YOU DON’T SAY

“I think this entire process is somewhat jaded and unduly influenced.”

Rep. Allen Chesser, R-Nash, on the ballot access approval process for third parties. (The News & Observer, 7/23/24)

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Ballot Access

Kyle Ingram, The News & Observer, 7/23/24

State lawmakers questioned top North Carolina election officials Tuesday over their handling of several third parties who sought ballot access for presidential candidates this year. At a House Oversight Committee hearing lasting four hours, Republican legislators criticized the board’s initial denial of several third-party petitions and at times questioned the influence of political groups which they said sought to eliminate moderate and progressive challengers to the Democratic presidential candidate.

“I think this entire process is somewhat jaded and unduly influenced,” Rep. Allen Chesser, a Nash County Republican, said while questioning Board Chair Alan Hirsch, a Democrat. “You are very much aware of who stands to gain and who stands to lose by these parties moving forward.”

After initially denying access to the conservative Constitution Party and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “We the People” party in June, the State Board of Elections reversed its decision earlier this month, allowing the two parties to place their candidates on the November ballot. However, the board upheld its decision to deny access to the progressive “Justice For All” party, led by left-wing academic Cornel West. Voting 3-2, the board’s Democratic majority cited issues with misleading petition gatherers and an ongoing criminal investigation into potential fraud in JFA’s signature collection process.

Hirsch defended the board’s decision Tuesday, telling committee members: “It is our obligation to decide these issues based on the law. And I understand the political currents here — I’m not naive to that. However, this decision was based entirely on the facts.”

The board has faced a wave of criticism from Republicans and independents over its decision and now faces a lawsuit from members of the Justice For All Party, who claim the board violated their First Amendment and due process rights by denying them the chance to vote for their preferred candidate.

That lawsuit is being brought by Phil Strach, a well-known Republican attorney who has represented top state GOP leaders in high-profile redistricting and election law cases.

At Tuesday’s hearing, one of the most frequent lines of questioning dealt with letters board members had received from outside groups urging them to deny certification to Kennedy and West’s parties.

The North Carolina Democratic Party and a group tied to President Joe Biden, called Clear Choice Action, both contacted the board with objections to the parties. Clear Choice alleged deficiencies in many of the signatures and referred to West’s party as a “a sham driven by Republican-party affiliated voters and groups to dilute support for President Biden and other Democrats.”

Lawmakers questioned Hirsch and Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell about how impactful those letters had been on the board’s decisions.

“I think there is an inherent problem with groups with a vested interest trying to weigh in on who their opponents will get to be in November and trying to sway board members,” Rep. Jake Johnson, a Polk County Republican, said. “And I certainly hope that our board members have stood their ground despite these letters and outside groups trying to weigh in and made the decision that they thought was best for the reasons they claimed they thought that were best.”

Hirsch and Brinson Bell both noted that issues with potentially fraudulent signatures were communicated to them by county boards of elections — not outside groups. As for other allegations included in Clear Choice’s letter, Brinson Bell said the board investigated them as they would any objection. “If we receive such an allegation, we’re going to look into it to determine if there’s something that we’ve missed or if there’s anything substantiated to that allegation,” she said.

Lawmakers also invited Andy Jackson with the conservative John Locke Foundation to testify about his view of the issue. He said that the board’s decision was part of a pattern of denying ballot access to left-leaning third parties that could take votes away from Democrats. He pointed to the Green Party’s petition for recognition in 2022, which was marked by protracted debates about potential fraud in the signature collection process. Like with Justice For All, the board’s Democratic majority voted not to certify the Green Party, though they later reversed that decision after a lawsuit was filed.

While a conservative group, the Constitution Party, was certified with only a minor delay, the more progressive Green and JFA parties had more difficult processes, which Jackson said indicated unequal treatment by the board based on party ideology.

Rep. Maria Cervania, a Wake County Democrat, took issue with the fact that the only expert testimony provided was from a Republican analyst working with a conservative think tank. “I want to come to a commonality because we have an opportunity here to rectify problems in the process that we actually do agree upon,” she said. “But I find it unfortunate that I have to piece through a partisan testimony.”

Jackson recommended several policy changes to lawmakers that he said could avoid these issues in the future, including moving up the deadline to submit petitions so the board has more time to review them and having the board conduct a more thorough outreach process to petition signers.

Democratic and Republican committee members both expressed interest in altering the law to prevent future issues with third-party ballot access. [Source]

 

Loophole Legislation

Matthew Sasser, State Affairs Pro, 7/23/24

A legislative loophole potentially used by third-party candidates ahead of the upcoming election may need to be revisited, according to state lawmakers. 

During the House Oversight and Reform Committee meeting on Tuesday, State Board of Elections Chairman Alan Hirsch said the main question surrounding the status of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s We the People Party in North Carolina was the number of signatures required for an independent candidate or a political party to obtain ballot access. 

An independent candidate would require 80,000 signatures to get on the ballot, but a political party needs only 0.25% of the previous number of voters who voted in the most recent general election for governor. In 2024, a candidate would need to obtain 13,865 signatures.

“I think that works around the statutory schema that the General Assembly has enacted; however, after close examination, the statutes don’t say specifically that you cannot have a one-person party,” Hirsch said of the board’s decision to eventually accept the We the People Party on July 16. 

“That is something I think the General Assembly should consider whether they really want to have this two-tiered process,” Hirsch continued. “After this experience, I don’t think anybody is going to try to be an unaffiliated candidate anymore at the statewide level. They will simply create a party with whatever name they want to do and be subject to much lower petition thresholds.”

The committee’s co-chairman, Rep. Harry Warren, R-Rowan, agreed with Hirsch’s assessment. 

