North Carolina Growth | 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 I daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to thepeakclendarshow dot 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. I'm Donna King from the Carolina Journal filling in for Pete Calendar today on the Peak Calendar Show. Glad to be with you. We've got a lot going on. One of the things that we've been talking about is North Carolina's economic success. Lots of folks moving here, our economy is growing, We've got more jobs than people looking for them. All of these things are great things. But it's important to note that this is a structural policy decision that we make here in North Carolina. When people have more freedom, they do better. They do better economically, they do better personally. You know. The key line of thinking here is, you know, people are moving to places like North Carolina where they can find a job, build a business, a ford to home live how they want. These things don't happen by accident. They aren't chance. When we talk about freedom, we're talking about real policies that grow that freedom and make it a reality. Joining us now is Carolina Journals Managing editor David Larson. He's got a. Column up on WBT dot com to that exact point, and is also available on Carolina Journal dot com. David, thanks for joining us. Is such a fantastic column. It crystallizes a lot of things that are seen to be kind of an abstract context, the idea of freedom, and says, look, this is this is real, this is what's creating our prosperity. Absolutely, thanks for having me, Donna. Yeah, we both touched on this a little bit in columns this week. But it was really interesting to see that data coming out of the National tact Pairs Union Foundation had looked at federal data just seeing where are people moving? And I thought was pretty cool about it as they did it by the second, you know, every seven seconds, as probably North Carolina would would guess somebody moved here from from somewhere else, So we get a new resident every seven seconds, and from other places you see California. Somebody leaves there about every three It was three minutes or three. I'm at seven minutes, not seven. But you get in the picture. There's people constantly moving in. And on that point about about liberty being places that people want to move or are places with more freedom and all that, it seems like, you know, definitely not a coincidence that the top five states people are moving to are Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. And the five states they're leaving in order most people people are leaving California, then New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. So anybody who knows electoral politics knows that the first group of states have been trying to create more of an atmosphere that's friendly to business, lewering taxes and regulations, and the second group is, you know, is doing the opposite, really, you know, just raising taxes and almost forcing out, making the millionaires and billionaires kind of the villain and a lot of their framing. Sure, well, let's talk about that. You're mentioning some of the mechanisms, right, How exactly does liberty translate into economic growth? What are some of the mechanisms that liberty and freedom can be put into practice that creates that prosterity. Yeah, well, I mean any business starts as an idea, really and then sure, if it's an environment where you can take that idea, talk to some investors, put money in, and there's not a lot of red tape that you have to get through. Simply more businesses will will thrive. And so that's you know, a big part of at least on the economic side, how liberty can improve people's lives is you know, people moved to North Carolina or places where those businesses have been more easily set up because that's where the jobs are, or that's where they can maybe start their own business. So I think giving people that that freedom a little bit of wiggle room to to try some things and it's not going to be crushed by some bureaucrat who doesn't care about their idea, and so you know that that's generally how that would work. And I think the other half kind of the classical liberal ideals. You have freedom of markets and commerce all that, but also just freedom of you know, conscience with religion and speech and all of those kind of conscience rights. Usually those go hand in hand where you know, you can you can live a few different ways. You know, you can be different types of I think different things live different ways in states that allow that, which I think you know, people enjoy as well. Sure. Sure, I mean if liberty didn't matter, they wouldn't be moving toward it, I guess is what we're saying. You know, let's talk about a generation gap. I feel like this is where younger Americans I think are not either taught this or they have somehow disconnected the concept of freedom from the outcomes of their. Quality of life. You know, they see success as coming from the government and it's managed by the system and some you know, shadowy figure that is preventing them from success. They don't think about things like property rights, entrepreneurship, incentives to all of that kind of thing. Do you think that there is some sort of generational gap in the understanding of freedom and practice. I do. I think a lot of the people who teach, you know, especially in the university level, they kind of idealize maybe what they think the European model is, or what they