••• SPONSORED SECTION •••
SETTING A COURSE
The new year begins as the previous ended; the winds of change are blowing. From decisions made in Washington, D.C., to opinions served at kitchen tables in North Carolina’s smallest communities, there are plenty of voices wanting to be heard on a matching number of issues. That makes the work of advocates even more important. Business North Carolina recently gathered experts from the field to discuss what’s important to their groups and what that means to business and life in general across North Carolina, how they’re navigating these confusing seas and how to find common ground, where different viewpoints can row together. Their conversation was moderated by Publisher Ben Kinney. The transcript was edited for brevity and clarity.
The discussion was sponsored by:
• Electricities of North Carolina
• NC Chamber
• North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities
• E&V Strategic Communications
HOW DOES YOUR GROUP AFFECT LIFE AND BUSINESS IN NORTH CAROLINA?
WILLIAMS: Most people are familiar with their local independent or private college or university. But they may not realize there are 36 across North Carolina. They have about 60,000 undergraduate students and about 25,000 graduate and professional students.
These schools award about 90% of the physician-assistant degrees in the state. If you’ve visited a doctor’s office lately, you likely saw a PA if you didn’t make an appointment three months earlier. So, they’re critical to delivering healthcare in the state. They also award about 65% of the law degrees, 60% of medical degrees and 56% of pharmacy degrees in the state.
Those efforts and others contribute to a great quality of life for our students, and they’re critical to employers. Business news channel CNBC named North Carolina its Top State for Business three of the past four years, and we want a four-peat. But that will require the proper workforce. It’s a double-edged advantage, not a sword. It transforms lives in North Carolina and meets employers’ needs. That supports strong economic development.
CASHION: NC Chamber supports North Carolina’s position as a top state for private-sector job growth. Our team advances policies that make it one of the world’s best places to do business. Those efforts create an environment that supports existing businesses and that economic developers can sell.
The Chamber has developed international relationships, including with business groups in Northern Ireland and Abu Dhabi. We recently signed agreements with the Mexican Business Council for Trade, Investment and Technology and ProColombia. We recently hosted a group from Invest in
Cartagena, part of our ProColombia effort. We toured them across the state and introduced them to key people. We’re already seeing interesting benefits from these relationships in North Carolina, and we’re excited about the future.
BAILEY: We have clients across the state representing different sides of various issues. I lead our public engagement practice. My goal isn’t necessarily to get consensus but understand the communities that we’re working in and identify their voices and leverage them. We want to know who these communities are and what is important to them.
Growth, as positive as it is, elicits different feelings from different people. We work at the state level, trying to understand these organizations’ macro goals and how they’ll impact communities. That allows our clients to work authentically in these communities, advancing their projects without creating opposition.
It’s great that North Carolina was ranked the top state for business three times. But what does that mean at the community level? It depends on the work being done. We’re tapping into that. Those voices are important, regardless of who you’re advocating for. Sometimes it’s neighbors and property owners. Other times it’s elected officials or community leaders.
What we’re doing well right now is understanding the landscape in North Carolina and how people feel and approach these large issues coming to or growing within the state. Then we adjust our client’s advocacy efforts to be effective with the policies they’re trying to influence. As soon as you think you’ve figured out one viewpoint, there’s a different one. It’s an interesting game to play.
WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT GOALS?
CASHION: Our policy committees are working through different issues, updating our legislative agenda. We base everything on education, talent supply, competitive business climate, and infrastructure and growth. There’s a plethora of efforts coming from the business community that look at maintaining our position and maintain growth in a balanced way across the state.
We continue to push for the elimination of the state’s franchise tax. The legal climate is a top priority. We’re working to keep dark money — third-party litigation investment — out of North Carolina courts. It’s an investment into a lawsuit for a return to an investor. We believe that’s bad for business, consumers and national security. Our legal institute is working on ideas to attract more corporate headquarters, moving the state into a Delaware-type space. We hope some become policy.
We’re working to remove work barriers. We want more service members and their families to stay in North Carolina after they leave the military. We’re looking at ways to connect them to employment, whether as employees or entrepreneurs. We recently released an energy report. We have a water-supply report that we’re promoting at the General Assembly. We’re working with our communities to decide what that policy needs to look like. Agriculture policy will be top of mind moving forward.
