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WRAL Investigates Government Spending
WRAL Investigates Government Spending
Carolina Country Club is one of the most prestigious clubs in Raleigh. Formed in 1910, membership to the five-star facility is invitation only. The club's latest tax forms show it generated close to $13 million from dues and other sources. Thanks to its nonprofit status, the club pays no corporate income tax.
North Carolina taxpayers spent nearly $200,000 over eight years to help a Robeson County woman with a leaky roof. Dianne Galbreath says she applied for hurricane assistance and ended up with a brand new house.
The rough outlines of the Republican plan are clear enough: lower and eliminate corporate and individual income taxes. Replace that revenue through a flatter, simpler tax for businesses and broaden the sales tax base by taxing more items.
Advocates of tax reform says the state needs to get rid of tax breaks for special interests. But many "loopholes" in the state's tax code are breaks used by average citizens, nonprofits and small businesses.
Politicians' practice of putting earmarks in the budget with names attached for pet projects was banned in 2010, but many watchdog groups say earmarks aren't really gone, just redefined and sometimes underground.
For dogs and cats that end up at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter, the journey is like being sent to death row. The shelter, which has the highest kill rate in the state, euthanized nearly 1,200 animals - 100 percent of cats and 98 percent of dogs - last year.
Federal investigators uncovered more than 1,000 tax returns linked to eight addresses in North Carolina last May, with refunds worth more than $5 million. Investigators say it's part of a tax fraud scheme among suspected illegal immigrants that the Internal Revenue Service was warned about more than a decade ago but has done little to fix.
Two months after the WRAL Investigates team reported on nearly $200 million in possible Medicaid fraud in North Carolina, records show another Triangle company may have excessively billed the state for Medicaid claims.
Most of the year, North Carolina Department of Transportation and Commerce aircraft sit in the state-leased hangar at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Some wonder, could the private sector fly state leaders for less?
When the state Treasurer's Office told a firefighter's widow that she'd have to pay back a $50,000 death benefit, she wondered who else was getting that type of call. The state had made the mistake, and it wasn't the first time.
After losing her 46-year-old husband to a heart attack, Amanda Barringer got a phone call she never expected. A woman on the other end of the phone explained that the state had accidentally overpaid Barringer $50,000 in benefits for her husband's death, and the money had to be returned.
A state worker who claimed that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill wasted millions in taxpayer dollars on electricity said he is standing by his assertion, even though school leaders disagree.
Complicated billing codes can make Medicare fraud easy to disguise, and as one Medicare recipient told WRAL Investigates, it’s important to ask questions about your statements.
The city's year-round water restrictions prohibit residents and businesses from using sprinklers on Mondays, and crews at Raleigh's new downtown amphitheater now know that rule by heart.
Schools in the University of North Carolina system will begin collecting sales tax on school merchandise bought online, UNC President Erskine Bowles said Friday.
Gov. Bev Perdue says she was surprised by a WRAL News investigation into online sales-tax disparities over state university merchandise. She sent a letter to UNC's president on Thursday.
North Carolina loses an estimated $162 million in sales tax each year because of Internet purchases, and WRAL Investigates found a large chunk of that money comes from the state's love of college sports.
State lawmakers get paid from several different pots. There's a base salary, a monthly expense budget, travel reimbursement and a per diem when they're in session – a per diem they collect even on the weekends.
As the computers glow and simulated slots keep multiplying across North Carolina, the debate over how to handle the so-called sweepstakes cafés continues to fracture.
As the computers glow and simulated slots keep multiplying across North Carolina, the debate over how to handle the so-called sweepstakes cafés continues to fracture.
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a budget amendment that would require state agencies to use vehicles from the State Motor Fleet for employees who rack up high travel expenses.
More than 150,000 employees conduct the state's business everyday from the highways to college classrooms. But when the agencies look to study an issue or hire top level managers, they often spend public money for private sector help.
WRAL News has discovered some deputies with the Wake County Sheriff's Office have been scheduled to work long, off-duty shifts with no break before the start of their on-duty shifts.
When state lawmakers passed the lottery in 2005, they promised that the money would not replace tax dollars meant for education, but analysis of the numbers shows that is exactly what has been happening.
The vast majority of the nearly 1,400 state revenue employees pay their own way to commute to work. However, internal records show taxpayers cover much of the commute costs for two top managers.
A WRAL Investigation shows the state shifting more and more fund management to outside firms, which charge fees that cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
A WRAL News investigation into publicly run entertainment venues found that turning a profit is harder than it sounds.
A panel organized by Gov. Beverly Perdue to locate waste and inefficiency in North Carolina government on Wednesday took aim at two issues uncovered by WRAL News investigations.
House Speaker Joe Hackney predicts state lawmakers will quickly outlaw so-called sweepstakes cafés when they reconvene in May.
Health care facilities have to pay for staff and services and also pay more to make up for the billions in costs the industry loses each year.
As state investigators probe the disappearance of nearly $400,000 from the Garner Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, Wake County officials are looking at tighter rules on money given to area fire departments and rescue squads.
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