(The Center Square) – Planning and response to Hurricane Helene with early voting already underway has been deemed worthy of an award for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Fifty-three programs from 258 nominations earned the Exemplary Contingency Planning and Emergency Response Efforts award from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Additionally, election boards in the counties of Buncombe, Currituck, Durham and Wake won 2024 Clearinghouse Awards, and those in Durham, Rockingham and Union counties earned honorable mention.

Helene killed 107 and caused an estimated $60 billion damage.

The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26. It dissipated over the mountains of the state and Tennessee, dropping more than 30 inches in some places and over 24 consistently across more.

Election Day was six weeks away. The disaster area declared included 25 counties and coordination with the state board; county boards; lawmen on the federal, state and local levels; the state National Guard; the U.S. Postal Service; and information technology professionals on multiple levels.

Voter turnout in the 25 counties was 74.9%, a tick higher than the state average of 72.6%.

“We are extremely proud of the efforts of our state’s election officials and our partners to pull off a successful election under the most trying of circumstances,” said Karen Brinson Bell, the state board’s executive director. “Hundreds of thousands of western North Carolinians were able to vote in the important 2024 election because of state board planning, along with the hard work and resiliency of county election officials and the invaluable assistance of our emergency management and law enforcement partners.”

The award is a different kind of light for the state board.

Between July 22 and Sept. 12, seven lawsuits were filed against the state board of Democrats Alan Hirsch, its chairman, Jeff Carmon and Siobhan Millen; and Republicans Stacy Eggers and Kevin Lewis; and Bell. More followed the election and are still unresolved along with the state Supreme Court race between Democrat Allison Riggs and Republican Jefferson Griffin.

(The Center Square) – Tennessee’s revenues for March were $33.3 million less than the budgeted estimates, according to Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Jim Bryson.

The $1.6 billion in collections is $69.3 million less than March 2024.

“Sales tax receipts, which reflect February’s consumer activity, were likely impacted by adverse weather conditions,” Bryson said. “Corporate tax collections came in slightly below target but remained largely in line with expectations.”

Fuel taxes exceeded budget expectations, increasing by $9.1 million, a 10.39% jump.

Corporate collections are down 13.9% when compared to March 2024, a difference of $44 million. Corporate tax revenues year-to-date are 9.65% below estimates and down 22% when compared to August 2023 to March 2024 numbers. The General Assembly passed a corporate franchise tax cut in 2024 that was estimated to cost the state $1.6 billion. Corporations started applying for the tax break in May 2024.

Bryson reported a decline of $35.4 million in general fund revenues for March.

“Although we fell short of our monthly target, year-to-date revenues remain just below forecast,” Bryson said. “We will continue to closely monitor economic indicators and revenue trends to maintain fiscal stability.”

March is the eighth month of the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget.

The General Assembly passed the $59.8 billion budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 earlier this week, which does not include any tax breaks.

Lawmakers from both parties raised concerns about possible federal budget cuts that could affect Tennessee. Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said when the budget process began in February that the state was already seeing a freeze in some programs.

House and Senate Democrats sent a letter to Bryson this week asking for more details on federal budget cuts.

(The Center Square) – Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified a document from the Biden administration showing that the federal government used taxpayer dollars to collaborate with foreign and private entities to counter what it called domestic terrorism activity.

The document, distributed in the wake of the sometimes violent Jan. 6 protests at the U.S. capitol, called for “improve[d] information sharing across all levels within, as well as outside, the Federal Government,” including with private sector and foreign partners, to “combat online disinformation” and domestic terrorism narratives.

The declassified document also laid out plans to develop and channel funding toward “digital literacy programs … to foster resiliency to disinformation,” calling on federal agencies and technology companies to mutually share information relating to what it characterized as online disinformation and “radicalization” activities.

Multiple investigations throughout 2022 and 2023 revealed that the federal government indeed took a whole-of-government approach to censor Americans posting information the Biden Administration deemed false or harmful online, as The Center Square reported.

The United States Agency for International Development and the departments of Homeland Security, State, and Education were among the agencies tasked to carry out the plans.

Republicans, along with conservative groups like America First Legal, which requested the information, say the blueprint showcases the “weaponization” of the intelligence community under the previous presidency.

“Until yesterday, the Biden Administration’s ‘Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism’ was classified,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said on X. “Now, thanks to @DNIGabbard, it’s public. It’s a roadmap for left-wing ideological warfare.”

During the Biden administration, the Department of Homeland Security provided at least $90 million taxpayer dollars to state, local, and tribal governments through the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program. 

Gabbard released the documents the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference.

“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” Rubio said in a news release. “This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America.”