News

N.C. Senate passes $2.6 billion Hurricane Helene bill

By Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press, Published: June 24, 2025

In a unanimous vote late Monday evening, the North Carolina Senate passed a $2.6 billion Hurricane Helene recovery package and sent it to the House.

The bill would add $700 million in state funds to the Helene Fund, reallocate $560 million from the Department of Transportation for Helene recovery efforts, appropriate $685 million of federal disaster relief funding and require state agencies to prioritize Helene-impacted counties in various programs, to the tune of an estimated $750 million.

It may not be the final package. Senators approved a version of the bill that differs significantly from the one the House passed, both in where the money is coming from and where it’s going.

If the House concurs with the Senate’s changes, the bill will go to Gov. Josh Stein’s desk. If not, a group of senators and representatives will enter a conference committee, where they will negotiate a compromise bill.

Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, told reporters Monday night that he had conversations with House leadership about the bill, and is “hopeful” that they’ll move on it this week.

Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, had a different take. She doubts that the House will concur with the bill.

“This bill is still a political football, and we’ve just kicked it back over there,” she told reporters. “We don’t know what they’re going to do with it, because it is different than what they passed.”

In recent days, legislative leaders have indicated that they would finish all legislative business besides the budget by the end of June. That leaves little time to come to an agreement on Helene recovery.

If the Senate’s version of the bill wins out, the bulk of appropriated state relief funding ($221 million) will go to North Carolina Emergency Management for various purposes, including the state’s private road and bridge repair program, matching FEMA funds, a flood mitigation grant program and unmet local government needs.

The rest of state funding covers a broad range of needs, from $100 million to the state treasurer’s office for cash flow loans to local governments to $15 million to the N.C. Forest Service for wildfire preparedness to $5 million to promote Western North Carolina tourism.

The bill that senators passed takes money from different sources than the House’s version. It uses “unutilized or underutilized” funds from various agencies and re-dedicates them to Helene recovery. In contrast, the House package primarily relies on a return of NC Innovation funding to pay for its provisions.

The Senate Helene bill also omits several large chunks of the House’s recovery package.

It leaves out $25 million for a farm infrastructure recovery program, $15 million for streamflow rehabilitation assistance, $10 million for rental unit repairs and $15 million for debris removal, among other provisions.

Further, it reduces funding for some items, including offering $35 million less for a program offering grants to local governments with physical damage not covered by FEMA, as well as $10 million less for a grant program for local airports and airfields to restore their infrastructure.

The reallocated $560 million Department of Transportation would receive under this legislation would be used as matching funds for federal aid and cash flow.

Additionally, $685 million in federal disaster funding would be divided between the state’s clean water revolving fund and drinking water revolving fund for repairs and improved resilience of wastewater treatment systems.

Despite voting for the measure, several senators had objections to aspects of the bill.

Sen. Val Applewhite, D-Cumberland, expressed concerns with an easily overlooked portion of the bill that would reallocate Powell Bill funds from bigger cities to municipalities with less than 150,000 people.

Powell Bill funds pay for the maintenance of major city streets. Applewhite said that her district, which includes Fayetteville, is a “high poverty, highly distressed” county, and already included anticipated Powell funding in its budget decisions.

“Powell funds are the city’s only consistent, dedicated revenue source for maintaining our 750-mile street network,” Applewhite said. “Eliminating this funding for municipalities over 150,000 residents would cost Fayetteville more than $14 million over the next two years.”

Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch was broader in her criticism. While the bill would dedicate $700 million in state funds to the Helene fund, it would not appropriate it all.

“There’s $250 million that we could actually just use right now to send to Western North Carolinians, and yet that’s being held again as a political football, saying we’ll come back later, we’ll figure it out,” she said. “I don’t know why we would wait when we know that we have the money.”

Mayfield, for her part, wants the state to find a way to offer business grants, as well as revenue replacement for local governments.

She said she wasn’t sure if what the legislature has done so far would carry Western North Carolina through to next year’s session, especially considering the unpredictability of federal aid.

“A lot of it is still in flux,” she said. “But in my view, we can’t put enough money toward this.”