“I think that’s a valid observation,” Warren said, adding that he voted for a reduction of the number of required votes years ago to ease ballot access for political parties. 

“A lot of times [after we pass laws] with the best of intentions, it is the implementation and practice that reveals some unforeseen circumstances,” Warren continued. “Maybe what we need to do is go back and revisit that and maybe there needs to be some additional statutory requirement that qualifies what constitutes a party.”

Warren added that if the purpose of a political candidate or party is to play as a spoiler against another campaign, it would not be a justification for the Board of Elections to deny their request to become a recognized entity. Warren cited that this was the rationalization for the Board’s July 9 denial of the We the People Party petition. 

Another General Assembly recommendation was floated by Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, who also provided testimony before the House committee. 

Jackson recommended the General Assembly move the deadline for parties to submit petitions from June 1 to May 1 to give the board more time to complete its work. 

“I will concede that I do agree with you that I think the deadline should be moved,” Rep. Allison Dahle, D-Wake, said. “I think that asking any group to do that lion’s share of the work within a small amount of time is very difficult.”

State Board of Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell said a presentation to the General Assembly shared before the 2023 long session outlined the time crunch her office is placed under. Brinson Bell said her organization had only a few weeks to handle these third-party petitions at the same time as an ongoing second primary.

The State Board of Elections has key personnel shortages, Brinson Bell reiterated, but this particular issue was caused more by time, rather than budget, constraints. 

The committee’s presiding chair, Rep. Jake Johnson, R-Polk, said he anticipates a follow-up meeting to Tuesday’s four-hour endeavor.

Housing Spending

Lexi Solomon, Laura Hackett and April Laissle, BPR, WFDD and CityView, 7/22/24

Across the state, representatives with California-based developer Shangri-La and its nonprofit partner, Step Up on Second, told municipal leaders how they would finance development projects aimed at housing the homeless.

Shangri-La, helmed by CEO Andy Meyers, first arrived in Asheville in 2021 and convinced its City Council to partner with the developer on a public motel conversion project that was in danger of failing. Using the Asheville decision as a foothold, Meyers and Step Up on Second CEO Tod Lipka then persuaded local officials in Winston-Salem and Fayetteville to follow suit. In a separate deal, Step Up on Second also partnered with Greensboro and Wake County on a development. Wake County leaders issued a press release boasting about their “groundbreaking partnership” with Step Up on Second.

The campaign worked. Asheville, Fayetteville, Winston-Salem, Wake County and Greensboro leaders approved the allocation of more than $12 million in government funds — primarily from federal pandemic recovery monies. Local leaders entrusted Shangri-La and Step Up on Second to remedy one of the most difficult challenges of local governance: housing. 

None of the projects, which totaled 551 units across the state, have come to fruition, and none of the funds were spent. The developer and the nonprofit face a $114 million lawsuit in California, where state officials have sued over allegations that Step Up and Shangri-La failed to build affordable housing despite receiving taxpayer dollars. And in May, Shangri-La unsuccessfully filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, The Redlands Daily Facts reported.

Although the development partners never received any funds from North Carolina government coffers, the unfulfilled promises strung along city and county leaders. But worse, the situation leaves an estimated 3,400 unsheltered homeless people in North Carolina with few viable prospects for housing on the horizon.

In Asheville, the problems surrounding the motel conversion project started well before Shangri-La and its nonprofit partner Step Up on Second became involved. Soon after committing to purchase a former Ramada Inn to turn it into a homeless shelter, city leaders realized they could not secure the necessary funds for the development.

With the plan close to being scrapped, a city staffer, Brian Huskey, reached out to an old friend: consultant Phillip Mangano, a former “homelessness czar” in the George W. Bush administration. In addition to running his own Boston-based nonprofit, the American Roundtable to Abolish Homelessness, Mangano has consulted for Step Up on Second, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in nonprofit supplemental services.

In the fall of 2021, Huskey brought Mangano, along with Step Up on Second CEO Lipka and Shangri-La CEO Meyers, to a meet-and-greet trip to Asheville to meet with the local affordable housing movers and shakers. “They don’t need to come to Asheville,” Mangano said. “They could go to other communities who would be eager to receive literally tens of millions of dollars of acquisitions and resources.” Just weeks after Mangano’s visit, Asheville government leaders struck a hasty deal with Step Up on Second and Shangri-La.

About a year before the deal fell apart in Greensboro, leaders explained Step Up on Second had been selected without an RFP because “there are a very limited number of organizations that do this nationally.”

About a year after making the Asheville deal, Step Up on Second and Mangano approached Winston-Salem with an ambitious pitch: converting a motel into supportive housing for one-third of the city’s homeless population. Winston-Salem officials heard high praise for Step Up on Second and Shangri-La.

“They have a track record. They have a good reputation for what they have done,” city staffer Marla Newman said. She told council members the project would happen within a year’s time. She recounted Mangano’s high-level role in the Bush administration and emphasized Step Up on Second’s reputation, noting recognition by the Clinton Global Initiative, former President Bill Clinton and the Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation. “They have also been in partnership or in conversation with Greensboro, High Point and Asheville,” Newman told council members.

Like in Asheville and in Winston-Salem, city council members were sold. Greensboro officials directed Partnership Homes to transfer the Regency Inn property, valued at about $3 million, to Step Up and Slate. By mid-2023, Step Up on Second had arranged deals with three cities — Asheville, Winston-Salem and Greensboro — totaling nearly $7 million in government funds.

