Latest Helene recovery act passes — without small business grant support
Absent meaningful federal recovery funding, North Carolina’s General Assembly has now passed its fifth Hurricane Helene recovery bill.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
On the nine-month anniversary of Hurricane Helene, Gov. Josh Stein signed the North Carolina General Assembly’s fifth major installment of recovery funding — a sweeping $575 million package aimed at rebuilding roads, bridges, schools and government infrastructure across the state’s western region while omitting the $60 million in small business grant support that House lawmakers had supported.
Formally titled the “Disaster Recovery Act of 2025 – Part II,” the act makes broad appropriations, fund transfers and regulatory adjustments affecting dozens of state agencies still grappling with an estimated $60 billion in damages from the Sept. 27, 2024, storm.
“I thank the General Assembly for passing a $575 million Helene Response and Recovery Act Part II. This funding will help us fight wildfires, prevent landslides, fix homes, repair dams and support our schools and local governments,” Stein said in a statement. “It also extends our State of Emergency until Oct. 1, 2025, so that we can continue to expedite recovery efforts, especially our efforts to repair private roads and bridges. I am pleased that it passed both chambers unanimously, and I am proud to be signing it into law. We must keep standing up for western North Carolina to help them recover.”
The act begins by reserving a total of $700 million from existing funds, including $105 million from the State Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund, $45 million from the Federal Infrastructure Match Reserve, $477 million from the Medicaid Contingency Reserve and $8 million from the Information Technology Reserve.
An additional $65 million is transferred from previously appropriated or allocated but unused funds. The Department of Environmental Quality contributes $45 million from two bridge loan programs established in 2024. Of that, $25 million had been set aside for the Water Infrastructure Emergency Bridge Loan Program and $20 million for emergency loans related to commercial underground storage tanks.
The Department of Public Instruction transfers $12.5 million previously allocated for lost compensation due to school closures.
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The UNC System Office reallocates $5 million that had been appropriated for facility repairs and renovations. The State Board of Elections contributes $2.25 million from its 2024 General Election budget for the affected areas.
Unused or underutilized funds from the North Carolina Community College System Office are also reallocated. Nearly $2.5 million in unexpended tuition grant funds will instead be distributed to community colleges in affected areas that experienced enrollment declines between the 2023–24 and 2024–25 academic years. Haywood Community College was not among those who lost students.
“We saw the biggest increase in our enrollment from spring-over-spring that I’ve seen since I’ve been there, since 2020,” HCC President Shelley White told Haywood commissioners in April.
An additional $1.16 million will be used to assist students with tuition, fees and emergency expenses that could otherwise prevent them from continuing their education.
The act then makes a formal appropriation of $500 million from the Helene Fund.
Of this amount, $63 million is directed to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, including $25 million for the Agricultural Disaster Crop Loss Program to be used only for verifiable losses of farm infrastructure within the affected areas.
Haywood County farmers aren’t alone in sounding the alarm over the plight of the American farmer and disappearing agricultural land. High-level U.S. Department of Agriculture officials, including then-secretary Tom Vilsack, visited Haywood and Buncombe Counties, respectively, a month after the storm to raise awareness around how Helene has accelerated the loss. Kaleb Rathbone, assistant commissioner of agriculture for Western North Carolina and a Haywood County native, told The Smoky Mountain News last November that farmers had seen “tremendous damage” that could impact production this year.
Macon County Rep. Karl Gillespie, chair of the House Agriculture and Environment Committee, said the $25 million is in addition to nearly $311 million in previous aid.
“The state legislature’s ongoing commitment to our farmers is absolutely critical as they recover and rebuild from the historic losses they’ve endured,” Gillespie told The Smoky Mountain News.
Another $15 million is directed to the Streamflow Rehabilitation Assistance Program for eligible stream work, while an additional $15 million is allocated to the North Carolina Forest Service to strengthen wildfire assets and response capabilities.
