NC looks to suspend its gas tax | Hour 3

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to the peak calendar show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. As we do every Monday at 2 o'clock, we chat with A.P. Dillon. She is a reporter at the North State Journal, NSJOnline.com. You can also subscribe to her Substack newsletter. It's called More to the Story. A.P., how are you today? I'm fabulous. How are you doing? Fabulous. Wow. I'm doing okay. I slept this weekend. Oh, nice. Good for you. Yeah. That's overrated. Yeah, I'm pretty punchy. I was up late watching the Panther game, so... No regrets, though. All right. So we got a legislative session that started up today, right? And this is a special session. So what makes it so special? Well, yes. From what I'm understanding, lawmakers descended on Raleigh today, at least leadership did. And there will be possibly a special session called this week in order to put a moratorium, a temporary moratorium on gas tax in order to give folks a break at the pump. In particular, this kind of was sparked by Josh Stein doing something similar for farmers with their dye-based diesel, which diesel prices have just been crazy compared to everybody else's prices for gas. And he wanted to give them a break. So he was doing some work with that. And that's sort of what I think prompted this by lawmakers. In a nutshell, you know, we charge, what is it, 41 cents a gallon in state motor fuel taxes. I think that's the current amount for 2026. That money doesn't go into the general fund for budgeting or anything. It's the single largest source for road funding, construction, and capital projects. I think 75% goes to the highway fund. and 25% goes to the highway trust fund, and the trust fund is the one that does construction. So, you know, what does this mean for people? Basically, a full holiday would probably take about $ 6 off if you're filling up your tank. If you've got a 15-gallon tank, it would be about $ 6 off of that. I mean, it's not nothing, but, you know, it's also temporary. And North Carolina has never done one of these before, so that's what's interesting to me. We do have one of the highest gas tax rates. of our neighbors surrounding us, mainly because we pay for most of our road construction and projects through those two funds I just mentioned. The national average, I think, is around 34 cents, and ours is, what, 41? So, yeah. Well, yeah. Of course, the highest is 70. Right. Well, and also North Carolina has more state roads than any other state except Texas. Yeah. Yeah, and so just the sheer volume of the work, And, you know, like, Mecklenburg County does not have any county roads, really. So, like, we don't... Yeah, a lot of them are not interstates either, which you can get federal dollars for. So, you know, I mean, trying to maintain all those rural routes and everything, especially ones being rebuilt from Helene and all that kind of thing. So there's, you know, there's... It would probably cost the state, you know, I think a couple million. You know, I think... If they were to do it for like a month, I think it would cost the two funds something like $ 200 million for just one month would be what the dent would be. So, you know. Yeah, well, then people will complain. Yeah, and then people will complain that their roads aren't being done. So it's like, yeah, so like you're going to complain about gas prices. Okay, so we'll take off the tax. But then it's like, well, now I'm complaining. That we're not building roads or resurfacing the roads in a timely fashion. So I think, but you mentioned that Josh Stein, Democrat governor, that he was doing the same sort of relief idea for diesel. And so you would specifically, yeah. So you would think though, then that the Democrats would be on board with this as a concept, but I will, but I, I will let you know, I'm not sure you've seen this, but, the Senate minority leader, Sidney Batch, she is just going after the Republicans for this, saying that this is a sign of their failed leadership. This is a day late and many dollars short. And how dare they be doing this? This is all about politics. So I'm not sure if that same analysis applies to Minnie Cooper or Josh Stein. No, I'm not sure it does either. But, you know, I mean, it's worth mentioning that, like, I think back when Biden was president, I think there was a similar problem with the gas. He went through all the gas stockpiles and folks were saying, you know, repeal of the national gas tax for, you know, a month or whatever. And I want to say that Senator Berger at that time called that a gimmick. So, I mean, whether this is political or not, I mean, obviously, we've got a war with Iran. Fuel is expensive. It's going to stay expensive. For a while. You know, it's still lower than it was when Biden was in office. But, you know, it is what it is. And we're going to see what shakes out from that. I have a feeling that it ends up being something more that's going to benefit farmers than it's going to benefit the average driver. I don't know that they're going to be able to do this. They're going to work. It's going to need Democrats to vote for it. you know, in the House at least. Right. Because it's going to be a two-thirds for this kind of move. Well, and the other pressure point on diesel is the Russia-Ukraine