think places outside that they're able to offer more benefits, and you know, it's a different way of life, and it's better than ours, and so people younger people might not really appreciate what we've got, even if they are moving to places like Texas, Florida and North Carolina, they might not internalize the fact that why those places do have the jobs. So I thought it was interesting looking. I guess I broadened it out a little bit in my piece. You know, you could look at the US level and that people move to places that have more freedom. But I looked at the Economic Freedom Index which the Heritage Foundation puts out and they do a similar thing, but at at an international level, and I thought it was very interesting to see the same thing applies. You know, some younger people might think, you know, you want that our system or economic freedom isn't the best way to be but to arrange a society. But it was just very interesting that on the Economic Freedom indeck the top countries like Singapore, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, you know, Luxembourg, Denmark, places like that. You then look at GDP per capita and you see something very interesting that those are also the places that have the highest GDP per capita. That they they are able to make the most money, they create the most jobs. People want to move there. So it's a very similar thing on the international UH scale. And if and if you look at the maybe the global equivalent of California and Massachusetts being at the bottom in New York is the bottom of the Economic Freedom index. Are places you wouldn't want to go, the bottom three of North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. So it shows, you know, having places that are free helps people thrive. People want to go there where's most people are moving out if they can of places like North Korea and Cuba. Sure, sure, I. Mean, if liberty is undervalue, there's tremendous you know, policy risk were Venezuela's a perfect example. You have more regulation, higher taxes, reduce incentives to go out and do something and create and build and grow. It is it's. Alarming when we see that generational gap in this. If you know, if policymakers internalize this, what do you think that they could do. Let's say, Tuesday, Tuesday, they're coming in right in the state in the state legislature starting again for the spring session of policies. Do you think would better would create a freer North Carolina more at a more liberty driven North Carolina public policy? It seems like maybe the two biggest areas where people have difficulty you know, a lot of its costs, and the two biggest costs that burden people in my view are healthcare and housing. So I think if they can do things that really create a real market, like if there's a high cost and it's difficult for people to access, you know, real markets respond to high cost and high demand with more supply, So if you can find ways of increasing the supply of housing and increasing the access to healthcare. With health care, it's mostly a transparency issue, I think, in that, you know, we don't really have a true market where somebody would actually care to find the best price because usually you just you get a doctor's services and then the bill goes to you know, either CMS, which is for metic care Medicaid, or it goes to an insurance company. Either way, you know, it's it's kind of a murky a billing system that we don't really have a market. So I think if you can, if you can, especially with healthcare, find ways to expand kind of the market drenks there that would probably you know, make us you know, even or third on the list. Who knows, maybe we could we could climb even further. Fantastic. Thanks so much. David Larson, Managing editor of Carolina Journal dot com. Carolina Journal you can see his column on Carolina Journal dot com and on WBT. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They 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 Creative video dot Com. Joining us on the line here. Nick Craig, host of the Carolina Journal News Hour right here on WBT every morning five to six am. We got them a little later today, joining us because he's covering a story about Duke Energy. So this week, Duke Energy filed a request with the North Carolina Utilities Commission to approve a rate in US to recover more than eight hundred million spent they spent in fuel and purchase power from other utilities. Those costs incurred during a winter cold snap. Hard to imagine right now at ninety degrees, but a big winter cold snap. Nick Craig joins us snaw. He's been covering this issue for a Carolina Journal. Nick, So, what's the latest about this. We've seen a lot about it on social media. I want to get the backstory on this because it's a lot of emotion and a lot of politics. Yeah, don a good afternoon, Thanks for having me. Before we even get into this eight hundred million dollar request with the Utilities Commission this week, I think it might be beneficial to take just even a couple of steps back and look at what's been going on over let's call it the last two months or so, where there's been online petitions flowing around the state of North Carolina with tens hundreds of thousands of signatures of people calling for an audit of Duke Energy. They are consistently month over month seeing their utility bill skyrocket, and so the public right now in general is very frustrated with you Energy. Then, of course we're following this story that you just peed up