The final $8 million goes to the North Carolina Agricultural Manufacturing and Processing Initiative, specifically for atmosphere-controlled projects located in the affected area.
The Department of Commerce receives $10 million. Of that total, $5 million goes to Visit NC, the state’s tourism promotion agency, to market Western North Carolina.
Stein signed the act during the reopening ceremony for Chimney Rock State Park, a symbolic move meant to underscore the “open for business” mantra state and local leaders have been chanting since before Stein’s appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert a few weeks ago, where the governor amplified the appeal.
The remaining $5 million will be used by the Division of Community Revitalization for operational costs and staffing.
The Department of Environmental Quality is appropriated $13 million, with $10 million to fund the Dam Safety Grant Fund for repair, modification or removal of dams damaged by Helene. The remaining $3 million will support landslide hazard mapping in the affected area.
The Department of Information Technology receives $3 million to develop a disaster recovery constituent portal. This portal will consolidate program information from state and federal agencies into a single platform.
The Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is allocated $12 million through the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund. Two thirds of the funds will be used for state parks and recreational forests, and the other third will be available as matching grants for local governments and public authorities. The North Carolina Parks and Recreation Authority is also prohibited from enforcing existing maximum grant sizes previously set at $500,000 — allowing for larger projects.
The Department of Public Instruction receives $8 million to administer a competitive grant program for public schools in the affected area to repair facilities damaged by Hurricane Helene. Eligible schools must have been denied insurance or federal aid. The maximum award is $500,000 per school.
North Carolina Emergency Management is allocated a total of $208 million, of which $75 million is reserved for the Private Road and Bridge Repair Program, including $25 million for reimbursement to homeowners and HOAs.
The act earmarks $70 million for FEMA disaster recovery cost-sharing. Another $25 million is allocated for the Aerial Asset Accessibility Grant Program along with $20 million to the Disaster Relief and Mitigation Fund for the Hurricane Helene Flood Mitigation Grant Program.
Finally, $18 million is directed to VOADs — Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster, like Samaritan’s Purse or Baptists on Mission.
The Office of State Budget and Management receives $96 million, with $70 million allocated for the Hurricane Helene Local Government Capital Grant Program — including a $20 million earmark for Madison County shepherded by Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood), who also represents the hard-hit mountain county.
In an April story about how most local governments hadn’t seen any of the millions in relief fund they’d been promised by various state and federal agencies, Madison County Manager Rod Honeycutt told The Smoky Mountain News his county had an estimated $196 million in damages. Matt Wechtel, chair of the Madison County Board of Commissioners, added that the county had lost a courthouse, a library, two town halls and two sewage treatment plants.
Pless said the money was to be used to construct a new courthouse on land the county owns near the sheriff’s office. The project was already moving along slowly but had picked up speed after Helene damaged the historic courthouse in downtown Marshall.
Chair of the House Emergency Management and Disaster Recovery Committee, Pless recently shared lessons from North Carolina’s recovery process with the Council of State Governments South, which includes state legislators from across the Southeast.
Another critically important allocation — this one, pushed by the entire western delegation along with House and Senate leadership — will go to the Town of Canton, with $2 million for emergency wastewater operations and $14 million for acquisition of the former Pactiv Evergreen wastewater treatment plant site.
Hours after the bill passed the Senate but before Stein signed it, Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers announced the town would use the $14 million to purchase roughly 35 acres on the west bank of the Pigeon River, including warehouses that represent turnkey economic development opportunities for the town, from the mill site’s new owner Eric Spirtas.
Canton already has a $38 million appropriation from 2023 with which to construct a state-of-the-art, flood-proof facility that is of the right size and design to handle both Canton and Clyde’s municipal waste long into the future, even accounting for projected growth. Once the site is formally acquired, construction of the new plant is expected to take at least five years.
