NC House proposes $450 million more for Helene relief -- about half of Stein's request

The North Carolina House of Representatives is expected to vote Thursday on a bill containing an additional $450 million for Hurricane Helene aid.

The proposal, introduced Wednesday morning and approved by the House Appropriations Committee later in the day, underscores broad disagreement with the Senate and the state's governor over exactly how much more to spend on recovery and rebuilding efforts, and how to divvy up that money.

Most of the sum proposed by the House would come in addition to $1.6 billion the state government has already spent on efforts in Western North Carolina, which was ravaged by the September storm. But it's only about half of the $891 million extra that Democratic Gov. Josh Stein says is needed and significantly lower than the $700 million plan put forward by the state Senate last month.

Rep. Dudley Greene said he and other sponsors of the bill took the other proposals into account when writing the House's proposal.

"Maybe we took a little bit different approach to those," said Greene, R-McDowell. "But I think there's a lot of similarities in the issues that we addressed."

Rep. Karl Gillespie, R-Macon, another bill sponsor, said the proposal was the product of a lot of listening. "We listened to our constituents," he said. "We listened to the folks on the ground. We listened to the folks that's been fighting this thing since the night the storm came through, and I'm satisfied to report to you with 100% confidence that their voice was heard in this process."

Negotiations between the House and the Senate will soon get underway on how much extra to spend, and whether to roll it into the annual state budget or keep it as a separate bill, to help separate it from the political infighting that often slows down budget talks.

A preview of the kinds of negotiations that will be needed: Stein suggested spending $70 million on helping local governments pay for repairs to schools throughout western North Carolina. The Senate proposed $39.6 million for the same purpose, and the House proposed $33 million. All agree on the need, just not how pressing the need is.

On other relief ideas, the Senate's $700 million plan contained few details of what the money would be spent on, while Stein and House leaders have each provided detailed breakdowns of how they'd spend the money.

The House, for instance, would spend $60 million on small business grants. Stein proposed a combined $100 million for small business grants and loans. Democrats on the House budget committee praised the inclusion, but said more funding would likely be needed.

The House bill also includes $50 million for grants to local governments for capital needs. Rep. Lindsey Prather, D-Buncombe, said it's too restrictive strict to help local governments struggling with operational costs because they've already spent so much on local response.

"Buncombe County, for example, has a $31 million revenue deficit," Prather told the committee. "We're seeing school cuts. We're seeing emergency services cuts. I mean, there's all kinds of things that the county pays for that they're not gonna be able to use this money for."

Greene said sponsors considered that, but opted not to allow grants for revenue replacement "as a policy choice."

Stein proposed $10 million for volunteer fire departments, and the House is proposing $18 million for local fire and EMS departments.

Each plan also contains some ideas not found in the other. The House, for instance, would spend $25 million repairing local airports — something Stein doesn't propose at all. Stein would spend $20 million on local food banks — something the House doesn't propose.

It's unclear how long negotiations over the final details of this latest Helene package might take. The broader state budget is expected to be approved this summer or fall.

In the meantime, Western North Carolina will be looking to Washington for aid.

The federal government is expected to eventually spend billions of dollars more on Helene recovery in North Carolina, although all parties say there's no way that all of the $60 billion in damage the storm caused will every be fully paid for. Most of the homes and businesses that washed away lacked flood insurance, since storms of this magnitude are so rare in the western part of the state.

Helene was the most destructive natural disaster in North Carolina history, killing more than 100 people in addition to the property damage that spread across two dozen counties.