North Carolina

N. Carolina governor’s big budget increase scoffed at by GOP

Published

2 years ago

March 15, 2023

N. Carolina governor’s big budget increase scoffed at by GOP

RALEIGH, N.C. — RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Democratic governor launched his state authorities spending plan on Wednesday that might enhance spending by 20% over the following two years, double the rise favored by Republican majorities within the Home and Senate.

Gov. Roy Cooper says the large surge in spending is important to arrange residents for future employment to recruit and retain academics and state workers. The rise can be funded partially by halting already accepted revenue tax decreases for companies and the best wage earners for upcoming years. There’s additionally a projected income surplus this 12 months of over $3 billion.

“As soon as-in-a-generation alternatives require once-in-a-generation investments,” Cooper stated at a information convention. “This price range we’re presenting at the moment meets the second.”

The governor’s proposed price range would give public college educators common wage raises of 18% via mid-2025 and eight% raises over two years to different college employees workers, together with bonuses of both $1,000 or $1,500 for all of those employees. State workers in hard-to-staff positions additionally may anticipate extra pay boosts. The raises are designed to handle 5,000 trainer vacancies and people in state authorities, the place emptiness charges are practically double what they had been earlier than the pandemic.

North Carolina common trainer salaries at the moment rank close to the underside amongst Southeastern states. Cooper’s proposal would increase the bottom pay for first-year academics from $37,000 at the moment to $46,000 in fall 2024.

Whereas Cooper’s price range proposal will get a proper evaluation by legislators on Thursday, a lot of the plan is prone to be put aside by Republicans who management the Common Meeting and have embraced across-the-board tax cuts as a significant coverage achievement.

Senate chief Phil Berger referred to as Cooper’s price range “an irresponsible, unserious proposal from a lame-duck governor who desires future North Carolinians to select up his tab.” Cooper is term-limited from searching for reelection in 2024.

“The Common Meeting will proceed on the fiscally accountable path that has made our state engaging to so many,” Home Speaker Tim Moore added in a written assertion.

Cooper’s workplace says his plan is fiscally sound, as $6.8 billion will stay earmarked for monetary and catastrophe emergencies.

Cooper additionally desires to spend $4.5 billion to fund totally a court-mandated plan to handle public college inequities stemming from longtime litigation often called Leandro, an early plaintiff. Republican legislators disagree on the scale and scope of that training plan.

“The foremost focus of my price range is strengthening training with historic investments from cradle to profession,” Cooper stated, additionally mentioning hundred of thousands and thousands of {dollars} budgeted for youngster care facilities and to oldsters utilizing them. “We will and will make good on the constitutional assure of a sound primary training to create alternative for everyone.”

Since Republicans now maintain a veto-proof majority within the Senate and are only one seat shy of the same margin within the Home, they’ve extra leeway to style a plan with much less spending and probably extra tax cuts, and might fear much less a few Cooper veto.

Home Republicans are aiming to cross its model of a two-year price range by early subsequent month. The Senate will then approve its personal invoice, resulting in negotiations to get a price range enacted earlier than the brand new fiscal 12 months begins July 1.

The underside line numbers alone supply a steep distinction.

Home and Senate Republican leaders introduced final week that they’d agreed to spend no extra $29.7 billion within the coming fiscal 12 months, which is 6.5% above the present fiscal 12 months’s price range. The quantity would develop to $30.8 billion through the 2024-25 fiscal 12 months, or one other 3.75% enhance.

Cooper’s plan, in the meantime, envisions spending virtually $33 billion subsequent 12 months — an 18% enhance, adopted by $34.2 billion the next 12 months, for an extra 3.9% enhance.

As introduced final week, the governor’s price range additionally would put aside $1 billion from the federal authorities’s sweetener to the state for accepting Medicaid enlargement to beef up the state’s psychological well being companies.

Legislators are inside days of presenting to Cooper a bipartisan consensus invoice to broaden Medicaid to a number of hundred thousand low-income adults. Republicans have talked about utilizing the additional money from Washington to fund psychological well being therapy.

Cooper’s price range proposal additionally would enhance spending on community-based companies for individuals with disabilities; put aside extra matching funds wanted to entry federal grants; and enhance workforce growth and apprenticeship packages.

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North Carolina

Key Ole Miss Transfer Target Thaddeus Dixon Chooses North Carolina Over Rebels

Published

5 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Key Ole Miss Transfer Target Thaddeus Dixon Chooses North Carolina Over Rebels

The Ole Miss Rebels have made strong moves in the transfer portal this offseason, but the program missed out on a key contributor on Saturday when cornerback Thaddeus Dixon pledged to the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Ole Miss was in the race late for Dixon, but a deciding factor in his decision to join the Tar Heels may have boiled down to Carolina’s hiring of former Washington assistant Armond Hawkins as defensive backs coach. Dixon is a transfer from the Washington Huskies, so familiarity in his new home likely played a role.

BREAKING: Washinton transfer CB Thaddeus Dixon has committed to North Carolina, @Hayesfawcett3 reports🐏https://t.co/pcXs7hjbOS pic.twitter.com/6g5D02NC7V
— Transfer Portal (@TransferPortal_) January 18, 2025

READ MORE: Will Ole Miss QB Austin Simmons Continue Playing Baseball in 2025?

So, where do the Rebels go from here? Ole Miss has already gained some key pieces in its secondary out of the transfer portal (including CB Jaylon Braxton of Arkansas), but Lane Kiffin’s team will probably still be seeking some help in the defensive backfield as the transfer portal continues to move.