The remainder of OSBM’s allocation includes $1.5 million each for Lees-McRae College and Montreat College, $500,000 each for Mars Hill University, Brevard College, Gardner-Webb University and Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Three technical assistance organizations, the North Carolina League of Municipalities, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and the North Carolina Association of Regional Councils of Government, will each receive $2 million.
The Office of the Governor receives $10 million over two years to fund the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, GROWNC.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal is appropriated $18 million to issue grants of $50,000 each to fire departments and rescue squads in 24 specified western counties. These grants must be used for equipment, facility repairs or wildfire preparedness and cannot be used to fund staff positions.
The North Carolina School for the Deaf in Morganton receives $1 million for repairs and construction related to Hurricane Helene damage. The UNC System receives $6 million, split evenly among Western Carolina University, Appalachian State University, and UNC Asheville, along with the North Carolina Arboretum. These funds are for disaster damage repairs and future mitigation projects.
The Department of State Treasurer receives $51.5 million for cash flow loans to local governments in affected areas. These loans must follow guidelines outlined in legislation passed in 2024.
The bill also reassigns $28 million in unspent recovery funds from Hurricane Dorian in 2019 for Hurricane Helene use.
The North Carolina Railroad Company is required to issue a dividend equal to 25% of its prior-year trackage income in each year of the 2025–27 biennium. For fiscal year 2025–26, the resulting funds are directed to Blue Ridge Southern Railroad and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, each receiving $2 million.
In March, a spokesperson for Watco, the company that owns Blue Ridge Southern Railroad, told The Smoky Mountain News that recovery costs in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina top $18 million. Service disruptions on the GSMR in the aftermath of Helene impacted revenue — not only for the railroad, but also for the scores of visitors who also patronize Bryson City businesses before and after their journeys.
From the Stabilization and Inflation Reserve, $15 million is to be transferred to the North Carolina Selectsite Fund for economic development purposes. The Selectsite program seeks to identify development opportunities on sites of between 50 and 1,000 acres, however Western North Carolina doesn’t have many sites that would meet those qualifications.
Another $20 million is transferred from the Department of Environmental Quality to Robeson County for the Lumber River Basin Coalition waterway restoration project.
The Local Government Capital Grant Program is established with OSBM as administrator. Grants must be based on FEMA per capita damage estimates and may only be used for projects denied FEMA public assistance reimbursement. Priority is given to local governments and tribes in counties with populations under 300,000. No county may receive more than 20% of total funding. No individual recipient may receive more than 5%. Zip codes only qualifying for lower-tier FEMA categories are limited to 5%.
The Hurricane Helene Flood Mitigation Grant Program is established within NC Emergency Management. It provides reimbursement-based grants for flood mitigation projects, including culvert replacements, stormwater improvements, relocation of at-risk infrastructure and hardening of critical facilities. There is no required local match. Awards are capped at 10% per recipient and 20% per county. Administrative costs are capped at 1.5%.
The Aerial Asset Accessibility Grant Program is also created within NC Emergency Management. Eligible recipients are local governments that own non-commercial airports meeting certain criteria, including 24/7 fuel availability, on-site mechanics, and the ability to remain open during emergencies. Priority is given to airports with sufficient capacity to support emergency operations. Grants are capped at $5 million per recipient, with a limit of two grants per county.
The region’s small airports, especially in Jackson County, played a critical role in the delivery of supplies after Helene damaged other transportation networks — roads, rails and interstates.
“Because they did play such an important role as a drop point for supplies because of road issues, we, the western delegation in the House Select Committee on Helene Recovery felt it would be very beneficial for any other event like this that might happen,” said Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain). Clampitt also represents Jackson and Transylvania counties.
The Dam Safety Grant Fund is formally established in the General Statutes. It will be used to provide state matching funds for high-hazard dams eligible under FEMA’s rehabilitation program, and for other dams damaged by natural disasters. The program must follow FEMA’s Risk-Based Prioritization Method and report annually to the legislature.
