ALERT: Proposed Lottery Expansion Is a Tax Increase
As lawmakers continue to hash out the details of the State Budget that includes a provision to significantly expand government-sponsored gambling in North Carolina, a recent Tax Foundation article argues that the State Lottery operates as a partial tax and that any increases in the lottery should be considered a tax increase. As NC Family […]
State Senate Approves “Taxpayer Protection Act”
A measure that would present a three-part constitutional question to North Carolina voters in 2016 regarding state taxation, spending and savings passed the State Senate this afternoon. SB 607-Taxpayer Protection Act received the necessary three-fifths supermajority vote required for constitutional amendments, passing the Senate by a party line vote of 31-14. Under SB 607, voters […]
ALERT: Efforts to Defund Planned Parenthood Continue
With Tuesday’s release of a fifth undercover video exposing Planned Parenthood’s harvesting and sale of aborted babies and body parts, the call to defund the nation’s leading abortion provider continues to escalate in our nation’s Capital and in North Carolina. The latest video released by the Center for Medical Progress shows a director of one […]
Planned Parenthood Faces Congressional Scrutiny
In the wake of fall-out from an undercover video investigation linking the nation’s largest abortion provider to the harvesting and sale of organs from aborted babies, North Carolina’s U.S. Senators Richard Burr (R) and Thom Tillis (R) are co-sponsoring legislation to end federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA), Rand Paul (R-KY), and […]
NC Supreme Court Finds Opportunity Scholarships Constitutional!
In a long-awaited ruling that bolsters the future of school choice in North Carolina, the State Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Opportunity Scholarship Program. In its 4 to 3 opinion issued July 23, the state’s highest court reversed a lower court ruling that said the program, which allows lower income families to apply for […]
Responding to the Sale of Unborn Children
Disgust. Horror. Sorrow. Anger. The nausea of early pregnancy was exacerbated for me this week by an onslaught of clips, quotes, and pictures from an American horror story every time I opened my computer. Knowing that my own unborn child is currently in the midst of the first trimester—when the majority of abortions are performed—made […]
Boy Scouts Set to Change Ban on Homosexual Leaders
The Boy Scouts of America’s (BSA) long-standing prohibition on openly homosexual Scout leaders could soon be history. On July 10, the BSA’s executive committee voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to amend the BSA’s adult leadership standards to “allow chartered organizations to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation…” The resolution must receive […]
ALERT: General Assembly Budget Proposes Lottery Expansion…Again
The State Senate version of the proposed budget plan being discussed in Raleigh includes provisions that would expand state lottery advertising and operations, including the sale of online scratch-off tickets. Page 10 of the 504-page Senate budget proposal would authorize a 50 percent expansion in lottery advertising, from 1 percent of annual lottery revenues to […]
SB 2 Protects Religious Liberty in North Carolina
In the wake of last month’s disappointing U.S. Supreme Court decision forcing marriage redefinition on every state, magistrates and registers of deeds employees across North Carolina are utilizing the state’s new religious liberty law to recuse themselves from involvement in marriage ceremonies that violate their conscience. The new law, Senate Bill 2—Magistrates Recusal of Civil […]
North Carolinians Still Support Marriage and Religious Freedom
A majority of North Carolinians—regardless of gender, age, race or political affiliation—support marriage as defined in the N.C. Constitution and support religious liberty protection for public officials, when it comes to marriage. As the fallout from last week’s Supreme Court marriage ruling continues to settle, the John W. Pope Civitas Institute released its June 2015 […]