Undeterred by the Asheville delay, Step Up on Second moved east, peddling its vision to the Fayetteville City Council in August 2023. Like the Asheville deal, Lipka presented a proposal to convert a former motel into 137 units of permanent supportive housing.

Meanwhile, in Asheville, the “after” image was far from reality. Weeds grew over much of the site, leaving the space with a decaying aesthetic and a landscaper who claimed Shangri-La owed him more than $10,000. The Winston-Salem plan appeared to be faltering as well. Despite inking the deal with the city in October 2022, Shangri-La had not closed on the property nearly a year later. But public officials remained optimistic, citing the alleged track record of the developer. And optimism faded as the Winston-Salem project sat untouched.

As the North Carolina projects stalled, Shangri-La and Step Up on Second found themselves in serious legal jeopardy in California. One of the nation’s largest banks, BMO Harris, sued the developer, alleging default on a $20 million loan for a project in California.

In early 2024, the state attorney general sued the partners for alleged fraud and breach of contract. The lawsuit painted a very different picture than the image Step Up on Second and Shangri-La leaders had drawn for North Carolina officials, highlighting their successes on the West Coast.

The suit alleged that the partners received more than $114 million from the state’s Homekey Program to convert motel properties into shelters for the unhoused, but the pair had not delivered on contractual obligations.

Eventually, Shangri-La would lose control of several of its properties in California. The company has also since filed suit against one of its own, accusing 29-year-old Shangri-La CFO Cody Holmes of $40 million in “bank fraud and check kiting,” The Real Deal reported.
Had Shangri-La and Step Up on Second officials delivered on what they conjured for local officials desperate for solutions, more than 550 North Carolinians might be living in their new homes. But in reality, none of the promised housing units came to fruition.

In January 2024, after more than two years of stalled progress, Asheville officials acknowledged the failure and officially pulled the plug on the project. Winston-Salem was the next domino to fall. City leaders pulled out of the deal in January 2024, citing Step Up’s failure to purchase a site and select a new development partner after severing ties with Shangri-La.

Despite the failed projects in other North Carolina municipalities, the delays in construction and the mounting legal challenges nationally, some Greensboro officials initially doubled down on their partnership with Step Up on Second. However, two months later, the city began distancing itself from Step Up on Second. In an email to Greensboro City Council in late April, Interim City Manager Chris Wilson wrote that he was uncomfortable “advancing a project with Step Up on Second under the requested terms.”

Mangano, who had for years praised the work of Step Up on Second and Shangri-La, told BPR in May that he was “shocked” to learn about the developer’s financial problems. He said Shangri-La was not forthright about its financial or legal troubles. Despite Step Up on Second being named in the California lawsuit, Lipka and Mangano both maintained that Shangri-La was at fault for the financial issues that derailed all the housing projects in North Carolina. [Source 1] [Source 2]

Medicaid Unwinding

Jaymie Baxley, NC Health News, 7/24/24

In June 2023, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services began verifying the eligibility of 2.5 million Medicaid participants for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This marked the start of the so-called unwinding of the continuous coverage requirement, a federal provision that provided states with increased funding for Medicaid in exchange for not removing beneficiaries from the rolls while the national emergency declaration for COVID-19 was in place. 

Under this requirement, people enrolled in the government-funded health insurance program were automatically re-enrolled, even if they no longer qualified for coverage due to changes in their income or household size. Usually, Medicaid beneficiaries need to recertify their eligibility for the program every six months or a year — depending on the state — in order to continue receiving benefits. But in light of the extraordinary health care emergency, Congress waived this requirement.

After the emergency declaration expired in April 2023, states were allowed to resume regular eligibility checks. This was a massive undertaking in North Carolina, where more than 740,000 residents, many of whom had never been subject to the traditional recertification process, became eligible for Medicaid during the pandemic.

There were additional complications. Gov. Roy Cooper signed legislation making North Carolina the 40th state to expand access to Medicaid before the continuous coverage requirement ended, but the law did not officially take effect until December, halfway through the state’s original 12-month timeline for initiating eligibility reviews.

Despite the challenges, North Carolina has experienced relatively few unwinding-related issues compared with other states. More than 2.3 million reviews had been completed as of last month, with the vast majority resulting in participants remaining enrolled in Medicaid.

Now, the unwinding is winding down. “We are in what the federal government characterizes as the period of ‘normal operations,'” said Emma Sandoe, deputy director of Medicaid policy for DHHS. 

She added that there are still some renewals that have been initiated but not completed. “I don’t want to say that it’s forever finished until we have everyone go through the process.”

North Carolina has the nation’s lowest rate of Medicaid disenrollments in connection with the unwinding, according to an analysis by KFF.

Only 12 percent of redeterminations completed by the state have resulted in participants losing coverage, well below the national average of about 32 percent. In some states, more than half of redeterminations have ended in terminations. That’s because North Carolina pushed fewer people off of the rolls simply for paperwork issues.

The share of disenrollments in North Carolina was larger during the early months of the unwinding. From June to November of last year, terminations accounted for nearly 19 percent of the state’s unwinding outcomes.

Expansion slowed the purge. The long-awaited measure raised the state’s income limit for Medicaid, extending eligibility to people who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level based on their household size, which comes to about $35,600 a year for a family of three. The previous threshold for coverage before expansion had been 100 percent, or about $25,820 a year in income. When expansion took effect on Dec. 1, many existing beneficiaries who would not have previously passed the redetermination process became eligible for renewal. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of newly eligible North Carolinians were able to sign up for coverage for the first time.

“The exact timing of when Medicaid expansion would start was a moving date for most of the unwinding period,” Sandoe said. “Implementing that, which is very eligibility-focused on top of all of the unwinding activities, certainly took a toll on our staff as well as our IT systems, but we were able to prepare for that and successfully launch.”