WILLIAMS: Our focus is always on access and affordability for our students. When people think of college, they immediately think of traditional age students, and that’s absolutely true. One concern in reaching our attainment goal of adults with a degree, some college or a credential is that the state’s number of traditional high school graduates is plateauing.
There’s been a slight downtick in the percentage of students going to college since the COVID pandemic. But North Carolina has an increasing number of early college students, who graduate high school with an associate degree. They can transfer anywhere to complete a four-year degree, but they need an affordable way to do it.
North Carolina historically has had one of the country’s lowest out-migration rates; about 7% to 8% of high school graduates left the state for college. That has incrementally increased to between 15% and 17%. They’re going to University of South Carolina, University of Georgia, University of Alabama and other schools that offer in-state tuition rates to our students. The idea behind that is economic development, getting those students there and keeping them after college. Many students come to North Carolina to attend college and remain afterward. But we want our students to stay here. It’s a significant issue.
North Carolina has always had many adult students. About 1.1 million adults in North Carolina have some college but no degree. We want to make completing their degree or credential affordable. Many have families and jobs and need to make returning to the classroom work for them.
Maintaining access and affordability is key. But it’s a challenge, because about half of North Carolina students are eligible for federal Pell grants. It takes federal and other aid, including state need-based scholarships and help from colleges and universities. Put in about $1.3 billion annually in institutional aid, because it takes that complete financial aid package to make it possible for students to attend college.
BAILEY: We understand organizations’ legislative agendas, so when clients come to us, we know who’s out there, what they’re advocating for or against, and how we could work within that. Success is being aware of the environment, from the grassroots to the grass tops — chamber executives, local elected officials, anyone who might not be the ultimate vote on an issue but has significant direct access to that vote. So, we can be smart for our clients on how to approach both levels of the conversation around the issue they’re advocating for at the legislative level.
Sometimes that’s all you need to create the future, the path of the issue. But increasingly there are more voices at play. Their power is everywhere, from traditional lobbying and advocacy streams to viral Instagram campaigns, which can gin up a sentiment around an issue. I’ve seen the latter change the trajectory of a vote in the legislature.
We’re paying more attention to them. Facebook and Reddit conversations, for example, are good ways to understand how people feel. They might be one data point, or they could lead you to change the course of the work. If you don’t pay attention to those, you don’t have the tools to monitor, analyze and potentially equip them with what you want to say. They’re a powerful leg of the stool that needs to be considered.
WHAT ARE YOUR CONCERNS?
WILLIAMS: Many of the negative policy impacts on our colleges and universities are coming at the federal level. There have been major changes. Through the passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the Education Department is limiting funding for graduate and professional student loans. Most of the available financial aid is for undergraduate students.
There is little in terms of grants for graduate and professional students beyond tuition remission or an assistantship or something similar. But those are limited in what colleges can provide. There have been Graduate
Plus loans, but they’re now limited to about 10 different doctoral degrees. PA students aren’t eligible for those loans. Occupational therapy, physical therapy and other healthcare degrees aren’t eligible either. So, we’ll look to the state and others to help fill that void. If a student can’t finance their education, then we won’t have the workforce that we need.
Many North Carolina costs are below the national average. Everybody’s concerned about cost, and we have financial aid to help address that. But at the end of the day, we have to pay our faculty and staff, equip the labs and classrooms, and have everything else that’s required. And students must be able to figure out how to finance it.
CASHION: We released a report that says if the stars align over the next five years, we’ll see an almost $500 billion economic impact, 2 million new jobs and billions in tax revenue. We want to figure out how to make this work.
We recognize that at some points and times controversial, sensitive and complex issues arise in our state’s diverse business community. We must deal with those.
We’re working on the affordable housing piece now. It’s critical to our workforce, and it’s an economic growth opportunity. We want to keep people in communities. In the community where I make my home, for example, 90% of the police department can’t afford to live there. That’s not right.
Some local government leaders don’t appreciate the complexities around why we need more housing. We need to educate them, so they can help solve this crisis. If we don’t, it will be an economic development challenge. I look at it from wastewater, housing, transportation and workforce perspectives. We need to figure out those issues by finding ways in the current political environment to push good policy that helps meet needs. It’s difficult to do politically.