According to On3’s current transfer portal class rankings, Ole Miss has the third-best haul in the country, behind Texas Tech and Missouri. The Rebels have seen 23 players transfer into the program so far this offseason, and that number could continue to grow between now and kickoff of the 2025 season.

Ole Miss opens its 2025 campaign on Aug. 30 at home against Georgia State.

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North Carolina

Thaddeus Dixon Joins in Husky Exodus to North Carolina

Published

13 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Thaddeus Dixon Joins in Husky Exodus to North Carolina

In a postseason recruitment that was raw and revealing at times, where decorated cornerback Thaddeus Dixon suggested in social media postings that University of Washington football fans wanted him to come back more than the coaches, apparently received all the assurances he needed at North Carolina.

On Saturday, the senior defensive back from Long Beach, California, told On3 he would join the Tar Heels for his final season of college football, adding to a growing list of one-time UW players and coaches headed to Chapel Hill.

So far, the departing group includes linebacker Khmori House, safety Peyton Waters, wide receiver Jason Robinson Jr., defensive coordinator Steve Belichick and defensive analyst Armond Hawkins, all moving from Montlake to the ACC.

The 6-foot-1, 187-pound Dixon would have given the Huskies three highly accredited corners, joining fellow UW starter Ephesians Prysock and Arizona transfer Tacario Davis, to fill out a secondary that could have had few equals this coming season, and still might.

BREAKING: Washington star transfer CB Thaddeus Dixon has Committed to North Carolina, he tells @on3sports
The 6’1 195 CB totaled 69 Tackles, 16 PD, 1 FF, & 2 INT in 2 seasons with the Huskies
Ranked as a Top 10 Player in the Portal (No. 2 CB) per On3https://t.co/RlUbB6EMhS pic.twitter.com/bePHJU7wP7
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) January 18, 2025

Dixon reportedly took recruiting visits to Mississippi and North Carolina, and fielded overtures from Michigan, before settling on the Tar Heels.

The disconnect for Dixon appeared to show up when the Huskies landed a portal commitment from the 6-foot-4, 190-pound Davis, a second-team All-Big 12 pick this past season, presumably to take his vacated spot.

The 6-foot-4, 193-pound Prysock and Davis teamed together at Arizona in 2023, with both earning All-Pac-12 honorable-mention accolades.

Dixon originally was supposed to run out of college eligibility when the season ended, hence the Huskies went looking for cornerback help, but the NCAA gave the veteran an extra year when it changed the rules governing players with junior-college backgrounds. He came to the UW from Long Beach Community College.

One of the Huskies’ top individual success stories this past season, Dixon went from a back-up player in 2023 to unseat returning starter Elijah Jackson, who opened all 15 games for the national runner-up team.

Thaddeus Dixon soaks up the moment after an Apple Cup interception. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Moving into the lineup, Dixon started 12 of 13 games and received All-Big Ten honorable-mention honors for Jedd Fisch’s coaching staff. He had a team-best 10 pass break-ups, an Apple Cup interception and several textbook tackles in the open field. He’s easily made himself into an NFL prospect.

With three accomplished cornerbacks, the Huskies could have picked two starters and put the odd man out at nickelback.

Dixon clearly wasn’t going to go that route at the UW, likely figuring his past performance should have provided him with more cornerback guarantees.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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North Carolina

Bill Belichick's girlfriend seemingly shuts down rumors coach will leave North Carolina for NFL

Published

20 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Bill Belichick's girlfriend seemingly shuts down rumors coach will leave North Carolina for NFL

Bill Belichick’s girlfriend on Thursday seemingly shut down any talk of her boyfriend leaving the North Carolina Tar Heels football program for a job in the NFL.

Jordon Hudson responded to rumors that suggested Belichick had one foot out the door when it came to his Tar Heels gig. Belichick had been rumored to be interest in coaching the Dallas Cowboys, but the head coaching job wasn’t open until he had already committed to North Carolina. CBS Sports reported that Belichick didn’t sign his contract with the school.

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Oct. 26, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey: Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and girlfriend Jordon Hudson enter the field before the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Navy Midshipmen at MetLife Stadium. (Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images)

She posted a photo on her Instagram showing the two posing with a football and Belichick dressed in Carolina blue.

“Pictured: two people who are overtly committed to @uncfootball,” she wrote as the caption.

Michael Lombardi, who is the general manager of the North Carolina football program, also threw cold water on the rumors of Belichick jumping back to the pros.

EX-NFL COACH JON GRUDEN RIPS STATE OF COLLEGE SPORTS

Dec. 12, 2024; Chapel Hill, NC: Jordon Hudson, the girlfriend of Bill Belichick, in attendance at Loudermilk Center for Excellence. (Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images)

“Bill is recruiting in DC today, and Baltimore tomorrow. His focus is on North Carolina football, hiring staff members and developing the team. The NFL isnt a option so please stop making it one. Thank you,” he wrote on X in response to the CBS Sports report.

“The reception towards UNC and Coach Belichick has been amazing from every school we visit. We are going to fight to keep North Carolina players here and bring the best to Chapel Hill,” he added.

Belichick was hired as the Tar Heels’ coach in December. He called the job a “dream come true.”

Bill Belichick fields questions from media

The North Carolina Tar Heels’ new head coach Bill Belichick speaks to the media at Loudermilk Center for Excellence. (Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images)

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“I’ve always wanted to coach in college football,” Belichick said in his introductory press conference. “It just never really worked out. Had some good years in the NFL, so that was OK. But this is really a dream come true.”

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