war, where Ukraine's been knocking out Russian diesel production. That's had a massive impact on the global market as well. Yes. But, you know, at the same token, you've seen President Trump opening up new drilling and exploration and coal. And, um, you know, there's, there's a lot of talk that I've seen, you know, in various political circles for Washington talking about opening up more drilling in the Gulf, opening up more drilling, even off of our coast, which several years ago, that was, that came up. And I believe governor Stein and South Carolina's Republican governor both told president Trump not to repeal that. And he didn't. In fact, he extended the moratorium. I want to say until 2032. Um, on offshore drilling and exploration off of our coast. So, you know, we'll see, we'll see what shakes out. I have a feeling it's going to be more agricultural bend than anything else. Well, um, I think, you know, as I've been saying, uh, repeatedly today and for the last few, uh, weeks that, uh, you know, people are mad about high gas prices. So I think the only rational thing to do is to put people in power who want to raise gas prices even higher. Uh, I mean, Democrats were all on board with the idea of raising the cost of fossil fuels so high that people would switch over to electric. So I think they should be given the reins of power. That makes total sense to me. Let me shift gears over to the 11th district in the mountains of western North Carolina. where you've got Jamie Ager running for the 11th Congressional District, and he's running against Jennifer Baucom. This is the seat that Chuck Edwards currently holds, but he's not running for reelection. He withdrew from reelection. And there was some audio or a video, I should say, of, I guess, an event that he held last month where he was touting universal health care, which I'm sure that'll make everything more affordable, too. Yeah. Yeah. Not really. No? Yeah, I mean, it was video that was sent to North State Journal. We took a look at it. We vetted it. It was real. It wasn't AI-generated. And he's talking to a bunch of folks during the campaign stop, and he basically says that we've got to make health care so it's universal. That's the quote. And then later he's asked by someone in attendance there whether or not he's proposing something like a for-all policy. Yeah, Medicare for all. Yeah, Bernie Sanders, Medicare for all. And, you know, Iger didn't appear to reject that characterization. Now, Sanders hasn't backed Iger yet, but we know that Elizabeth Warren did when she was here for the North Carolina Democratic Party's unity dinner in August. Um, so, you know, he's using, yeah, he's using the same playbook as Roy Cooper, right? They're both doing the same thing. They're, they're running as this, you know, middle of the road, good Democrat. I'm a moderate all shook. So I'm just a local like you kind of a Democrat, but we, we all know that when they're in, if they go to DC, they're just going to be similar votes as every other national Democrat is. And so, They're going to fall in line with whatever the leadership wants them to vote. And the leadership is now caught up. In the Marxist DSA base. And so they're not going to oppose the DSA platform. No, it doesn't look like it. They seem to be just riding along with it to see if it gets them to the number of seats that they want. Right. And what I think is they're not... estimating correctly is that once– if some of these DSA candidates get in there, if they think that they're going to go with the Democratic caucus on what they want to do, they're woefully wrong on that one. They're going to want to go far left. They're going to stick their fingers in everyone's eye over the issues that they want to get done. It's going to be lit, as the kids say. Yeah. I mean, like anything regarding voter ID, they're going to go back on, right? They want to abolish the Electoral College, do an end run around that. They're talking about packing the U.S. Supreme Court. And these are things that Medicare for All, as we just discussed, these are issues that Roy Cooper hasn't been asked at all about. Yeah. And like, all I get is coverage from, you know, the legacy outlets in Raleigh. All I get is coverage about the horse race. Who's polling at what number, how much money are they raising and spending? It's just, you know, this horse race coverage. And there isn't anything about how Roy Cooper is going to vote because he's the odds on favorite to win the race. You keep telling us that, right? The media keeps telling us that all the polling and all the money he's going to win. Well, you, Well, then we should know where he stands on these things. And nobody seems to be capable of asking him these questions. And nor does he appear interested in stepping up and doing any kind of a debate against Michael Wadley either. Oh, as your listeners probably know, I've tried asking some of these questions. We know, yes. But, you know, the campaign ignores me. So, you know, it is what it is. They kicked out one of our photographers. We tried to send the one. Um, so he's not interested in, in answering any of the questions like that, that I would ask. Um, and as far as the debate goes, um, he's not going to commit to that. No, I think the closest he came, somebody asked him if he would debate. He