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Bad budget deal would lock NC into continued tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, undermining affordability and well-being
In a recent joint press conference, NC House Speaker Hall and Senate President Berger announced the outline of a state budget deal that would continue state income tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy few. The proposed tax cuts and constitutional amendments included in the deal fail to address North Carolinians’ concerns with the rising…
NC Governor’s budget proposal shows freezing tax rates is necessary — and insufficient to fund affordability and well-being priorities
Note: The release of the Governor’s recommended budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 follows two other budget requests released by the governor this year: A critical needs budget request for the current fiscal year, FY 2026, as well as a request for additional funding for Hurricane Helene recovery in Western NC. This analysis covers only…
Our take on bills filed this session by NC General Assembly
We’ve been tracking all the bills filed over the 2025 and 2026 biennial budget session and wanted to share with you our take on: Bills that have the potential to fund a better future Bills that make people’s lives easier today Bills that advance an important goal for NC but by design fall short Bills…
Public dollars, private data centers: Why North Carolina needs transparency
Tech giants like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have invested billions of dollars into hyperscale data centers. These data centers are highly extractive — occupying hundreds of acres of land, using millions of gallons of water per day, enough electricity to power small cities, and generating air pollution, noise, and disruptive vibrations. Meanwhile, these highly…
Property taxes power local services across North Carolina
Working families and seniors in North Carolina are struggling to make ends meet and need relief. But proposals to eliminate or cap property taxes are misleading solutions that will not make housing costs more affordable. Everyday North Carolinians have already seen how the promise that income tax cuts would make life easier failed to deliver relief…
North Carolina’s revenue forecast is a wake-up call
Last week, the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) and the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division released their revised Consensus Revenue Forecast for the 2025-2027 biennium in North Carolina. The forecast is important because it tells lawmakers and the public how much revenue (or public dollars) is available to fund priorities in the current…
Latest news on what’s going on with the NC budget
Sign up for text updates here! 9 am, Thursday, May 14, 2026 On Tuesday, House Speaker Hall and Senate President Berger held a joint press conference to announce the outlines of a state budget deal. While no budget documents or legislation has been released yet, the terms of the deal would: Continue costly tax cuts…
A Tale of Unmet Needs and Broken Systems: Helene Recovery After 18 Months
A year and a half ago, Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, marking the costliest storm that has ever hit NC and the deadliest storm in the contiguous U.S. since Hurricane Katrina. Although the region has now transitioned to the long-term recovery phase, many of the same human needs that went neglected in the early months following Helene remain unmet as a result of bad policy choices and broken disaster recovery…
It’s time for a Well-Being Budget in North Carolina
What if progress and prosperity in our state was not defined by measures like the GDP or stock market, but by indicators that measure the level of well-being for all North Carolinians? North Carolina’s workers power our economy – they grow and harvest our food, care for and educate our children, and research and develop new medicines and technologies that improve our lives. Building a North…
NC’s labor market continues to weaken. Bad policy choices are to blame.
If you would like to access our general NC Labor Market page, “Work, Wages, and Well-Being,” click here. North Carolina’s headline unemployment rate remains strong at 3.9 percent, sitting below the national unemployment rate of 4.4 percent. Although the US and NC unemployment rates have been increasing from the lows in mid-2023, the increase remains gradual and controlled. However, numbers like these don’t tell…