ASHEVILLE - Ralph Hise has spent 16 years helping shape North Carolina’s conservative turn. Now, with another election approaching, the Spruce Pine Republican says he wants to keep pushing in the same direction — on taxes, school choice, regulation and the balance of power between Raleigh and local governments.
Hise, first elected in 2010, is seeking a ninth term representing Senate District 47, which includes all or parts of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell, Haywood, Madison, Mitchell, Watauga and Yancey counties.
The district has historically favored Republicans. From 2016 through 2022, it performed at 35.8% for Democrats, according to nonpartisan political mapping website davesredistricting.org.
Hise first won election to the Senate in 2010,
the year Republicans established their current stranglehold on the North Carolina General Assembly.
“I was the youngest member of the Senate at 34, and now, if reelected next term, I will be the longest-serving member of the North Carolina Senate,” Hise said.
His Democratic opponent, Frank Patton Hughes III, did not respond to a Citizen Times request to schedule an interview by the requested deadline.
Property taxes, housing affordability shape Hise’s agenda
Two constitutional amendments on the Nov. 3 ballot reflect Hise’s emphasis on taxes. One would require the General Assembly to establish limits on increases in property tax levies by local governments. Another would lower the state constitutional ceiling on income taxes to 3.5%.
Hise said rising property valuations have allowed local governments to collect substantially more money even when elected officials lower the tax rate after a revaluation.
“We have a history all over the state of county commissioners holding their tax rates until reevaluations come through, and then hitting absolute sticker shock for everyone in their district when property values jump by at times 40% and 50% since the last evaluations,” he said.
The property tax amendment itself would not establish the formula for a cap. If approved, lawmakers would have to determine later how much local property tax levies could grow and what exceptions would apply.
On broader affordability, Hise pointed to state income tax cuts and regulatory changes he said can reduce the cost of building homes.
Housing supply, he said, remains a fundamental problem in the mountain counties, where construction costs can exceed what a finished home will command on the market.
“It’s hard to get out of a supply deficit when you lose money on building a home,” Hise said.
He argued that easing building regulations and adding housing of all types is essential to reducing prices.
Helene recovery and school choice remain priorities
Nearly two years after Tropical Storm Helene devastated Western North Carolina, Hise said the state’s recovery effort remains constrained by the pace of federal reimbursements.
Hise said North Carolina has appropriated more than $3.1 billion for Helene recovery, including money for needs such as private roads and bridges and business assistance that federal programs do not always cover.
The strain has been particularly severe for small counties that fronted enormous cleanup costs while waiting for reimbursement, he said.
“I had five counties that were functionally bankrupt,” Hise said. “They owed more money going out at one time in debris removal alone than their entire county budget.”
Although Hise said federal money has begun moving more quickly, he expects recovery to continue for years.
Education policy presents a different divide. Hise remains an advocate for North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship program, which uses public money to help families pay private school tuition.
He rejected the argument that expanding private-school vouchers necessarily comes at the expense of traditional public schools, saying state funding per public school student has continued to rise.
“There has never been a one-size-fits-all educational method for children,” Hise said. “Families’ needs are different, children’s needs are different.”
Hise backs Flock cameras, rejects statewide data center pause
Hise also defended automated license plate readers such as Flock cameras, which have drawn scrutiny over privacy and cases elsewhere involving law enforcement officers accused of misusing the systems.
Officers who abuse law enforcement databases should face discipline or criminal penalties where appropriate, Hise said, but he sees the cameras themselves as useful tools.
“I have multiple cases all across my district where children have been found who were missing or had run away from home, where copper thieves and others have been discovered because they were the only ones driving on that road at a particular time at night,” he said.
Compared with the information routinely collected by smartphones and other electronic devices, Hise called a stationary license plate camera “a low priority and risk to our privacy.”
He also rejected the need for a statewide moratorium on data centers even as some Western North Carolina communities have considered or enacted local pauses amid concerns over electricity, water, noise and land use.
Hise pointed to Meta’s data center in Rutherford County, which was within his district under an earlier map, as an example of development that can work when communities already have sufficient utility infrastructure.
“As long as you are doing your due diligence in the site selection of a data center, they can be an important part of our industrial growth in Western North Carolina,” Hise said.
National political conditions may be more difficult for Republicans this year, Hise acknowledged, but he expressed confidence that Senate District 47 would remain in the GOP column.
“The 47th district is a strong conservative district,” Hise said. “I’m proud to represent them, and I think that this district is a good representation of where we will hold the line.”
Cory Vaillancourt is the Helene Recovery/Investigations Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Find him on X at @The_CoryV or on Signal, via email at cvaillancourt@citizentimes.com or at 912-508-5640.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: NC Senate veteran seeks ninth term