out of the Utilities Commission this week, plus a fifteen percent rate increase that they asked for a November of last year. There is not I can't imagine a lot of people across the state that are thrilled with the largest utility. Well, but you know, this filing really appears to reflect a standard regulatory mechanism. Duke Energy is allowed to recover those fuel and wholesale power costs when they had these extreme demand events, just like the cold snap we were just talking about. You know, how does that pass through system work and why is it there? Because you know, that's one of the things that we're talking about, that this exists so that they can recover those costs, and you know, when you know, solar and wind isn't going to work in the dead of night when it's freezing outside. So you know, how are we going to stay warm? Right? Yeah? Well, and I mean, you know, Donna, here's here's the opposite. We saw this back in twenty twenty two. Duke Energy did not go ahead and purchase additional resources at a much higher rate. The rate. The reason why we're talking about an eight hundred million dollar request with the Utilities Commission is because this energy was essentially purchased last minute, and with that they paid a much higher rate than they normally would during their normal purchasing of natural gas and coal and resources like that. But we've seen the alternative when you doesn't have the ability to generate electricity. We go back to Christmas of twenty twenty two. We're swapped from the. State of North Carolina. We're trying to turn on their ovens or flip on their lights Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and there was nothing for hours on. End, right right. I remember that we had those the brown outs and there was a lot They took a lot of heat for that too, no pun intended, but they took a lot of heat for that. Too, and it seems to you just can't win because this is also becoming kind of a political football for them right now. But you know, but as they go into the summer months, do you feel like we're going to see more more pressure on that on their power grid for North Carolina? Yeah, I mean you're seeing it today as you've been mentioning on most of your breaks coming back. It is almost ninety degrees across almost almost across the entirety of the North Carolina from Charlotte onward to East End, and so it's it's very warm. Duke Energy fortunately plans for a lot of this, but really, Donna, one of the frustrating things in all of this that we've watched is this continued use of the so called renewable sources. And in our article over at Carolina Journal dot com, I use some sourcing from John Sanders, who's a research fellow over at the John Locke Foundation, and it shows this chart of where the state of North Carolina was getting its electricity on the early during the early morning hours of February second, which was a day in which Duke Energy sent out text messages and emails to the customers across the state and said, hey, can you conserve electricity between the hours of four am and ten am. Turn your thermostat down a couple of degrees, don't run any heavy appliances, don't do laundry or run the dishwasher, things things of that nature. And we see from four am until eight am that solar was not putting a single bit of energy on the grid. It was all natural gas, all coal, and all nuclear. That actually forced Duke Energy to go to the Department of Energy at the national level and request a waiver to run some of these resources at higher emission levels so that they could make sure that they didn't have to go to that twenty twenty two situation with those rolling brown and blackouts. What do you think that the is there a misconception in the public about how this system operates, because you know, there was some heat. We saw Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, saying just blasting Duke over this, saying that you know that they are, you know, asking for these increases and that the Republican legislature overrode their permission for them to be able to request to be able to recoup this money. But a lot of what SB two sixty six that they're talking about. That's the bill number is it repeals the Carbon Plan's interim goal of you know, switching more to making energy more solar, more renewables, and reducing our carbon footprint. But it's still at the end of the day, has to keep the lights on, it has to be clean, it has to be it has to be reliable, and it has to be low cost for folks. And that's the goal. But you know that the we don't have that ability to do that if we rely solely on renewables. What is that well, And I think the two of the words that you just mentioned. It needs to be affordable and it needs to be reliable. And I would assume that everybody that enjoys using electricity, which we all do each and every day, would want that here across North Carolina. But to your question about Governor Josh Stein's comments, I would presume that he has, of course seen the social media postings. He's seen those petitions that I mentioned just a couple of minutes ago with outrage Duke Energy customers across North Carolina, and so to me, it seems like he's kind of playing into that general frustration and to further answer your question. Yes, I think there's a large misconception with how electricity has generated, how that process plays out. Most people's biggest information in that don I presume, is paying their monthly utility bill, and that's probably. It, right right, Well, I