said, uh, he would have his people look into it. I think that's the closest he came to giving any kind of an answer. And it's not even an answer. I heard that it was, it was like he was asking permission from his own campaign to do things. And that was just weird to me. Yeah. Yeah, non-answer. We know he doesn't want to do it, and he doesn't have to. He's the frontrunner. He doesn't have to, so he won't. All right, we will leave it there. AP Dillon, you can catch her work over at North State Journal and subscribe to her Substack newsletter. It's called More to the Story. Thanks, AP. Thanks, Pete. All right, take care. The holidays will be here before you know it, and so now is the time to create precious and priceless family heirlooms that will last for generations. Take your old photos, slides, films, and tapes to create a video in Mint Hill. There, they'll turn those memories into the story of your lives, memories from past family events captured forever to pass down to future generations. Create-A-Video's skilled team will professionally transfer your family's stories onto easy-to-use USB drives or DVDs, that won't deteriorate over time like the old photos and tapes are doing right now. They will create a keepsake video that you can share and copy and keep forever. I can see it now. You're gathered around the holiday table with your loved ones, watching all these memories and people of your lives. You're sharing laughs, maybe some tears, telling stories that make your family uniquely yours. Beat the holiday rush and get your memories in now. Go to createavideo.com or visit them in Mint Hill just off I-485. Your photos and videos are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you. And they will tell others to come who you are. Visit createavideo.com. Hang on a second. I did get a text here from Terry who asks. How many state budgets did Roy Cooper veto while he was governor? Let me Google that for you. He vetoed two state budgets during his tenure. But remember, first off, this is AI. Secondly, that each budget is a two-year budget. So he has governor for two terms, eight years. He had a total of four budgets that he could veto. sign or veto or not sign and just allow to become law. It's like, we don't have a pocket veto in North Carolina. We have a pocket approval. Okay. So if you don't sign onto a bill that comes across your desk as governor, after 10 days, it becomes law. It does not get vetoed. So he vetoed his first budget. that he was governor to sign that was in 2017, 2018. So that's a two year budget. So you can say that he had a total of four biennial budgets, or you could say that in the eight terms, because when they pass the biennial budget, each year has its own sort of spending. So each biennial budget is actually two fiscal year budgets. So you could say that when he vetoed the 2017, 2018 budget, it was actually vetoing two budgets. Okay. So either way you do the math on that, it can be, he vetoed two of the four or he vetoed four of the eight. There was another budget, his final budget, 23, 24. He did not do anything. And that became law that got passed because he did not veto it. The reason he did not veto it was because the Republican legislature expanded Medicaid. And that was the thing he wanted more than. Anything else, to propel his run for federal office so he can tout that he got Medicaid expanded. And surprise, surprise, it's now bankrupting us. And so. That final budget, he did not veto it, but he did not sign it. So I don't give him any credit for that. I don't. That's the coward's way out. You should have signed it or you should have vetoed it. But he couldn't even bring himself to sign the thing with the budget with the Medicaid expansion in it. But now he claims credit for getting it done. That's what he's doing. Wouldn't even sign it. He did sign one budget in 2021-2022. So of the four total budgets that he had the ability to sign or veto, he signed one, allowed another one to become law without signing it, and vetoed two others. So that's his record there. But again, he wants the credit for expanding Medicaid but refused to sign the budget. Oh, and by the way, the budgets that he vetoed, he vetoed teacher pay raises. Because he was trying to get Medicaid expanded. So he held the teacher pay hostage in order to expand Medicaid. That's what he did. He will vote against his own constituency if it furthers his personal political agenda. That's one of his hallmarks. All right, real quick. Every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real, it's in your name, and 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. All right, so breaking news from Breaking Brett Jensen, which is kind of his brand. It's a day that ends in Y. So we've got another scandal involving Charlotte Mecklenburg schools. Breaking news. The federal government is now investigating CMS. Everybody wants a piece of this action. Man. So the Charlotte FBI office and the U S attorney's office have confirmed the investigation in statements this afternoon. They're not saying what they're looking at. I am going, I'm just spit. Ball in here. I'm going to go out on a limb and I'm going to say it might have something to do with the corruption. That's my guess. Maybe related to financial corruption or, contracts and such, maybe some racketeering or