We need to think about transportation infrastructure, too. North Carolina has invested billions in it over the last decade or so. It’s one of the state’s biggest untold success stories as it relates to economic development. Tax regulation and infrastructure are top issues expanding and relocating companies review. North Carolina is in a good spot, but growth brings challenges.
BAILEY: Growth keeps me up at night but not in a bad way. It’s exciting and brings opportunities, whether its data centers or developments in a growing town. It can be many things, so you must define it.
But not everyone wants growth. There are opportunities to drill into that to understand why people are opposed and what might lead them to be more open to it. There are many great organizations that are looking at how we do smart growth in North Carolina.
Technology keeps me up, too. Policymakers want more data and storytelling to justify points. Data is getting easier to generate, analyze and provide. It’s amazing. Technology also gives more people a voice. Flip on your camera, take a picture and post it. You don’t have to be powerful, connected or have credentials to become part of the conversation. That’s not a bad thing; that’s the current reality. The job at the end of the day is learning how to leverage, manage and deal to keep conversations factual, civil and effective for everyone.
WHAT PROJECTS OR INITIATIVES ARE IMPORTANT TO YOUR GROUPS MOVING FORWARD?
WILLIAMS: We’ll be asking for more financial aid for higher education. It’s usually spared from budget cuts, but everything was cut during the Great Recession. It remains below its pre-recession level despite some increases. Students need that support to attend and complete college.
While money from the general fund can be difficult to secure, sports wagering may provide an alternative. Despite our athletic teams playing under the same sports-wagering restrictions, all the higher education funding from it currently goes to UNC institutions. It helps them improve their athletic programs. We want to be competitive for students, because our teams are playing teams that are benefiting. Between 60% and 70% of students at some of our institutions are athletes. They compete in Division I, Division II and Division III, which doesn’t provide athletic scholarships.
Colleges compete against each other in athletics and for enrollment. Most students look at public and private institutions. You often must go to the sixth or seventh most populous cross-app in applications before you find another private college. If a student is deciding between two institutions, then they may go where the athletic facilities are improved and enhanced. That’s a concern for us.
The state’s education sectors collaborate, too. NC College Connect, for example, has the potential to be transformational for many students, helping them understand that college is possible for them. The program guarantees admission to about 30 of our institutions, several UNC institutions and all community colleges, which have open admission, for about 70,000 students, each with a 2.8 or higher weighted GPA, in our public and independent high schools. Let’s figure out your choice, and we’ll discuss financial aid packages.
The program helps North Carolina’s many first-generation college students. It helps students from lower-income families, too. Knowing that you’ve been accepted in early fall and we’re there to help, makes college possible for many students. Though some parents were skeptical when the acceptance letter for their child arrived out of the blue, wondering if it was real. You do have to wonder these days. But it’s a real thing.
The number of applications is tremendous. There were more for the most recent College Application Week, when many colleges and universities waive their application fees, than in
the past.
CASHION: We recently released our second annual lawmaker scorecard, How They Voted. We had 105 Jobs Champions, each scoring 80% or higher on the votes that were taken. We hope their pro-growth and pro-free market philosophy continues. We saw great gains in childcare and public-private partnership legislation, energy and military opportunities, and regulatory reforms.
The General Assembly passed Carolina HealthWorks, one of the biggest pieces of legislation in maybe a generation. We worked with the state Insurance Department on its language to get it approved. It’s for small businesses with between two and 50 employees who are a member of their local chamber or the state chamber. Hopefully, it will drive down healthcare costs, allowing them to invest in their businesses and employees. We’re receiving good feedback. It’s active in the marketplace. The Blue Cross broker network and local chambers are promoting it.
BAILEY: We’re digging into recently enacted federal policies, including Make America Healthy Again. A federal approach that has variances at the state level, it touches many industries in many ways. Identifying the voices, players and potential outcomes is important here, too. How do these industries and individual companies approach this new framework at the policy level? We’ve created thought-leading presentations, which aren’t client specific, that offer approaches to this type of policy. They drill down into these large federal policies and many of the changes that are coming to see how they impact the industries at the state level. ■
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