Nearly 500,000 people have enrolled in Medicaid since expansion went live. The fast pace of enrollment has surpassed projections by DHHS, which initially expected the measure to add 600,000 beneficiaries over a span of two years. 

Because of the expansion, North Carolina is the only state where Medicaid enrollment increased during the unwinding. Every other state saw declines in enrollment, according to an analysis by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. [Source]

Incentive Projects

Brian Gordon, The News & Observer, 7/23/24

Two projects, a titanium recycling plant and a pet health care facility, received millions in potential economic incentives Tuesday to create more than 500 combined jobs in a pair of North Carolina cities. American Titanium Metal promises to bring 304 jobs to a future 500,000-square-foot, three-building complex in Fayetteville.

The company plans to spend $868 million on the site by the end of 2027. Most of what is produced there will be from recycled titanium material.

“Titanium is mission-critical to the U.S. aerospace manufacturing supply chain,” said Mark Poole, director of commerce finance at the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

American Titanium Metal says average wages at the plant will be at least $123,476. Poole noted during a meeting of the N.C. Economic Investment Committee on Tuesday that Fayetteville landed the project over competing sites in Georgia and Texas. The committee approved the state incentives. If it achieves its hiring and investment goals, American Titanium Metal will enjoy $8 million in payroll tax benefits through the state’s job development investment grant.

North Carolina’s total incentive package is $20.3 million after factoring in additional incentives through community college training, the N.C. Department of Transportation and the Golden LEAF Foundation, among other sources. In May, the county approved $1.3 billion in bond funding for American Titanium Metal to construct its factory. The county and city will combine to offer $189.9 million in more local incentives for the project.

On Tuesday, the state commerce department also awarded $5 million in grants to bring a Maine-based veterinary diagnostic products company to the Eastern North Carolina city of Wilson.

IDEXX Operations Inc. plans to invest $147 million in the facility by the end of the decade and create 275 positions by 2028. The company vows to pay workers an average of $65,873.

“The proposed new facility would increase operational capacity and provide supply-chain resiliency to support the global long-term growth and the company’s diagnostics products service,” Poole said. The city of Wilson and Wilson County together awarded $5.2 million in local incentives. North Carolina again edged out Georgia for this project, Poole noted.

Wilson would not be home to IDEXX’s first facility in the state; according to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the company has a laboratory focused on “small animals, equine, poultry and dairy livestock” in Greensboro. [Source]

GOP Strategy

Lisa Mascaro and Jill Colvin, The Associated Press, 7/23/24

Republican leaders are warning party members against using overtly racist and sexist attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, as they and former President Donald Trump’s campaign scramble to adjust to the reality of a new Democratic rival less than four months before Election Day.

At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., urged lawmakers to stick to criticizing Harris for her role in Biden-Harris administration policies.

“This election will be about policies and not personalities,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the meeting.

The warnings point to the new risks for Republicans in running against a Democrat who would become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian decent to win the White House. Trump, in particular, has a history of racist and misogynistic attacks that could turn off key groups of swing voters, including suburban women, as well as voters of color and younger people Trump’s campaign has been courting.

The admonitions came after some members and Trump allies began to cast Harris, a former district attorney, attorney general and senator, as a “DEI” hire — a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“Intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel,” Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman said in a TV interview. “I think she was a DEI hire. And I think that that’s what we’re seeing and I just don’t think that they have anybody else.”

Hudson told members at the Tuesday meeting that the NRCC is focusing on how Harris is even more progressive than Biden and essentially “owns” all the administration’s policies, according to a person familiar with the conversation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who is a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus and was among the early Democrats to confront Trump, said she is well-braced for what’s ahead as the Republicans turn the campaign toward Harris. “They’re going to be nasty they’re going to be bad.” [Source]

 

Biden Reaction

David Ford, WFDD Radio, 7/23/24

Following President Joe Biden’s announcement Sunday that he would end his re-election campaign, the political landscape suddenly shifted, and the news was received differently by lawmakers in the General Assembly.

For Republican State Senate leader Phil Berger, Biden’s announcement, following his poor showing at the presidential debate, was inevitable. Berger, who represents Guilford and Rockingham counties, questions both the timing of the news as well as the way it was delivered: a letter posted on X.

“Very unusual,” says Berger. “You would think that a decision of that import, and that notoriety as far as the public is concerned would have come from some sort of announcement in person with television, radio, print all there to record the event.”

Democratic State Senator Paul Lowe represents Forsyth County. Lowe says he was prepared to stand behind President Biden had he decided to stay in the race. But he concedes that he and many of his colleagues in the General Assembly breathed a collective sigh of relief at Sunday’s announcement which Lowe describes as a courageous thing to do.

“You know, President Biden did an extraordinary job and was an extraordinary president,” says Lowe. “You know he’s been a major leader in Washington a long, long time and a major player. So, we’re certainly thankful for all the work he’s done. I think Father Time has a way of catching us sometimes.”

Lowe says he now firmly supports Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy. [Source]

 

Second Chance Act

Peter Castagno, Port City Daily, 7/23/24

A New Hanover representative celebrated the recent passage of a broadly supported provision to restore automated expunctions for dismissed and “not-guilty” charges from a bill he introduced four years ago. He still expressed frustration at another lawmaker’s efforts to stall the action in two separate bills.

Gov. Roy Cooper signed S.B. 565 — titled “Revise Automatic Expunction” — into law this month, restoring a process initiated four years ago in the 2020 North Carolina Second Chance Act. It included expanded eligibility for expunging nonviolent charges that create barriers to employment, housing and other opportunities. The Administrative Office of the Courts processed around 500,000 total expunctions following the provision’s passage from December 2021 until its suspension in August 2022 — triple the monthly rate of previous expunctions.

