GOP Rep. Jake Johnson on oversight, NC budget’s projects | Under the Dome podcast
The North Carolina House is expected to start rolling out its budget in committees on Thursday, and lawmakers may be taking back some money they had handed out.
Good morning and welcome to The News & Observer’s Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Capitol Bureau Chief Dawn Vaughan.
Our newsletter on Tuesdays is a preview of the new episode of our Under the Dome podcast that posted this morning on all podcast platforms. Listen to my interview with Rep. Jake Johnson, a Polk County Republican, in his office at the General Assembly.
Johnson is House deputy majority whip, chair of the House Oversight Committee, vice chair of the Appropriations Committee and chair of the Appropriations subcommittee on Capital and Information Technology. And if you are interested in how state lawmakers spend about $66 billion of your taxpayer money the next two years, you’ll definitely want to hear our conversation.
Johnson said that the budget process this year will include more debate than before. Pieces of the budget will be unveiled before the full package, and considered separately in the relevant committees.
“Which I actually like,” Johnson said.
“It felt like in past years we go into the full Approps meeting, as IT chair, I go up there and say, ‘Yep, we got broadband money, cybersecurity money and data storage money, on to the next one.’ And how productive is that really for anybody? I mean, I don’t know how much we’re really getting out of that, or how much the public is,” Johnson said.
If capital projects — those using one-time money, often to build something — have received funding but haven’t spent it yet, those buildings may not be safe in this year’s budget. Johnson said budget writers have scrutinized the kind of capital projects that, for example, have only spent 10% of money already allocated from the legislature five years ago. Rather than giving the project another $50 to $100 million, he said, “could we use that money better somewhere else in the short term, just knowing it’s not going to be a great year to pump a ton of money from general fund into the SCIF (State Capital Infrastructure Fund)?”
He also talks about lawmakers’ approach to eliminating some job positions in his area of the budget, including using AI and automating some state government jobs.
Johnson also talks about the Senate’s budget proposal in “a bad budget year” and what he thinks about the possibility of Stein signing a final budget bill.
We talk about why he got into politics young, and much more about what’s going on in the House, from the upcoming state budget to the recent “crossover” deadline to Johnson’s role on the House Oversight Committee.
Johnson, who turns 31 this week, first ran for office at age 19, and won his first election when he was 22, to the Polk County Board of Commissioners. Just a few years later he went to the House, where he’s served more than three terms.
Here are some more highlights from the podcast:
▪ On chairing the House Oversight Committee: “I was the inaugural class of having an Oversight Committee. And Speaker Moore said in the very beginning, he said, ‘This is going to be one of, if not the most powerful committees with, statutorily, what you can do.’ I think procedurally, Rules is obviously the most powerful committee, but (Oversight can) bring people in, subpoena documents. And if someone doesn’t cooperate, you go to court, just like you would a subpoena in a judicial setting.”
▪ On local government meetings: “When you put the Z word, the zoning word, on there, oh, you can fill up a building quick. You’ll have the fire marshal with people waiting outside,” Johnson said.
▪ On representing his House district: “We’re a point of contact that, whether the dog’s barking beside your house and getting on your nerves or you’re upset with the federal budget — we get those calls. ... If I don’t have an answer or I can’t fix it, I know exactly who to call to make sure it gets done.”
There’s much more in the episode, plus our picks for Headliner of the Week.
Where to listen
Listen to the Under the Dome podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Audible, iHeart, Pandora, Amazon Music and Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Thanks for reading, and listening. If you are a lawmaker or work in state government, politics or policy and are interested in being a podcast guest or have topic recommendations, email me at dvaughan@newsobserver.com.
This story was originally published May 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "GOP Rep. Jake Johnson on oversight, NC budget’s projects | Under the Dome podcast."
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