Source: WCNC
Western North Carolinians are still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Helene which brought historic rainfall and flooding at the end of September. Instead of providing the necessary funding to continue the area’s recovery, Republicans in the state legislature are playing politics.
In October, Gov. Roy Cooper announced that the state had estimated damage from Hurricane Helene at $53 billion. Noting that the federal government and insurance companies were also expected to cover some of that, he proposed North Carolina spend about $3.9 billion on relief aid. Lawmakers instead passed a $604 million relief bill, which Cooper signed into law while calling for more. Combined with an earlier $273 million in relief approved in the immediate aftermath of the storm, the state has now spent $877 million on Helene aid —$3 billion short of what Cooper has proposed.
The latest “disaster relief” bill, Senate Bill 382, was passed in November by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. The bill supposedly provides $227 million in Helene relief from the state’s reserves, but in actuality, the bill states that money can’t be spent until it has been appropriated at a later, undetermined date. Instead, the main point of the legislation is to weaken the powers of the incoming Democratic governor, attorney general and state superintendent.
Knowing that they have lost their veto-proof supermajority for the next session, Republicans are attempting one last power grab at the expense of North Carolinians who need help putting their lives back together after losing everything they had to Mother Nature.
The bill passed both chambers and was vetoed by Cooper before the Thanksgiving holiday. Republicans still have a veto-proof supermajority and successfully overrode the governor’s veto in the Senate on Dec. 2, but overriding it in the House could prove more difficult. Three Republican House members, all of whom represent areas devastated by Helene, sided with Democrats in voting against the relief bill. Without those three Republicans, Cooper’s veto cannot be overridden in the House.
One of the Republicans who sided with Democrats said he voted against the bill because it was rushed through the General Assembly – Republicans only made the 131-page bill public an hour before debate on it began – and because it “appears to do nothing for western NC.”
Cooper said the “legislation is a sham.”
“This bill really didn’t provide immediate and direct funding to western North Carolina,” Cooper told WCNC. “It simply moved some money around, saying that they were going to appropriate it later, that leaves small businesses hanging that are really in need of direct grants. It leaves local governments hanging and to bill this as a disaster recovery legislation, it’s really a disaster in and of itself because it’s just a massive power grab.”
In addition to his call for $3.9 billion in state funding, the governor is seeking $25.5 billion in federal aid to rebuild critical roads, bridges, public water systems and more. He told WCNC the money is needed to build stronger and more resilient infrastructure before future storms hit.
“These roads and bridges, and water systems and housing are going to have to be built back even stronger. That’s going to be more expensive,” Cooper said. “But we believe the investment in western North Carolina is worth it.”
