Families and businesses in North Carolina continued to see promising gains from the 2018 state legislative session as lawmakers remained committed to higher salaries for educators and state employees, increased investments in public schools and a successful pro-growth jobs agenda. The accomplishments mark another year of promises kept by the Republican-led General Assembly to deliver […]
Economic Development
Legislature Agrees to Adjustments for Current State Budget
North Carolina House and Senate leaders announced their agreement last night on adjustments to the current two-year state budget. As a result of Republicans’ pro-growth economic policies, North Carolina has its fourth consecutive revenue surplus this year, enabling lawmakers to make targeted adjustments to the biennial budget passed last year in order to address critical […]
Freeing the Mimosa
Lawmakers in Raleigh passed bipartisan legislation at the end of June giving more authority to cities and counties to relax certain prohibitions on the sale of alcohol. Senate Bill 155, the culmination of months of work, is catch-all legislation reforming more than a dozen alcoholic beverage control (ABC) laws. The final bill combined three different pieces of legislation, including House Bill 500, focusing on craft breweries, […]
NC Leads Nation in Economic Ranking
From the Triangle Business Journal: There will be no sharing of Site Selection magazine’s Prosperity Cup title this year. In its May issue, released Thursday, North Carolina took first place for the 2017 award. Formerly known as the Top Competitive State award, North Carolina had tied with Texas for the top spot in 2016 after having […]
Tourist Spending at Record Levels in NC
50 million tourists spent $23 billion in North Carolina last year, an all-time high, according to a new report by the U.S. Travel Association. These tourism dollars supported 45,000 small businesses, 218,340 jobs, and generated $3.6 billion in taxes. And much of that spending was undoubtedly linked to outdoor recreation; figures also released today by the Outdoor Industry Association show that in 2016, outdoor […]
Improving Rural Access to Broadband
With an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 109 to 8, the North Carolina House yesterday afternoon passed the “BRIGHT Futures Act” (House Bill 68) to accelerate the build-out of digital infrastructure in rural and other underserved areas of our state. Representative Faircloth co-sponsored the bill. The goal is to bring greater economic prosperity to more folks by way of a […]
Rep. Bell Speaks with the NC Chamber
Representative Bell speaks with Gary Salamido, Vice President of Government Affairs for the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce.
The NC Economy: Then vs. Now
The Kind of September
September is a big month as far as gubernatorial proclamations go. The goal of a proclamation is to bring greater awareness and understanding of a particular subject area, including heritage and culture, tourism, the economy, and public health matters — just to name a few. Governor Pat McCrory has proclaimed September as Alcohol And Drug Addiction […]
Visitor Spending Rises Across NC
[youtube_sc url=”https://youtu.be/xuKbBh7iIIc” width=”580″ modestbranding=”1″ autohide=”1″ fs=”1″ border=”1″ hd=”1″] Governor Pat McCrory and Department of Commerce Secretary John E. Skvarla III announced last week that visitor spending has increased in all regions of North Carolina. New data from Visit North Carolina, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, shows that domestic visitor spending […]