Technical issues caused by the volume of records needing expunction led the Administrative Office of the Courts to pause the program and convene a working group of justice system stakeholders to draft recommended solutions. They were part of Senate Bill 565, which passed the state Senate in 2023 and was set to restore automated expunctions in July 2024.

But in May, House Judiciary 2 Committee chair Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, surprised lawmakers with an amended version of the bill that gutted the provision. She cited technical issues caused by the 2020 legislation — such as dismissed and not-guilty charges remaining on websites used by landlords and employers despite expunction — but said she was open to revisiting it in the future. She did not respond to PCD’s questions about the removal, such as if any group or individual had lobbied against it.

Rep. Ted Davis Jr., R-New Hanover — who introduced the Second Chance Act four years ago — said he was confused by Stevens’ action. “Very rarely will you hear me stand up and talk against a Republican bill,” he told Port City Daily Monday. “But I felt so strongly that this was wrong.”

“I basically broke rank and told the bodies I thought this was wrong, that we were doing the wrong thing,” Davis said.

In the same session, Stevens put forward a separate bill — Senate Bill 303, “Various Court Changes” — but did not mention she had added language to require the suspension of automated expunctions until July 2025.

Davis told PCD he was unaware of Stevens’ secondary effort. On June 26, lawmakers removed the suspension provision from S.B. 303 — as well as the repeal of automated expunctions in S.B. 565 — before quickly passing the bills through both chambers. Cooper signed them into law on July 8.

Laura Webb, director of the North Carolina Justice Center’s Fair Chance Criminal Justice Project, said a broad group of stakeholders worked to address concerns cited by Stevens and explain how stakeholder recommendations would fix them. “There was a rapid-response campaign, where a lot of people banded together to reach out to lawmakers and educate them about what they were voting on,” she said. “And I think once people got clarification about what the bill actually said, they realized it was going back on a promise made four years ago.”

Supporters including Davis, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, North Carolina Conservatives for Criminal Justice Reform, the North Carolina  Justice Center, and the North Carolina  ACLU have cited increased employment among the benefits of automated expunctions. [Source]

Alcohol Monitoring

Lucas Thomae, Carolina Public Press, 7/23/24

Shortly after Carolina Public Press reported on the uncertainty surrounding social services agencies’ ability to use court-ordered alcohol-monitoring bracelets, one advocacy group unveiled its plans to address that gap in the law. Ellen Pitt, a Mothers Against Drunk Driving advocate and leading organizer in the Western NC DWI Task Force, shared with CPP a draft of a proposed bill amendment that would explicitly approve the use of alcohol-monitoring bracelets by judges in juvenile court.

Rep. Mike Clampitt, R-Swain, told CPP that he would support the legislation and plans to bring it to the attention of the House Standing Committee on Families, Children and Aging Policy, which he co-chairs. Clampitt is a regular attendee of the Western NC DWI Task Force meetings and has championed bills originating from the group in the past, including a 2021 bipartisan law that required continuing education for magistrates.

Pitt expects this legislation on CAM bracelets to attract broad support. “We have, from both sides of the aisle, legislators I think (who) will support this 100 percent,” she said. “They’ll be much more likely to support it if these DSS directors get on board.”

A spokesperson from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which houses DSS, told CPP earlier this month that the state law which authorizes the use of alcohol-monitoring bracelets in criminal and civil contexts doesn’t apply to DSS agencies. That’s because DSS operates under the juvenile code — a wholly different body of law.

This proposed legislation lifts most of its language from Chapter 50 of the state’s general statutes and would simply add it to the juvenile code, Chapter 7B.

“As part of a treatment plan the court may require that the parent, guardian, custodian, stepparent, adult member of the juvenile’s household, or adult entrusted with the juvenile’s care to abstain from consuming alcohol and may require submission to a continuous alcohol monitoring system of a type approved by the Division of Community Supervision and Reentry of the Department of Adult Correction to verify compliance with this plan of treatment,” the proposed amendment reads.

While the proposed bill amendment is gaining early support on the legislative side of things, it’s unclear whether DSS agencies will throw their support behind it.

Sharnese Ransome, executive director of the NC Association of County Departments of Social Services, told CPP that she was “unfamiliar with the proposed legislation” and declined to comment on the matter. [Source]

 

Delinquent Taxes

Matt Lamb, The (Southern Pines) Pilot, 7/23/24

A newly passed bill from the General Assembly may have a significant financial impact on local governments. Three-quarters of the way through a 40-page regulatory reform effort, Senate Bill 607 specifies that county governments or municipalities that levy taxes are responsible for posting a notice on each piece of property in the county with a tax lien starting Jan. 1, 2025.

Counties or other taxing units have long been required to post delinquent property tax liens in the local newspaper of record. The Pilot publishes that list from Moore County each March.

In addition to the existing advertising practice, counties across the state will now have to advertise tax liens by “posting notice of the lien in a conspicuous manner at the parcel to be advertised.”

Moore County Tax Collections Division Manager Leanne Calloway said her office is still deciding how best to address the new requirement. “It’s something that is still under discussion,” she said. “We are also waiting for guidance from the Department of Revenue before we make any final decisions. It’s not something we have determined.”

Board of Commissioners Chair Nick Picerno is concerned about the implications of the new bill. “It will cost,” he said. “I didn’t read what kind of notice; it could be a sign, but it doesn’t say. I would think that’s costly. Fortunately for Moore County taxpayers, we keep the rate low, and they pay, but I still think it’s overkill.”

