North Carolina’s lawmakers are ready to rush the first round of Hurricane Helene relief to the western part of the state devastated by flooding caused by the storm.
The General Assembly is expected to pass a $273 million bill that leaders describe as a “first step.”
Back in Raleigh for a one-day session Wednesday, Republicans, who control the legislature, released the bill Wednesday about an hour before it was expected to pass both the House and Senate quickly and be sent to the desk of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The bill, called the Disaster Recovery Act, replaces the previous version of House Bill 149, and only requires a yes or no vote, without any amendments.
Senate leader Phil Berger said in a news conference that the bulk of the money will go to state agencies for spending flexibility, rather than specific earmarks to districts. Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore announced there will be another legislative session on Oct. 24 to pass another round of funding.
“This is not all of it, not by a long shot,” Berger said about the state money. He said the federal government will be providing most of the relief.
Lawmakers will work to figure out what FEMA is paying for, and what it’s not, when they come back for the additional session later in the month, said Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Republican whose district spans seven Western North Carolina counties.
Corbin was among several Republican lawmakers who spoke at the news conference about the damage and response in their districts.
“We’re in a long-term recovery,” said Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican, who represents a devastated area. Hise said “there’s a lot of distrust in the areas I have.”
Sen. Tim Moffitt, who represents Henderson, Polk and Rutherford counties, said the bill is “a first chapter of a very long book to rebuilding the mountains.”
Asked about Democrats’ involvement in the bill, Berger and Moore said they had met with the Cooper administration, Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue and House Democratic Leader Robert Reives.
New Helene Fund
The bill creates a new Hurricane Helene Fund with $273 million from the state’s saving reserve fund.
▪ $250 million will go to the Department of Public Safety, Division of Emergency Management, to provide the state’s match to federal disaster relief funds.
The bill says “a portion” of the money will be used to establish a revolving loan program to help local government and state agencies with cash flow while they are waiting for reimbursement from the federal government.
Moore said they expect the federal government to pay 90% to the state’s 10% in storm relief, and “don’t want to supplant those federal dollars with state dollars if we’re not required to. And then there’s language in the bill, too, that points out that we want to be careful on how the money is spent, that we don’t forfeit the ability to get those federal dollars.”
Help for schools, local government
Here’s what else the bill pays for:
▪ $16 million to the Department of Public Instruction for “lost compensation of school nutrition employees due to school closures resulting from Hurricane Helene.”
▪ $2 million for grants to the North Carolina League of Municipalities, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and the North Carolina Association of Regional Councils of Governments “to provide technical assistance with local recovery funds. In providing this assistance, these entities shall prioritize grants to counties with a population of less than 250,000.” The Office of State Budget and Management will run the program.
What the bill does about Election Day
The bill also includes $5 million for the State Board of Elections, plus a variety of temporary election law changes to make it easier for residents of Western North Carolina to vote.
”The hurricane has dealt a serious blow to what may very well be the ability to conduct elections in the disaster-related counties,” Berger said.
The bill would allow the western counties hit by Helene to change polling sites that were rendered unusable by the storm, give counties more flexibility in how they hire election workers and give affected voters more options to get absentee ballots in.
The money would be used to conduct outreach efforts to voters in western counties and establish a voter hotline.
The bill does not change the deadline for counties to receive absentee ballots, which is 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. However, it will allow voters from the affected counties to turn in their absentee ballot in any county in the state.
Most of the bill’s election measures codify changes already approved by the State Board of Elections on Monday. However, while the board’s resolution only applied to the 13 counties hit hardest by the storm, the bill includes all 25 western counties in the federally declared disaster area.
What Gov. Cooper requested for Helene relief
The Office of State Budget and Management, which is part of Cooper’s administration, sent its proposal on Monday to Berger, Moore and others.
Cooper requested the $250 million that the bill provides for the Helene Fund.
The proposal, sent in a letter from Budget Director Kristin Walker, also says that the state has “already obligated tens of millions of dollars in the first week of response,” and while “much of that will be reimbursed by FEMA,” the state needs to be able to move money quickly and “without red tape or unnecessary delay.”
The budget proposal to legislative leaders also included:
▪ Up to $100 million to the Department of Transportation from the State Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund to deal with more than 600 roads closed and “catastrophic” damage to transportation networks.
▪ A request to amend the Emergency Management Act to “facilitate necessary executive response to emergencies so that a state of emergency can extend as long as necessary to respond to the emergency without enactment of a general law by the General Assembly.”
In response to Cooper’s emergency management request, the bill extends the statewide declaration that Cooper already issued until March 1. That order had concurrence from the rest of the Council of State, which is made up of 10 statewide elected officials. State law changed to limit the duration of states of emergency after Cooper issued a continuing series of orders during the coronavirus pandemic.
Under the Dome
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