mean, you know, let's look for the future, because we've got a lot of data centers, we've got AI coming, we've got there's got to be a shift. Can this Can this work for the long term as they continue, you know, to look for new sources and they're maybe going toward nuclear eventually. What about gas? All of this mix of energy sources have got to play a role in the process. Yeah, they do. Unfortunately, we've seen DO convert a lot of their old coal plants into steam or natural gas plants. That's been going on now for the last twenty years across North Carolina. Donald, what are the really cool technologies that are actually being developed here in North Carolina? Not far from the Wilmington area. Is Ge is currently in the process and it's not new, but they're continuing to refine what they call their small modular reactors. You know, I think a lot of folks and they think nuclear reactors, They think of three Mile Island, these huge smoke stacks that take up acres and acres, and these massive facilities that we've seen that we saw throughout the sixties and seventies when a lot of these facilities were being built. These brand new small modular facilities can fit in the footprint of an already existing coal plant or an already existing steam plant, where you already have the infrastructure. You have the high tension utility lines, you have all the all the different transformers, and all the resources there. These are very very small facilities. They're almost one hundred percent self sustained. To me, if we're looking at wanting to have a reliable electrical grid moving forward, we should be looking nowhere but this brand new small modular reactor technology. And I feel like there's more of a it's because coming more politically, it's not the third rail anymore. Nuclear is not the third rail that it once was, because I think even the Democrats who have been pushing when in solar for a long time are seeing the potential and maybe the inevitability of nuclear. Yeah, and Donnie, you and I have talked about that for years. I mean, you go back even ten years and you would see pretty clearly aligned drawn in the political sand, Republicans and conservatives more in favor of nuclear and on the left, you really didn't have anybody that would publicly say that. But in the last five or ten years, we've seen individuals those that I would argue pretty far to the political left are coming out and endorsing solar or excuse me, endorsing this in nuclear energy over things like solar and wind. I think they can pretty clearly read the writing on the wall with some of these renewables. Absolutely, Thanks so much, Nick Craig. We've been talking a lot of this afternoon about our labor force, about all the folks moving down here, and we mentioned earlier that there are about one hundred jobs for every seventy six people looking for them. Those numbers get even tighter when you start talking about skilled labor, particularly in construction skilled labor, and if you talk about women too, they're only about five percent of those skilled trades. So there's this fantastic organization here in Charlotte called she built this City, Love that name. They're working on closing that gap, getting more women trained in skilled labor, more able to get out there and swing a hammer, do lots of different things that folks are needing and filling a huge gap in our workforce and empowering these women to just make such a difference in their own lives. Joining us now to talk more about that. That's Ee Conway, director of the Loew's Foundation. Lowe's Foundation has a new docuseries out. I hope you can get a chance to watch it. They're following folks who are participating in groups like this in this kind of workforce, building up up, Building back America's Trades and she built the City is a part of that docu series. Betsy, thanks so much for joining us today. Glad to be with you. Donna, absolutely well, wonderful. Tell me more about first the series if you would, and why the Low's Foundation decided to get involved in this issue. Yes, well, our series Building Back America's Trades, it highlights thirteen aspiring trades people and their mentors who are connected to three of our Low's Foundation Gable grant recipients. We have Coconino Community College out of Arizona, Columbus Technical College in Georgia. And as you mentioned, she built the city right here in our Queen City. Who I know you spoke to yesterday. Yes, yes, absolutely, So tell me what she built the city is doing in our communities to make these women more empowered and really close that skills gap. She built this city is true a creneral jewel of workforce development training. Here in Charlotte. They provide free training through a pre apprenticeship program that helps women learn all of the opportunities available to them the different skilled trades, whether that's electrical, plumbing, hvac. It provides them with a base of knowledge on how to use tools, the basic certifications, and help make employer connections as they're ready to really pick what trade they want to go into. Sure, Sure, and Low's is involved in this too. I know you're working with Warner Brothers and Discovery Blue Chalk. Tell me more about you know where'd Low's play in this? Why get involved? Great? Well, both Low's and the Lowe's Foundation have been supporting she built this city over the past really census inception and we are really focused on how helping raise awareness of careers in the still trades, but most importantly supporting