The Senate’s “disaster recovery” bill will move forward after the North Carolina House joined the Senate in overriding N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper’s November veto of the bill on Wednesday night.
The measure did not provide any direct funding to the people of Western North Carolina impacted by the hurricane. The bill allocated $227 million for Helene recovery, but the money will be put into a fund that will remain inaccessible until it is appropriated at a future session.
Opponents said the bill did not allocate enough immediate relief to the 25 counties devastated by Hurricane Helene and that the move was a politically-motivated power grab.
Three Western North Carolina Republican representatives voted against the bill when it was first presented, but all three voted Wednesday to uphold the override.
Rep. Mark Pless(R), who represents Haywood and Madison Counties, spoke with BPR after the vote.
“It’s not the worst thing in the world. Now we can move forward and get some things done for the people of Western North Carolina,” Pless said.
“I’m still not happy with the way that it was rolled out. But there's not a whole lot that I can do about it right now. I would have liked to see a lot more specific money.”
Pless was disappointed with the politicization of the bill. He said he spoke with federal and state officials who assured him that more funding would be coming soon as soon as the end of January, he said.
More help is needed for WNC
Buncombe County Representative Eric Ager (D) said more needs to be done for the people of Western North Carolina.
“Our state’s motto is something that I always try to live up to. It is Esse Quam Videri, ‘to be rather than to seem.’ This bill just seems to do something to help but it doesn’t actually do it,” Ager said.
Rep. Lindsey Prather (D) who also represents Buncombe County listed more than a dozen businesses that have closed since the storm in the county.
She said 5,000 people in the region remain in transitional sheltering more than two months after the storm. More than 196,000 households were eligible for the assistance.
She shared the stories of three women in the region who all “need more help.”
“Every legislator in this chamber has received hundreds, if not thousands of emails asking us to sustain this veto. Please, please vote for Western North Carolina,” Prather said.
Both representatives were critical of the speed of disbursement from the state.
“It's been three months. We've been down here a couple of times and we should have done more sooner… The people in North Carolina are tired of hearing that help is on the way, it's not coming - that's the way people feel so we've just got to do better,” Ager said.
Protests and national attention
Throughout the session, shouting and chanting could be heard from the gallery.
The North Carolina Association of Educators(NCAE) had a phone campaign to encourage community members to tell their representatives to vote against the bill.
Bryan Proffit, vice president of the NCAE, said opposing the bill reflects the values of the state’s teachers.
“We're interested in this bill because as educators who lead young people in our state, every single day, the classroom and values that we try to teach them are about, you shouldn't lie, you shouldn't manipulate, and you shouldn't cheat,” Proffit said. “And so for us we want to live in the world in a way that we want our public policy to reflect the values that we are trying to instill with our kids every single day.”
Proffit said the measure also does not do enough for teachers who were impacted by Helene. .
The bill compensates teachers for missed work days but it also alters the powers of the recently elected leaders like state Superintendent-elect of Public Instruction Mo Green.
The bill removed the Center for Safer Schools from the purview of the Department of Public Instruction and put it under the State Bureau of Investigation as well as other changes. Proffit said the change runs counter to what voters intended when they cast their ballots to give the newly elected officials like Green and Governor-elect Josh Stein these powers.
“The election said, ‘we want these people to have these powers.’ And what we are witnessing is an ugly and undemocratic theft of powers, right? That runs in exactly counter to what the popular will of the state just said,” Proffit said.
Republicans also encouraged constituent support for the veto override. House Speaker Tim Moore appeared on Bannon’s War Room, an online show hosted by the former Trump White House chief strategist who was just released from prison at the end of October after serving four months for refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas for the Jan. 6 committee investigation.
“This action item today is going to be critical to making sure that North Carolina continues to be able to do what it can to deliver victories for Republicans up and down the ticket and move the country in the right direction,” Moore explained.
On the show, Bannon then shared the phone number for listeners to call North Carolina Republican representatives to tell them to override the veto.
Federal funding is on the way
House Speaker-Designate Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) spoke in support of the override. He defended the state’s response to the storm. He said the state sent about $1 billion to the region and all of it has yet to be spent.
“The way that this body's handled hurricane relief has been similar to the way that it's been handled in the past. We've had many hurricanes in eastern North Carolina and typically those hurricanes cause such damage to the state, that it's not possible for the state alone to meet that burden,” Hall said.
With this bill, the total allocated by the state for the region will hit $1.1 billion, according to the News and Observer. Before Wednesday, the legislature passed two relief packages totaling about $877 million for Helene recovery with the second bill providing about $50 million in loans.
The new Senate bill allocates $227 million for Helene recovery but the money will be put into a fund that will remain inaccessible until it is appropriated at a future session.
Hall will become Speaker of the House in January when the new legislature is officially seated. He will replace Tim Moore who was elected to the U.S. House to represent the Charlotte-area 14th Congressional District.
Hall also spoke about the responsibility of the federal government to help rebuild after the storm. The governor’s office estimated in October that there was about $53 billion of damage to the region. Hall said the state cannot “meet that kind of burden” without federal support.
“We've got every indication that help is on the way and on the way very soon, probably by Christmas, by the end of this month and we anticipate getting maybe $25 billion,” Hall said.
Throughout the session, legislators mentioned meeting in Washington.The state’ congressional delegation and local leaders have campaigned for additional federal relief funds including expedited FEMA assistance and long-term investments ahead of future disasters, according to WCNC Charlotte.
On Dec. 7, Gov. Cooper announced that the Biden administration agreed to North Carolina’s request to cover 90% of public assistance, hazard mitigation, and other needs assistance. The federal government typically covers 75% of the cost, according to a press release.
“As we continue into the recovery phase of this disaster, there will be a significant cost to rebuilding western North Carolina communities and to assist survivors with recovering from Helene,” NC Emergency Management Director Will Ray said. “The increased federal cost share provided will allow for state dollars to go further which will expedite many recovery and hazard mitigation projects as we go into 2025.”
The Office of State Budget and Management announced today that Helene will cost $58 billion dollars, not the $53 billion previously reported.