“I will be pushing for a resolution asking for this requirement to be removed ASAP,” Picerno said in a text message. “Some people really struggle to pay their tax bill; why embarrass them further?” [Source]

 

Medical Debt

Santiago Ochoa, WFDD Radio, 7/23/24

Gov. Roy Cooper stopped in Winston-Salem Tuesday to discuss medical debt relief with multiple community groups and agencies. According to a press release from his office, Cooper met members of the Winston-Salem-based Debt Jubilee Project, who buy medical debt from local hospitals in order to forgive it. He also met with members of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Earlier this month, Cooper unveiled a plan that could see North Carolina hospitals forgive up to $4 billion in medical debt in exchange for access to increased Medicaid funds from the state. Per the release, there are about 90,000 residents in Forsyth County with a combined medical debt of $2 million. [Source]

 

Energy Assistance

Will Michaels, WUNC Radio, 7/23/24

Local governments in North Carolina have far less cash on hand for low-income residents who need help paying utility bills this summer. Congress cut billions of dollars from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, bringing it back to pre-pandemic levels. North Carolina’s share this fiscal year is $55 million less than last year, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Each county’s social services department gets some of these funds on July 1. Wake County got less than $300,000 this year, compared to nearly $2 million last year.

A Wake County spokeswoman says at the end of last week, there was about $32,000 left. Cumberland County’s social services department says its funds were practically gone by July 15. Residents who need help paying their bills can also ask for assistance from their utility companies. Duke Energy, for example, has a donation program called Share the Light.

A state health department spokeswoman says residents can also check to see if they qualify for Food and Nutrition Services or Medicaid to help with monthly bills. [Source]

Land Restoration

Zachary Turner, WFAE Radio, 7/23/24

Nature has its own solutions for combating climate change. The federal government awarded North Carolina $139 million to help nature do just that by protecting land that also captures and stores carbon.

Gov. Roy Cooper organized a four-state coalition to apply for federal funds to increase natural habitats that remove and store carbon from the atmosphere. Proposed projects include planting urban trees, reforesting land, and coastal erosion control. These projects also aim to help communities weather the worsening effects of climate change, such as extreme heat and flooding. Award recipients across the U.S. estimated that their projects would avoid nearly 1 billion metric tons of carbon emissions by 2050, or roughly the emissions generated by 5 million average homes during the next 25 years.

The Nature Conservancy, one of the nonprofit partners on the grant application, will be rewetting peatlands in North Carolina. That’s a wetland type that emits carbon when dry but stores gas when wet. Ten acres of healthy peatlands can store the equivalent of 3.25 passenger vehicles per year.

The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources partnered with multiple state agencies, as well as nonprofits like the N.C. Coastal Federation, Sustainable Forestry and Land Retention Project, and the Black Family Land Trust to apply for federal funding.

Cooper touted the economic returns this grant will bring the state. Grant partners plan to add thousands of acres to coastal state parks. North Carolina’s state park system attracts millions of visitors each year. [Source]

UNC Outage

Richard Stradling, The News & Observer, 7/23/24

UNC Health lost access to computer programs at its clinics and hospitals across the state Tuesday afternoon after an air conditioning system failed at a remote data center.

Doctors, nurses and other practitioners were able to continue treating patients, said spokesman Alan Wolf, but access to medical records was disrupted for about an hour and a half. The outage began about 3 p.m. when an air conditioning condenser at the data center stopped working, Wolf said. As the temperature in the center rose, computer servers automatically shut down.

“Our IT experts were able to restore most systems again quickly,” Wolf wrote in a statement. The servers were all operational again by 4:30 p.m.

UNC Health staff used paper forms while the electronic medical records system was down, something they’re accustomed to doing whenever there are power or computer problems, Wolf said. [Source]

ACC Lawsuits

Mitchell Northam, WUNC Radio, 7/22/24

Much has changed in the landscape of college athletics since Jim Phillips became the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference four years ago.

Among those shifts and developments have been the introduction of NIL, allowing college athletes to earn money from their name, image and likeness. It’s now legal to gamble on sports in 38 states, including North Carolina, where the ACC was formed 71 years ago and still hosts its headquarters today. And conference realignment — driven by television revenue from football — have made teams look for greener pastures. Since Texas and Oklahoma accepted invitations to join the Southeastern Conference in July 2021, dozens of schools have changed athletic conferences and the Pac-12 no longer exists. The ACC took in two Pac-12 refugees — Cal and Stanford, along with Southern Methodist University — to expand the league to 17 football-playing members in a conference footprint that now stretches from coast to coast.

The ACC has not been immune to conference realignment. Florida State and Clemson have each separately sued the league in the past seven months. The Seminoles filed first last December, and then the Tigers brought forth litigation in March. The league responded to both schools with countersuits to enforce their previous agreements.

Speaking on Monday at the Hilton in Uptown Charlotte at ACC Kickoff – the conference’s annual media days for football – Phillips spoke with force about the lawsuits and made one thing crystal clear: the ACC will not throw in the towel on this legal battle.

“We will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes,” Phillips said. “We are confident in this league and that it will remain a premier conference in college athletics for the long-term future. These disputes continue to be damaging, disruptive and incredibly harmful to the league.”

By filing lawsuits against the ACC, Clemson and Florida State have loudly voiced their desire and intentions to leave the conference. But standing in their way – the thing they are trying to wriggle out of by way of litigation – is an imposing grant-of-rights that each member school signed and agreed to in 2013 that gives the ACC control of media rights for the duration of a TV deal with ESPN that runs through 2036. The schools agreed to the grant-of-rights once more before the ACC Network launched in 2019, which the ACC and ESPN are 50-50 partners in.

