News

Compromise Helene relief bill goes to governor

By Ray Gronberg, NC Tribune, Published: June 27, 2025

Conferees also dumped a Senate proposal to withhold $100 million in state road-maintenance aid from North Carolina’s seven largest cities to help pay for hurricane recovery.

The House completed floor action with a 109-0 vote that masked Democratic unhappiness both with the omission of the business-grant program and the overall pace of the recovery effort.

“The most damaging storm in North Carolina history, and there’s this sort of ‘Be happy with what you’re getting’ (attitude) when it’s not even close to enough,” said Rep. Brian Turner, D-Buncombe. “We need to do it faster. This money should have been appropriated and out the door six months ago.”

Turner appeared to be alluding to floor comments from Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union, one of the four House members who negotiated the final terms of the bill with the Senate.

Arp said the General Assembly has provided large sums for the recovery effort without cutting into other state services.

“Not one teacher has been laid off for us to be able to do that; not one person has been furloughed,” Arp said. “This is a conscientious effort to meet the needs of our neighbors. And I just don’t think we should politicize or undermine the efforts of the entire state to help rebuild our friends and neighbors.”

House Speaker Destin Hall laid the blame at the Senate’s feet for the deletion of the business-grant program, but said the bill tries to compensate by sending $5 million to the N.C. Department of Commerce to spend on promotions to convince tourists to return to the region.

“We’re going to continue to try to push for some small business relief,” he added.

But Democrats argued that the decision-making about what goes into the state’s aid packages is looking increasingly arbitrary.

One point of contention: While omitting a broad-based business-grant program, the bill does include grants to specific businesses, notably Bryson City’s Great Smoky Mountains Railroad and Canton’s Blue Ridge Southern Railroad.

Each is getting $2 million, with the money being taken as a “dividend” from the coffers of the state-owned N.C. Railroad. The Blue Ridge Southern serves industry in the region; the Great Smoky Mountains line is mainly a tourist route.

And yet, “we are told we can’t give direct grants to businesses, that it’s unconstitutional, that it just can’t be done,” Turner said, adding that Helene destroyed about 400 commercial buildings in the Asheville area, some of which house multiple tenants.

Rep. Lindsey Prather, D-Buncombe, likewise questioned the bill’s allocation of aid to the west’s universities. She said it particularly shortchanged Warren Wilson College, a Swannanoa-based institution that reported about $5.6 million in damage and isn’t getting any aid from the bill.

“Montreat College is right down the road from them,” Prather continued. “They reported about $5.3 million worth of damage and are receiving $1.5 million. So I’m confused, I’m disappointed and I’m very frustrated.”

The fifth Hurricane Helene relief bill brings the total state funding dedicated to Western North Carolina recovery to more than $2.1 billion. The compromise package includes:

• $70 million for local government capital repairs
• $51.5 million in additional funding for the local government cash-flow loan program
• $5 million to support tourism efforts
• $25 million for farm infrastructure losses
• $75 million for construction and reimbursement of privately owned roads and bridges
• $64.3 million for the repair and reconstruction of damaged schools
• $18 million for fire stations and rescue squads in Western North Carolina
• $15 million for the North Carolina Forest Service for wildfire assets and preparedness
• $12.25 million from the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund to repair damaged state park facilities and expedite reopening
• $15 million to the Selectsite fund to support economic development in the impacted area

Additionally, the bill extends the Hurricane Helene State of Emergency to Oct. 1.