Senate leaders drop opposition to Dorothea Dix property sale

A state Senate bill that could have delayed or blocked the pending $52 million sale of the Dorothea Dix campus to the city of Raleigh has been dropped.

The co-chairs of the Senate Health Care Committee, Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell; Sen. Louis Pate, R-Wayne; and Sen. Tommy Tucker, R-Union, had filed Senate Bill 705 in March, which would have required the property be sold through an upset-bid process instead of through a negotiated agreement that was hashed out between state and city lawmakers in…