The way things currently stand, even if Clemson and Florida State paid a nine-figure exit fee to leave the ACC, the conference would still own the media rights for the Tigers and Seminoles for the next decade-plus, meaning that Clemson and Florida State wouldn’t be able to profit off their games being on television. Clemson and Florida State are hoping to find a loophole through all this in court, but the ACC is standing its ground.

Phillips also vigorously defended his predecessor, John Swofford, who served as the ACC Commissioner from 1997 to 2021 and led the charge in launching the ACC Network and locking down a long-term deal with ESPN.

“John Swofford is a decent and honorable man and is widely respected in our industry. He led this conference with a steady hand for over two decades,” Phillips said. “The fact is that every member of this conference willingly signed the grant-of-rights and unanimously – and quite frankly, eagerly – agreed to our current television contract and the launch of the ACC Network. The ACC — our collective membership and conference office — deserves better.”

Clemson and Florida State are the only two ACC football programs to win national championships in the past two decades. The two schools – along with UNC-Chapel Hill – voted against the ACC adding Stanford, Cal and SMU last fall.

In a statement last fall, the UNC Board of Trustees said of the expansion: “The travel distances for routine in-conference competitive play are too great for this arrangement to make sense… The economics of this newly imagined transcontinental conference do not sufficiently address the income disparity ACC members face.”

Since the ACC officially welcomed those three new members, the UNC System Board of Governors gave itself additional power in conference realignment, making it a requirement that any of North Carolina’s public universities – which include ACC members UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State – get permission from the BOG before changing athletic conferences. [Source]

 

Belk Restructuring

Catherine Muccigrosso, The Charlotte Observer, 7/23/24

Belk is unloading more than $950 million in debt and giving some lenders more controlling interests in the company just three years after emerging from bankruptcy. The iconic Charlotte-based department store’s financial restructuring announced Tuesday also includes securing $485 million in new financing as part of its strategy to strengthen its financial standing.

Belk CEO Don Hendricks called it a “pivotal milestone” for the company’s “sustainable, long-term growth and profitability.”

The privately-owned department store’s “deleveraging transaction” is with the company’s first and second lien lenders, including private equity firms KKR and Hein Park, and private equity owner Sycamore Partners, Belk said in a news release.

Deleveraging typically involves paying down debt, refinancing at lower interest rates or restructuring debt obligations to make them more manageable.

Tuesday’s transaction, which extends the secured lending maturity date to July 2029, saves thousands of jobs and allows the 136-year-old company to expand its national vendor partnerships, Belk said without elaboration. Belk officials refused to respond to requests for comment, referring to the news release. Belk has nearly 300 stores in 16 Southern states, and over 20,000 employees. [Source]

Truist Report

Business NC, 7/22/24

Truist Financial shares moved higher Monday despite reporting lower profit in the second quarter. The Charlotte-based bank reported a profit of $826 million, or 62 cents a share, compared with $1.23 billion, or 92 cents, a year earlier. The company benefited from a $6.9 billion gain from the sale of its Truist Insurance brokerage business, while it reported $6.7 billion in securities losses as it repositioned its balance sheet. The latter losses involved part of its available-for-sale investment securities.

For the first half of the year, Truist said its adjusted net income was $2.45 billion, versus $2.64 billion in the same period last year.

Shares gained more than 3% in midday trading to about $43.75. After briefly trading for less than $27 in May 2023, Truist shares are now at their highest level since early 2023. Over the past five years, shares have declined about 14%, compared with a 2% gain in the S&P regional bank ETF and an 80% surge in the S&P 500 Index.

The quarter included the completion of the sale of Truist’s remaining 80% stake in its insurance unit, which it had built to be among the largest U.S. brokerages over recent decades. The move improves Truist’s capital position, enabling it to announce plans to repurchase $5 billion of shares over several years. [Source]

 

Legal Aid AI

David Ford, WFDD Radio, 7/23/24

For more than 90% of low-income Americans, getting sufficient legal help for civil disputes can be out of reach. The nonprofit law firm Legal Aid of North Carolina recently launched a new AI-powered tool to help bridge that justice gap.

In criminal court every American facing the loss of their freedom has a constitutional right to an attorney, and along with that access to the courts, legal advice, and information. Not so for civil cases like loss of housing or child custody battles, and the need is great. Roughly 400,000 North Carolinians contact Legal Aid’s helpline every year. To help meet that demand, the nonprofit has created LIA, a Legal Information Assistant, that lives on the nonprofit’s website and uses AI to virtually steer people to the information and resources that reside there.

Chief Innovation Officer Scheree Gilchrist led the research effort. “When you’re somebody who’s facing crisis or you have maybe literacy challenges, that dense information is really hard to wade through to figure out,” says Gilchrist. “‘What do I need to answer the simple question that I might have?’ or, ‘What do I need to then move forward to determine what’s the next step in this process for me?’”

Gilchrist cautions that LIA does not offer advice tailored to a person’s specific legal matter. But visitors can use the service to ask questions using plain, non-legalese language, and quickly receive answers. Long-term goals for LIA include guiding people to Legal Aid’s online application, connecting them with attorneys, and eventually partner organizations that can provide additional services. [Source]

 

IT Outage

WTVD News, 7/23/24

The global IT outage continues to cause problems at airports across the country. The impact is still being felt at Raleigh-Durham International Airport where nearly 20 flights are already canceled, and at least 43 flights were delayed Tuesday.