The Governor’s Helene emergency declaration, previously extended in 2024 and early 2025, is extended again through Oct. 1. This preserves regulatory flexibility granted under previous disaster acts. The state of emergency was previously set to expire on June 30.
A total of $685.6 million in federal funds is accepted for clean water and drinking water projects under the American Relief Act of 2025. Of that, $253.6 million is directed to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and $409.4 million to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. Another $22.5 million is earmarked for decentralized wastewater treatment system resilience.
The maturity date for emergency water infrastructure loans is extended to June 30, 2035. The governor may use contingency funds only if the Emergency and Disaster Relief Fund is insufficient and a declared emergency exists. The Governor may not use any funds from this act for budget reallocations.
For the 2025–26 fiscal year, several competitive grant programs must prioritize applicants from counties designated as most impacted and distressed by HUD, and with populations under 300,000. Applicants must certify that requested funds are for unmet needs not already covered by insurance or federal assistance.
Despite the wide-ranging nature of the latest Helene relief bill, small business owners have seen nary a nickel in direct grant support they need to make up for the massive losses incurred during what’s been called the seventh-costliest hurricane in recorded American history.
The fact that it occurred during Western North Carolina’s busy fall tourism season only made things worse.
A sharp decline in sales tax and room occupancy tax collections for September and October 2024 suggest around $400 million in decreased spending by locals and tourists, although an uneven recovery showed some counties rebound quickly, while others didn’t.
In 2024, the North Carolina General Assembly passed three Hurricane Helene relief bills, together allocating approximately $1 billion to aid recovery efforts statewide.
The first measure, enacted on Oct. 10, 2024, established the Hurricane Helene Relief Fund and allocated to it $273 million from the state’s “rainy day” fund. Senate President Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) called it a “ first step ” toward comprehensive recovery planning.
Two weeks later, lawmakers approved a second, more expansive relief package. This time, $604 million was allocated to the Helene fund from the rainy-day fund. Although that bill targeted a wider range of needs, it did not include direct grant assistance for businesses, despite requests from local leaders. Many small business owners in Western North Carolina were still carrying debt from COVID-19 and previous disasters and had hoped for grants — not additional loans.
A third bill, passed on Nov. 19, 2024, allocated another $227 million to the Helene fund. The bill drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who condemned it as “a sham” for providing no immediate assistance and for including provisions that limited the powers of the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general.
That December, Congress also failed to deliver adequate assistance. Then-Gov. Roy Cooper and a delegation of local elected officials traveled to the White House with a $25 billion request, but the $9-$15 billion appropriation falls far short of the $60 billion tab. Western North Carolina’s congressman, 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.
The fourth bill — the first in 2025 — transferred an additional $275 million from the rainy day fund to the Helene fund and made specific appropriations of $500 million. When the bill first left the House, there was finally some consideration given to small businesses.
“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,” Rep. Eric Ager (D-Buncombe) told The Smoky Mountain News at the time. “Then, of course, the Senate stripped that out.”
This latest $575 million bill brings total Helene allocations by the state to nearly $2 billion. Federal appropriations of $15 billion at most leave the nation’s ninth-largest state with roughly $43 billion in unfunded damages, but the same legislative sausage-making process saw the same turn of events — a $60 million small business grant proposal presented in the House version of the bill didn’t survive the Senate.
“On the most recent Helene Relief bill, we again failed to include any funding for small business grants. This is a failure of the Republican majority to truly understand the nature of the challenges that we are facing in Western North Carolina,” Ager told The Smoky Mountain News June 30. “The story of this disaster here in WNC was that everyone came together to help each other survive. It didn’t matter which party you supported. I was hopeful that this non-partisan approach would translate to the relief effort in Raleigh, but I’ve been disappointed that the majority has been unwilling to truly include those of us in the minority in the discussions related to the bill and they have failed to come through for small businesses in our region.”