and investing financially in the organizations that provide that training that recruit individuals. To consider this as a career choice and then ultimately place them with employers. She built. The City is one of sixty four organizations across the country that the Loews Foundation has invested financially into to help them grow and expand their programs. And through our partnership that we have with the docu series that really helps bring to life the stories of the graduates, of the students, of the instructors who are engaging in the still trades workforce really designed to help raise awareness of these career pathways and the opportunity that it can provide. Sure, what are you seeing? Are you seeing that there's not many women in these fields hopefully increasing, but skilled labor in general, there's not as many kids going into this field. And we're seeing a lot of big increase in kids going to college. Not as many going into these fields maybe unless a parent was in it or something like that. How do we get more folks getting these these skilled uh, these skilled labor talents. Well, shifting in the three perceptions and elevating the opportunities in the skilled trades of strong careers is imperative. That is why we launched and produced this docu series. It really focuses on folks from all walks of life. Where you have a young person who is a member of the gen Z tool belt generation. Her name is Grace Johnson and she is following her father's footsteps in the construction industry. But we also have someone who was a successful attorney for many years, for decades, and he is now pursuing his electricians' license. So we want to use these stories to help highlight the incredible value that these careers can provide. They are stable, they provide a lot of opportunities for continuous learning, they provide opportunity for entrepreneurship, and they are well paying career pathways that will when we think about, especially with AI impacts, AI will be enabling these careers. Sure talk a little bit about the pay. That's something that I think is escaping the conversation. These are really well paid jobs, especially when you compare them against you know, unskilled labor, and you know even new college graduates aren't making what these skilled skilled labor folks are. Yeah, they are well paying jobs. And as you go through programs like She Built the City or Central Piedmont Community College, which is also a grant recipient here in the Charlotte community, many of these programs are free or they do not require significant investment. There's a lot of scholarship money available. And so in addition to entering a career pathway where you can really work your way up making a very well paying wage that can sustain your family and generations to come, you also are entering that process with little to no deaths. And that's why we see this career pathway as a strong pathway. We want parents to get curious, get engaged. On our website Losfoundation dot org, we have a number of resources on how and why this is the strong career pathway. We outline different trade pathways and then you can connect with Career Starter that can really help you understand more of those details, what you could expect, what the certifications are that are required, and get connected to training. Fantastic. Where can people see the docu series? I know we've got Magnolia and HBO tell you more about how to see it. That's right. So the docu series is airing right now on Magnolia Network. Tomorrow we will have the premiere of our second episode of the three part series. You can also stream it on HBO, Max and Discovery Plus. Fantastic. Thank you, so much. Betty Conway from the director the director of the Loews Foundation, I appreciate your contribution this afternoon. Thank you, Donna. I'm Donna King from the Carolina Journal, filling in for Pete Calendar today on the Peak Calendar Show on this beautiful Friday afternoon. We've got a lot coming up and. Certainly a lot going in the state legislature this coming week. If you've got a chance to head over to WBT dot com, you can read up on everything that's going to be going to be coming up as a new legislature takes the the spring spring session, and we are going to be focusing really heavily on whether or not they're able to get a budget, maybe get some mini budgets going. There's already been some hearings stirring up some of the information that's happening right now in the state legislature. Among them hearings this past week where lawmakers are pressing some state officials for answers over what they describe as ongoing concerns about medicaid fraud in North Carolina, some oversight accountability problems. Hearings this week, legislators questioned whether current safeguards are strong enough to detect improper billing, enrollment errors, potential abuse within our medicaid system. This is something we've seen nationwide. Is it happening right here in North Carolina? That's what lawmakers really want to know and what they're pressing these state officials to find more information, to have tighter auditing procedures in our Medicaid program and more transparency and how that taxpayer funded health dollars are being tracked. State officials though they're defending the system, saying existing controls are enough, they're designed to catch those improper payments, and more reforms are already underway to strengthen oversight. So I think we're going to see a lot more about that happening in the coming session. It