General Assembly considers fourth Helene relief bill
There have been three relief bills since Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina, but much more is needed. File photo
Nearly six months after Hurricane Helene killed 106 people and caused more than $60 billion in damage across Western North Carolina, the General Assembly is set to approve another storm-related relief bill.
In 2024, the General Assembly enacted three Hurricane Helene relief bills, cumulatively allocating approximately $1 billion to support recovery efforts across the state.
The first relief measure, passed on Oct. 10, 2024, provided $273 million in aid. This initial act established the Hurricane Helene Disaster Recovery Fund and eased certain regulatory barriers to expedite assistance. Senate President Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) described it as a “first step” toward comprehensive recovery.
Two weeks later, the legislature approved a more extensive relief package, appropriating an additional $604 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund. This second bill aimed to address a broader range of recovery needs but notably excluded direct grant assistance for businesses, a provision that local leaders had advocated for — especially considering many businesses were already burdened with existing loans from prior disasters.
The third relief effort, enacted on November 19, 2024, allocated an extra $227 million to the Hurricane Helene Recovery Fund however the funding was to “remain unspent until appropriated by an act of the General Assembly,” indicating that further legislative action was required to disburse the funds. Democrats blasted the bill for offering no immediate relief and for including provisions restricting the powers of the newly elected Democratic governor and attorney general.
The common thread between the three bills is that none of them allocated any direct financial assistance — grants, not loans — for small business owners affected by the storm. Many of those same business owners remain burdened with COVID-era loans, while all of those business owners completely missed out on the fall tourism season.
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Sales tax collections as well as room occupancy tax collections have since rebounded in most affected counties, but a sharp decline in September and October testify to around $400 million in decreased spending by visitors and locals alike.
Congress likewise failed to deliver adequate assistance in December; a delegation led by then-Gov. Roy Cooper to the White House asked for $25 billion to help with the state’s estimated $60 billion in damages, however the appropriation, between $9 and $15 billion, falls far short of what officials say is needed. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) sits on the House Appropriations Committee but never responded to a Smoky Mountain News inquiry as to why the funding didn’t even approach the amount needed.
Despite these legislative and lobbying efforts, Gov. Josh Stein proposed an additional $1 billion in state assistance in early 2025, underscoring the ongoing need for substantial support to fully recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. Stein’s proposal included $150 million in grants to small business owners.
House Republicans countered with a $500 million proposal that was first discussed Feb. 5 in the House Select Committee on Helene Recovery. Senate Republicans tweaked the bill and voted unanimously to increase the allocation to $535 million on March 5.
The bill includes $3 million for tourism promotion; $4.5 million for programs targeting student learning loss; $10 million to support fire departments; $20 million to state and local governments for debris removal; $55 million in small business infrastructure grants for sidewalk or parking lot repairs; $100 million to restore private roads and bridges — a major safety issue for emergency responders unable to reach cut-off homes; $140 million for housing reconstruction with plans to create a reimbursement-eligible program within the N.C. Department of Commerce and $193 million for agricultural aid, covering crop losses and debris removal—an amount exceeding the House’s initial proposal of $150 million.
But as usual, there’s less talk about what’s in the bill than what’s not in the bill.
A $10 million provision in the House bill for rental assistance, something Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe) has been pushing for months, was slashed in the Senate revision to just $1 million across the 28 disaster-affected counties.
Perhaps most importantly, a small amount of grants for small business owners was in the House bill, but not in the Senate revision.
“We had a victory in the House two weeks ago when we got $15 million included in the House version of the bill that would have been given to small businesses as grants through Golden Leaf. It wasn’t enough, but it was something,” said Rep. Eric Ager (D-Buncombe). “Then, of course, the Senate stripped that out. I think the $55 million that is in the bill for small business infrastructure would have been much better spent as direct grants to businesses.”
Lindsey Prather and Brian Turner, also Democratic reps from Buncombe County, expressed similar concerns.
“We keep saying WNC is open for business, but businesses are closing and will continue to close if the state doesn’t step in to help,” Turner said.
All three, however, said they’d support the final bill.
“We need more than what is in this bill, but at least it’s something,” Prather said. “We need to pass it and get the money out quickly.”
Haywood Republican Rep. Mark Pless said he was looking forward to a conference on the bill, and that it could still change.
“I think we will probably not accept it in its format, and then go to conference and we’ll work out some of the details and see if we can get some of the things that were important to [the House] and let them have some of the things that were important to [the Senate].”
The House was set to consider the Senate’s changes to the bill after The Smoky Mountain News went to print on Tuesday, March 11.
