By james art A second round of state-funded disaster relief spending after Hurricane Helena pulls about $604.1 million from the state’s “rainy day fund,” under a revised North Carolina Senate bill that passed the legislature with bipartisan support Thursday.
As of Thursday, the rain fund contained about $4.5 billion after transferring $273 million in the first disaster relief bill.
An additional $40 million will come from Office of State Budget and Management reserves for a total of $644 million in assistance appropriations. Some of the funding goes to recovery efforts involving Tropical Storm Debbie, a potential Tropical Cyclone 8 and the tornado that hit Nash County.
The Senate passed SB473 by a 46-0 vote, while the House approved by a 108-0 vote.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has pulled from the legislative session calendar a vote to override a veto of House Bill 10 — the controversial school voucher funding and sheriffs’ cooperation with federal ICE law.
“The state executive’s lack of preparation leading up to Hurricane Helena and the lack of immediate action afterward put western North Carolina in a more difficult position than it should have been,” Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said in statement.
“It will be a long recovery, and the Legislature will not lose sight of rebuilding the region and repairing the damage.”
“Our second relief package puts the General Assembly’s total commitment to date at nearly $900 million, and that will only grow as we continue to assess and repair the damage.”
Congressman Robert Raves, D-Chatham and the Democratic minority leader, said “this second disaster relief package for Western North Carolina is desperately needed.”
“However, I am disappointed that House Democrats were not directly involved in writing this legislation. This is yet another missed opportunity for a bipartisan approach to lawmaking.
“I hope our next round of disaster relief funding is more robust and includes more than a small handful of people making it.”
More early voting sites
The second bill related to Helene is a revised Senate Bill 132, which affects early voting sites in affected counties.
The Senate passed the bill by a 46-0 vote and the House by a 106-2 vote.
Governor Roy Cooper is expected to sign the bills into law soon.
SB132 requires an early voting site for every 30,000 registered voters for Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga and Yancey counties.
Each county currently has at least one, and Rep. Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, said Henderson and McDowell will likely need multiple new sites. He said Henderson has one site currently for about 92,000 registered voters.
To meet these criteria, county election boards will need to provide new early voting locations no later than Oct. 29. Places will be open until November 2nd.
Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, questioned the need for the revised bill given that early voting is already halfway through and why the need was not addressed before early voting began on Oct. 17.
New funding breakdown
The rainy day funding goes to five main categories: $195 million for agriculture, nature and economic initiatives; $130 million for public safety; $101.75 million for education; $106 million for state government; and $71.4 million for public health.
SB743 lists another $77.1 million that is appropriated: $59 million from untied funds in the Clean Water and Drinking Water Reserves; and $18.1 million in unobligated funds for need-based scholarships.
The legislative funding is significantly less than the additional $3.9 billion for disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Helena that Gov. Roy Cooper recommended on Wednesday.
Cooper said that at an estimated $53.6 billion — so far — the damage is more than three times the amount sustained during Hurricane Florence in 2018.
The proposed $3.9 billion would be used to begin rebuilding critical infrastructure, homes, businesses, schools and farms damaged during the Sept. 26-27 storm that devastated western North Carolina.
Rep. Carl Gillespie, R-Clay, emphasized during the Rules and Operations Committee meeting that SB743 is merely a funding bridge as more extensive damage reviews are conducted.
Rep. Mark Pless, R-Haywood, said the second relief funding “will help move things along” while determining what costs will be managed by local, state and federal funds, along with insurance.
Rep. Eric Ager, D-Buncombe, said speed of action is critical to the recovery of businesses and residents in Asheville and rural parts of western North Carolina
“Speed matters in getting businesses open, people back in their homes, students back in their schools,” Ager said. “We need to help rebuild the economic engine that Asheville is for the region.”
Educational component
A key element of education support spending is the provision of need-based grants to students at certain public and private universities, community colleges and K-12 schools.
Gillespie said the emphasis on need-based scholarships for students is necessary “because we have to be concerned that because of this storm, students are displaced and a number of those students are not going to come back, and we’re going to lose those students.” “
“It’s very important that we address this, that we provide the support that these students need to come back. We don’t want them to give up on continuing their education and supporting their local communities.”
Six community colleges – Asheville-Buncombe Technical, Blue Ridge, Haywood, Mayland, McDowell Technical and Western Piedmont – will receive a total of $5 million in grants to cover tuition costs for the spring 2025 semester.
UNC Asheville will receive $5.5 million for the same initiative toward tuition costs.
Emergency scholarships of up to $2,500 will be awarded to students from Appalachian State, UNC Asheville and Western Carolina, members of the UNC system, along with private institutions Brevard, Gardner-Webb, Lenoir-Rhyne, Lees-McRae, Mars Hill, Montreat and Warren Wilson.
The six tuition-assisted community colleges are joined in an emergency scholarship initiative by Caldwell Technical, Catawba Valley, Cleveland, Gaston, Isothermal, Southwestern, Tri-County and Wilkes.
Students will be required to apply for grant funding.
The bill would allow — at the request of the superintendent — up to 20 additional public school days in counties affected by Helene’s damage.
There is $5 million for the state Department of Public Instruction to administer mental health support to students in public schools affected by Helene.
Other components
About $100 million will be transferred from the state treasurer’s office to the state Local Government Commission “to provide cash flow loans” to local governments in the 39 affected counties, including Allegany, Ashe, Forsyth, Stokes, Watauga, Wilkes and Yadkin .
These loans must be repaid by June 30, 2030.
About $100 million will be set aside to provide emergency bridge loan assistance to help repair or restore water and sewer infrastructure, as well as $22 million in bridge loan assistance to repair or replace commercial underground storage tanks.
Departments of social services in the 39 counties designated for Helene disaster relief funds will each receive $1 million earmarked to provide rental assistance to displaced individuals.
Those individuals or households must be at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level “who suffered hardship due to the impact of Hurricane Helena.”
The Golden Leaf Foundation is providing up to $50 million to administer a program providing bridge loans of up to $100,000 to qualified businesses affected by Helene “to prevent bankruptcy and closure” of those businesses.
However, some senators urged the Legislature to move to provide grants to recovering businesses, as they will be challenged to return to profitability as the loan expires.
About $10 million is being allocated by Golden Leaf to help potential food delivery providers partner with food banks in the 39 affected counties.
Breakdown of Cooper’s funding
Helene’s disaster relief presentation by Cooper and State Budget Director Christine Walker projects about $33.4 billion in ongoing unfunded damages and needs.
Of the remaining $20.2 billion, FEMA funding is expected to provide $13.6 billion, private and other funding sources $6.3 billion, and the state $273 million so far of the $4.75 billion rainy day fund dollar.
Cooper recommends spending an additional $1.1 billion in rainy day funds. Lawmakers have set a cap on how much rainy day funds can be spent at any one time.
Another $1 billion will come from an inflation reserve fund and $700 million from the emergency fund. Disaster Response and Relief Fund. In addition, there is $406 million in undistributed funds that can be drawn down.
Of that initial $273 million, about $250 million is going to state agencies and local governments for relief and recovery operations in the 39 affected counties.
Cooper called for some state funding to be made available sooner rather than later, not only to speed up the recovery process but also to provide limited recovery equipment.
“Successful recovery requires significant early investment to ensure communities have the tools to fully recover,” Cooper said.