Today, state lawmakers unveiled a $500 million proposal as part of a Hurricane Helene disaster recovery bill. If passed, the bill would become the state’s fourth round of funding towards storm recovery. The measure came days after Governor Josh Stein called for $1.07 billion in state support.
The Republican proposal, known as the Disaster Recovery Act, prioritizes money for home reconstruction and repairs, farmer assistance, flood resilience projects and the repair of private roads and bridges. It also earmarks funds for the repair of state facilities and debris removal.
Unlike Stein’s proposal, the General Assembly’s bill does not allocate any money for local governments who lost revenue during the storm or business recovery grants. Stein suggested $100 million for each of those recovery priorities.
Representatives Dudley Greene (R-McDowell) and Representative John Bell (R-Wayne) who co-chair the Helene House subcommittee sponsored the measure. The subcommittee, instituted in December 2024 to help WNC’s recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene, also includes six vice chairs and 36 members from across the state.
On Wednesday, Bell said that the region’s recovery from Hurricane Helene is the “top priority of both chambers.”
"Of course, we know that no matter what appropriation we're able to do is never going to be enough,” he said, “but this is a starting point with multiple bills after this to follow.”
The Disaster Recovery Act includes appropriations for the following items:
- $150 million for home reconstruction and repairs
- $150 million for agricultural restoration projects
- $100 million for private road and bridge repairs
- $60 million for the repair of state facilities, including state parks, forests and two state correctional facilities that were damaged from Hurricane Helene, Western Correctional Center for Women in Swannanoa and the Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center for Women in Black Mountain.
- $20 million for debris removal
- $10 million to provide grants to Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster, an association of organizations that provide storm response, including American Red Cross, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Diaper Bank of North Carolina.
- $10 million to small and volunteer fire departments to cover expenses incurred due to the storm, and to purchase equipment or make capital improvements to assist with future emergency preparation.
The bill also mandates that state funds are not used to pay for things that will likely be covered by federal money, along with an extension of the current state of emergency declaration for Helene through June 1.
The bill would transfer $275 million from the State Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund into the Helene fund, which already has $225 million.
The state already passed three rounds of funding totaling about a billion in state funds.
The governor’s office estimated in December that $59.6 billion will be needed for recovery across Western North Carolina.
Next Tuesday, lawmakers will reconvene and committee members will have the opportunity to propose amendments to the funding plan.