something. I'm just, I'm just asking questions. By the way, thank you to Julia coin and Mary Ramsey at the Charlotte observer who actually credited WBT radio for. First breaking the news. Thank you. Cause Brett, I mean, Brett didn't get mentioned. I'm sure he'll have some thoughts on that, but I know, look, I appreciate it. You know how long it's been and how hard it is to get WBT's call letters listed in an article at the Charlotte Observer for anything like this? It's very difficult. Anyway, so thank you for that. But yeah, Brett Jensen reported this. You heard it in the newscast there. I think it was about an hour ago. And obviously they cannot comment on an ongoing investigation. But now let's see here. I'm running out of fingers to count all of the different investigations we got going on. We've got the Now, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office, we have the State Bureau of Investigation. That was a recommendation from our district attorney, Spencer Merriweather, for them to look into it. We also have the North Carolina State Auditor. They're looking at the financial irregularities. They came and paid a visit to CMS a couple days back. get some paperwork and talk to some people. They can make criminal referrals as well if they uncover stuff. And then remember last week we had the State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction. They are looking into CMS as well. So that's six, I think. I think that's up to six. I mean, I was using my fingers to count this. So I'm at six. I don't even know if there are. the United nations, do they need to get involved? Like, I don't know how many others, like we've got the state, we've got the locals, we've got the, the feds. I'm not sure how many others there could be at this point. I think everybody that can do an investigation has, has now done one or is, has announced that they are looking into it. So we'll keep you posted. Uh, back to, uh, Roy Cooper and his, uh, Yes, his campaign of make stuff cost less. This is such a joke, this guy. Like to me, okay, maybe because I have covered politics and elections for now almost 30 years, you know, I have seen the constant degradation of campaigns to the point now where like you have, Cooper and, as I mentioned, Jamie Ager, running in the 11th Congressional District, they are running these campaigns basically like Joe Biden's basement campaign. They only go to friendly crowds, and they don't give any specifics on anything. They don't do debates. Everything is stage-managed. And so they're pitching— This idea that there's some sort of middle-of-the-road, blue-dog, Democrat, centrist, moderate Democrat. They don't take any questions from hostile media. Adversarial media outlets get banned from their events. They're not doing debates. They're essentially running a shadow campaign. And that's the respect that they are giving you. They're asking for your vote. They're asking for your support. They're asking you to hire them. And what they know is that most of the voters in their district or in this state are going to support them simply because of the letter next to their name. So they don't even give you the respect to outline their positions on these issues. Because they're afraid if they do, some people may not like those positions, and so they wouldn't vote for them. For example, gas prices are high, people are mad, so I guess we're going to have to trans more kids. Because that's what Roy Cooper supported. Roy Cooper's rise... in the gubernatorial race in 2016, right? That was driven by the HB2 issue, the bathroom bill, right? Came out of Charlotte. They wanted everybody to use all the same bathrooms and all that. State came in and said no. And Cooper used that as the wedge issue at the time and, you know, eked out, barely eked out a win over McCrory. And yes, along with the toll lane issue, whatever, and then he went and built the tolls anyway. So he was always now wedded to that far left position. And every time he had an opportunity to, you know, say, you know, boys are males and girls are females and no boys and women's sports and anything like that, he always came down on the far left side of those debates. Always. Always. He would veto legislation that tried to do this stuff. He would always side with the leftists. I have no doubt that's how he's going to act as a U S Senator either. Like that's, he is a vote with the DSA. I don't see him crossing any Democrat ever. He was the guy that got up there and told us Joe Biden was mentally fit and we should all support him. He's on team Joe. And as soon as Joe Biden collapsed, he, almost quite literally on a stage. And then they swapped him out in a coup and stuck Kamala Harris in. Then he was like, Joe who? Kamala, ride or die. He is a company man. So for everybody that's like, Michael Watley is going to be a. Vote for Trump. And Roy Cooper will be a vote for any of the far left candidates. Positions that the Democrat leadership has to advance because they're trying to feed the alligator in its own party in the hopes that it gets eaten last. That's what's happening inside the Democrat party. They are being taken over in their primaries by the far left Marxist brigade. And so that leadership, and I'm not even sure Chuck Schumer survives. He may not be the Senate majority leader. They may put somebody else