Since the Friday outage, Delta Airlines has canceled more than 4,000 flights. The outage affected the application used to ensure all flights have a full crew, which requires the most work. Delta CEO Ed Bastian shared that it could be days before the airline gets back on track.

The wave of IT outages on Friday also caused disruptions in hospitals, banks and stock exchanges. The outage partly stemmed from a software update issued by major US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. [Source]

Legislative Sessions, Studies and Meetings

LB: LEGISLATIVE BUILDING. LOB: LEGISLATIVE OFFICE BUILDING

HOUSE COMMITTEE MEETINGS

Tuesday, July 23

• 9:00 A.M. | House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform, Auditorium.

HOUSE CALENDAR

Monday, July 29, 2024

• House Convenes at 12:00 P.M.

SENATE CALENDAR

Monday, July 29, 2024

• House Convenes at 12:00 P.M.

HOUSE & SENATE: Reconvening allowed under provisions of SB 916, if no sine die adjournment previously adopted.

• Monday, July 29 to Thursday Aug. 1
• Monday, Sept. 9 to Wednesday, Sept. 11
• Wednesday, Oct. 9
• Tuesday, Nov. 19 to Friday Nov. 22
• Wednesday, Dec. 11 to Friday Dec. 13

N.C. Government Meetings and Hearings

BOLD ITEMS ARE NEW LISTINGS

Wednesday, July 24

• 8:30 a.m. | NC Soil & Water Conservation Commission  – Business Session, Trinity Road at Martin Bldg, Raleigh.
• 10 a.m. | NC Joint Reentry Council meets, Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, 1924 Capital Blvd, Raleigh.

Thursday, July 25

• 9 a.m. | N.C. Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System & Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement System  – TSERS and LGERS Boards of Trustees Meeting, 3200 Atlantic Ave, Raleigh.
• 9 a.m. | North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission  –  Commission Business Meeting, 1751 Varsity Drive, Raleigh.
• 1:30 p.m. | NC State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees  – State Health Plan Board of Trustees, 3200 Atlantic Ave, Raleigh.

Wednesday, July 31

• 10 a.m. | North Carolina State Board of Education meets, 1 South Wilmington St, Raleigh.

Thursday, Aug. 1

• 6 p.m. | The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality Public Hearing on Moriah Energy Center Draft Air Quality Permit, Vance-Granville Community College, 200 Community College Road, Henderson.

Monday, Aug. 5

• 9 a.m. | The Board Development Committee of The North Carolina Partnership for Children meets, The meeting will be held via Zoom. You may contact Yvonne Huntley at 984.221.1242 or email at [email protected] for additional information.

Tuesday, Aug. 6

• 9 a.m. | The Council of State meets. 1 South Wilmington St, Raleigh.

Monday, Aug. 19

• 2 p.m. | The Executive Committee of The North Carolina Partnership for Children meets, The meeting will be held via Zoom. You may contact Yvonne Huntley at 984.221.1242 or email at [email protected] for additional information.

UNC Board of Governors

23 S. WEST STREET, SUITE 1800, RALEIGH

Wednesday, July 24

• 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.: Committee on Educational Planning, Policies, and Programs, Board Room (17th Floor)
• 10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.: Committee on Budget and Finance, Board Room (17th Floor)
• 11:30 a.m. –  12:00 p.m.: Committee on University Governance, Board Room (17th Floor) 
• 12:15 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.: Committee on University Personnel,  Board Room (17th Floor) 
• 1:15 p.m. –   2:15 p.m.: Meeting of the Board of Governors, Board Room (17th Floor)

N.C. Utilities Commission Hearing Schedule

DOBBS BUILDING, 430 NORTH SALISBURY STREET, RALEIGH

Wednesday, July 24

• 9:30 a.m. | Expert Witness Hearing – Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC and Duke Energy Progress, LLC 2023 Biennial CPIRP | E-100 Sub 190
• 9:30 a.m. | Expert Public Witness Hearing – Joint Application of DEP and NCEMC for CPCN to Construct a 1360MW Electric Generating Facility in Person County, NC | E-2 Sub 1318, EC-67 Sub 55
• 9:30 a.m. | Expert Witness Hearing – Application for CPCN for 850 MW Natural Gas-Fired Combustion Turbine Electric Generating Facility Located at 8320 NC Highway 150 E, Terrell, NC 28682 in Catawba County | E-7 Sub 1297

Tuesday, Aug. 13

• 10 a.m. | Public Hearing – Annual Review of Gas Costs | G-5 Sub 675

Wednesday, Aug. 14

• 7 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application for General Rate Increase for Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. | G-9 Sub 837

Tuesday, Aug. 20

• 6 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application for Transfer of Public Utility Franchise and Approval of Rates of HISCO East, LLC in Carteret County to HISCO I in Carteret County | W-1297 Sub 17, W-1344 Sub 0
• 6 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application for Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and for Approval of Rates to Provide Sewer Utility Service to Currently Served Cape Ponte Village Subdivision, Additional Phases for the National Park Service, Harkers Island RV Park and a Fe | W-1344 Sub 1

Wednesday, Aug. 21

• 7 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application for General Rate Increase for Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. | G-9 Sub 837

Thursday, Aug. 22

• 7 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application for General Rate Increase for Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. | G-9 Sub 837

Other Meetings and Events of Interest

BOLD ITEMS ARE NEW LISTINGS

Wednesday, July 24

• 9:45 a.m. | Gov. Roy Cooper to deliver remarks and participate in turbine blade signing ceremony celebrating Timbermill Wind clean energy project, Edenton United Methodist Church, 225 Virginia Road, Edenton.

Saturday, July 27

9 a.m. | North Carolina Federation of Young Republicans Convention, The Farm at 95, Selma..