “unaffordability crisis,” with health care being a foremost…
Education
Yes, more money for teacher pay, but what happened to all that Covid money?
Teacher pay has been much in the news lately. Thousands of North Carolina teachers are supposed to descend on Raleigh next Friday to protest no state budget and lobby for…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Property tax levy limits aren’t budget cuts
A levy limit isn’t a budget cut. It doesn’t force local governments to reduce spending, nor does it require school funding to decrease. Instead, a levy limit caps the growth…
Research Brief
Elections & Public Integrity
Election shenanigans highlight need for performance audits
Recent reports of election administration problems in North Carolina over the past several elections are a wake-up call. We should join the growing number of states that conduct election performance…
Research Brief
Energy
How obscuring solar power’s full cost subverts state law
The previous brief in this series discussed the well-known fact that solar power cannot be added to the electrical grid without backup generation. It then noted that, despite that fact, the North…
Education
Public School Finance
Introduction Article IX, Section 2 of the North Carolina State Constitution speaks to the state’s responsibility for public education when it declares, “The General Assembly shall provide by taxation and…
Freedom Focus
Freedom Focus
Why worker wages aren’t at the mercy of employer “greed”
Many progressives include in their critique of free-market capitalism the notion that employers have so much power over workers that they can set wages at subsistence levels. Workers, according to…
NC 250
Celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Halifax Resolves this week
This Sunday, April 12, North Carolinians celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Halifax Resolves being adopted by the Fourth Provincial Congress in Halifax, North Carolina. The Halifax Resolves represent the…
Freedom Focus
Freedom Focus
Free markets, not handouts, proven best at fighting poverty
For decades, American policymakers have debated how best to reduce poverty. The dominant policy response since 1964 and the launch of the War on Poverty under President Lyndon B. Johnson has been redistribution, expanding government programs designed to transfer…
Liberty
The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge
A cold dawn in February 1776. A small, humble bridge in southeastern North Carolina becomes the unlikely stage for a turning point in the birth of a nation. The Battle…