Republicans in North Carolina’s legislature are split on the details of hurricane relief for the western mountains.
Almost a month ago, the House approved a new round of aid as the region continued to rebuild from Hurricane Helene. That aid bill then sat frozen for a month — until Monday. Senators fast-tracked it and sent it back to the House, with major changes.
The last-minute Senate markup threw a wrench into plans to approve the aid before the legislature leaves Raleigh this week. The House on Tuesday unanimously voted to reject those changes, forcing lawmakers to go to a conference committee and iron out a compromise.
“To the surprise of probably no one in this room, it made some significant changes, many of which are important to the people of western North Carolina,” said Rep. Dudley Greene (R-Avery). “We’ve been working feverishly to try and digest, and get our heads around, some of these changes.”
Greene said he was hopeful that the chambers could meet in conference “as early as this week.” But it could also come later.
A Democrat from the Asheville area urged his colleagues to back the House’s rejection Tuesday.
“This bill is certainly a much worse version than we sent over,” said Rep. Eric Ager (D-Buncombe). “I look forward to making it better.”
In a statement Tuesday, Gov. Josh Stein urged lawmakers to swiftly meet in conference.
“Western North Carolina cannot afford for process to get in the way of progress,” Stein said. “The legislature should work quickly this week to set aside their differences and do their job to support folks rebuilding after Helene. I stand ready to get this sorely needed relief out the door.”
The broad strokes of both chambers’ relief plans are similar. Both set up the state for more reimbursement from federal aid programs. They send bundles of money to local governments to help with ongoing repairs and projects, and to help rebuild private roads and bridges.
But several key line-items are changed or removed altogether between the two plans. And the ways in which the spending is sourced vary.
The Senate’s plan is more expansive than the House’s. It sends $700 million to the state’s Helene fund and spends $480 million of that money. (The rest would sit in the Helene fund, available for further aid down the line.) It lays out hundreds of millions of dollars for federal water and sewer projects, and steers another nearly half a billion of already appropriated money toward Helene-related road and bridge repairs.
The House’s bill allocates $464 million, and also sets out the hundreds of millions of federal dollars for water projects.
Among the biggest omissions in the Senate’s proposal: a $60 million grant program for small businesses.
That program, a longtime request from western lawmakers and advocates, was scratched. Republicans are citing the state constitution’s “emoluments clause,” saying such a program would be unconstitutional. Some Democrats are dubious of that argument — and so is the House Republicans’ leader.
“I have a different legal opinion on it, obviously,” House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) told reporters Tuesday evening. “We do things all the time to help folks who have suffered in a disaster. We do it a lot in agriculture in this state. So, I just simply disagree.”
Local governments in western North Carolina, many of whom are facing budget shortfalls, would see aid in both plans, though the details vary.
The House plan would send out $15 million for debris removal, and $5 million for tech assistance. And the Senate bill sends a new bundle of $100 million to an interest-free loan program run by the state treasurer’s office.
A $25 million, three-year farm infrastructure recovery program established in the House plan is absent from the Senate’s. Instead, the Senate plan lays out $8 million for a program focused on agricultural manufacturing and processing.
Both plans also include money to repair damages to school facilities and UNC System campuses.
The two plans also differ greatly in where they pull money to fund their aid from.
The House bill claws back money from NC Innovation, a private research nonprofit.
And the Senate plan pulls from a variety of reserve funds, while redirecting over half a billion dollars already allocated to transportation maintenance and local aid. That move has sparked concern among Democrats, and is also expected to be a primary point of discussion with House Republicans.
The legislature has thus far appropriated $1.4 billion in state dollars to Helene recovery. Lawmakers are expected to leave Raleigh for an extended period after this week.
“I will say that the chairs of each side on that issue continue to talk,” Hall said. “So I think they’re relatively close to getting something done. Whether we end up passing that this week or when we come back, not clear yet.”
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