in there. But they're always going to have to try to placate that far left Marxist base. And Roy Cooper will go right along with that. He didn't ever stand up against the far left. He sides with them. He marched with BLM even after they forced the evacuation of his house. Right. They had to evacuate the governor's mansion because of the rioting. And then he went and marched with them. But his signature achievement is the Medicaid expansion, right? That was put into the budget, which he then did not even veto or sign. He allowed it to become law, but he wouldn't sign it. And so now he's claiming victory and credit for having done this. Well, what if I told you that the Medicaid computer system that they have been in the process of overhauling, It has run hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and has been delayed by years. And when there was an attempt to audit this, it got thwarted. The audit was thwarted. I wonder why. I will tell you. From the text line, Beth's favorite Russ says, going to go out on a limb to predict based on current trends that the 2028, Democrat messaging will be free chocolate milk in all the water fountains. I, yes, I think so. I mean, it's a winning message. It has won many a school body president elections. So I feel like that would be, that would be a winning message. Jeff with a G. Says, Ray Cooper's BS I'm-a-make-stuff-cost-less commercial plays at pretty much every commercial break on YouTube TV, no matter which channel I am watching. See, so that's interesting, because I get the Watley ads all the time. That's all I get are Watley ads. I don't know, Jeff. YouTube thinks something about you. Mm-hmm. Just saying. 828 number says, uh, keep all your, please keep all your CMS board members living in Charlotte. They have a nasty habit of ending up in the Asheville area and we don't need that noise. That's fair. That's fair. Um, uh, Joe suggests Interpol could be next to investigate CMS. Oh yeah. That I was, yeah. International. So then that, yeah. So throw Interpol on there and that, that would take us to seven different investigative bodies going after CMS and We are world-class. It's awesome. I mean, because, look, it's not like people or businesses look at a school district to decide whether they want to move to a particular city. It's not like any parent looks into the school district before they move. All right, so. The Medicaid expansion that Roy Cooper is touting as all– Because of him, he did it, which is why he didn't even sign it into law. Anyway, he was also overseeing the overhaul of the Medicaid computer system. WRAL did a story about this overhaul. And what it actually describes as APA, AP Dillon reports, that you got to go to around paragraph 35 before Roy. Cooper is ever mentioned. But it sure does seem like there is a belief, let's say, a theory, that he quashed an audit. North Carolina, per the WRAL report, North Carolina has poured hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into a years-behind Medicaid computer system overhaul. That overhaul was supposed to be done by mid-2024, which, if my math is correct, has already passed. But now, that overhaul is not expected until the end of 2029. while the state keeps paying more than $ 600 million to run the old system and faces even higher bills after 2027. All of this was known because it was in a state audit draft that flagged ballooning costs, missed deadlines, and substantial risk of failure. All right, so this was a. Draft of an audit done on this project, that draft, that audit went unreleased under Cooper's appointed auditor. Because the state auditor is an elected position, right? But do you remember what happened in 2023? Bumper car Beth Wood, the auditor, right? She drove her car up on top of another vehicle after a Christmas party. Right? And then fled the scene. Everybody largely understood why she would flee the scene because at the direction of lawyers at the law firm that was hosting the Christmas party that served the alcohol was that she was probably. Drunk, right? And that's why she, she parked her car on top of another. So she then resigned from office after she got indicted for hit and run because she was, um, She resigned. Roy Cooper appointed her replacement, Jessica Holmes. Jessica Holmes was a former attorney for the North Carolina Association of Educators, the Teachers Union. Yes, she was a lawyer for the NCAA. She became auditor. Oh, she was also a former Wake County commissioner, too. So Cooper, it was recommended that Cooper appoint the assistant state auditor, right? It was recommended that you take the assistant, elevate the assistant to the auditor position. Cooper said no. He puts in the attorney for the teachers union. And all of a sudden, that woman, Jessica Holmes, doesn't release the audit. She denies burying the audit. and called the allegation categorically false. State Auditor, the current one, Dave Bolick, a Republican, he has now relaunched that investigation. Also, there is an unsealed whistleblower lawsuit alleging state employees used false information to secure federal funding for a Medicaid technology overhaul of the NC TRAC system that included false financials and violating state law by engaging in non-competitive bidding processes. Hmm. We shall see. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.