really also discussed reflects a broader tension in Raleigh over how to balance access to healthcare programs but still make sure that they have integrity. There's low fraud in some of these large public assistant programs. Also this week election related news, the North Carolina State Board of Elections has approved new rules addressing non citizen voting safeguards. So all of this followed a really heated debate this week among members of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. These four new policy rules clarify the procedures for removing individuals who are identified as non citizens from North Carolina's voting rules, while confirming through reliable data sources, also outlining some safeguards to intended to prevent eligible voters from being mistakenly removed. Now, supporters of the changes, this vote really fell along party lines, three Republicans voting in favor of them, the two Democrats opposing them. The supporters of the change say that this strengthens confidence in the accuracy of our voter registration list ensures that only eligible citizens are participating in North Carolina's elections. But the critics said that they were worried that during you know, they said during the debate that they were worried that verification methods could lead to administrative errors and could you know, bar people who are otherwise qualified from voting. But all of this comes really as election administration continues to remain really scrutinized in North Carolina. Debates over access security, public trusts ongoing at both the state and national level. So let's let's talk more about the folks who are coming into North Carolina. Our population is growing. We've talked a lot about that North Carolina getting a new new neighbor, new North Carolinian every seven minutes and thirty six seconds. I see it in my neighborhood. I'm sure you probably see it in yours. More and more folks coming. But this also comes around a record low birth rate. So according to the US Census Bureau, we have fewer births. We had a one percent decline last year from twenty twenty four in berths in this country, and it was fifty three point one berths per one thousand women. So you know, it's also down one percent from the prior year and the lowest rate on record. So we're seeing fewer and fewer. The fertility rate has dropped twenty three percent since two thousand and seven. This is just an ongoing thing that I think is really interesting. North Carolina is bucking the trend just slightly. So North Carolina as actually up a little bit, a little bit above the national average. But it is really interesting if we're seeing this trend and it really is global in North Carolina. It's both the meantime that average age in North Carolina, according to this study. Is forty years old. I thought that was super interesting that we have forty, that the average age here is forty, and that shift is going to be changing, particularly as our population ages. So we're following a lot on that and what that means for our job market, certainly, what it means for. Our education system. It's something that we're going to be talking a lot about as this legislation. As this legislative session gets underway, North Carolina is sixty five and older. Population is projected to double to two point seven million by twenty forty according to North Carolina's Office of State Budget and Management, And by twenty thirty one, not too long from now, more than North Carolinians will be over the age of sixty four than under the age of eighteen. So this is really important. As we go through this legislation, we start playing the long game a bit here in North Carolina, start talking about health care, particularly for our seniors, education and school choice. What does this mean as North Carolina shifts and changes in our population. Age is super interesting. Get all that information over at Carolina Journal dot com and WBT dot com. Here's another story caught my eye, probably caught yours too. In political news Governor Josh Stein is drawing some attention after calling for the legalization of recreational marijuana in North Carolina. It's following the release of a new panel report. The report, which examines policy options potential regular reframeworks, helps prompt renewed discussion about whether North Carolina should join the states that have already legalized adult use cannabis. Do you think that there is an appetite for this in North Carolina? I tend to think there's not. Being from North Carolina and in my community, I don't see it, but Governor Stein thinks that it is. So his posies is pretty. Much a notable development in this debate, and supporters arguing that legalization would generate new taxes, that it would reduce criminal justice costs, aligned state policy with changing national attitudes about marijuana. Truthfully, I just don't see it. I think I count me among the opponents who continue to raise concerns about public health, workplace safety, regulatory challenges. This may end up being part of a broader legislative discussion as policymakers come back to Raleigh here starting on Tuesday in the upcoming session. Certainly, when we talk about criminal justice reform, state revenue needs and. All of those things. Now, thank you so much for joining us here on the Pete calendar showed. 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, and also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecalnarshow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.