Under the Dome: How will NC avoid repeat of post-hurricane rebuilding delays, lawmakers ask
Good morning and welcome to the Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, our Capitol bureau chief.
Thursdays are known as “Legislative Friday” because most weeks, that’s the day that the General Assembly finishes its work for the week. And this Thursday included a hearing on hurricane recovery.
‘This state has pissed away the taxpayers’ money’
Two officials in Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s administration fielded questions from members of the Republican-led legislative committee known as Gov Ops about rebuilding homes in Western North Carolina after Helene, and what accountability measures are in place to avoid a repeat of the long rebuilding delays for Eastern North Carolina during former Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration.
Gov Ops is short for the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, and on Thursday, the commission’s Subcommittee on Hurricane Response and Recovery met to hear from Stephanie McGarrah, the deputy commerce secretary for community revitalization, and Jonathan Krebs, GROW NC’s Western NC recovery adviser.
Rep. Brenden Jones, a Tabor City Republican who chairs the panel, said optimism was dwindling as the hearing went on, right after lawmakers learned there is no physical GROW NC office yet in Western North Carolina, and wouldn’t be for months.
Krebs listed these lessons learned from the Eastern North Carolina recovery office’s problems:
Needed better accounting and financial controls
Offered too many housing options
Lacked partnerships with local governments
Inconsistent, unclear decisions
Lack of clear communications and expectations
Most of the discussion about GROW NC, the state agency in Stein’s administration overseeing Helene recovery, centered around making sure that federal funding is there as people apply to have their homes rebuilt, and on a deadline. House Bill 47, now under consideration, would provide some funding the state can use now for home rebuilding.
Sen. Tim Moffitt, a Henderson County Republican who represents one of the Helene-ravaged areas, said he doesn’t trust the federal government or the state government when it comes to recovery.
“I think a lot of federal bureaucracy has demonstrated over time a gross level of incompetence and absorbed a lot of tax dollars that could be repurposed to solutions in our state,” Moffitt said.
Krebs said rebuilding houses isn’t fast enough, and that no matter what they do, someone is still going to be the last house built.
Moffitt said lawmakers need to go after regulatory obstacles at the federal level to “rebuild vital parts of our communities.”
Jones wants less red tape and plans for spending money, and more actually spending money.
“This state has pissed away the taxpayers’ money, and we’re not going to do that again,” Jones told Krebs and McGarrah, saying lawmakers want to see houses built now. “You’re inheriting a hornet’s nest. You didn’t do it, but you’ve got to fix it.”
Krebs told lawmakers that GROW NC needs help with heirship properties, which would allow them to fix a house instead of “getting wrapped around who owns the house” in the same family. He said changes could speed recovery here, as laws have done in other states.
Krebs also said other states have laws requiring recovery contractors to be on standby before storms occur.
Another subcommittee chair, Sen. Brent Jackson, said they’ll give GROW NC the tools they need to be successful.
You can read more about the fourth and latest round of Helene legislation in this story by Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi.
The next Gov Ops meeting about Helene will be in June. Jackson said the committee needs updates between now and then, too.
– Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan
SCHOOLS MAY BE REQUIRED TO ACCEPT CASH AT GAMES
The N.C. House passed a bill 111-1 on Wednesday to require middle and high schools to accept cash again at sporting events.
During the pandemic, many school systems, including the largest in the state, Wake County, moved to using only an app tied to a credit card for admission to all athletics.
The House passed a bill to change that last session, too, but it was hung up in the Senate. Bill sponsor Rep. Reece Pyrtle says that students and others are being turned away from games at their own schools because they have cash.
Senate leader Phil Berger told me he generally supports the idea, so the chance of the bill passing the Senate and becoming law this year is good. Pyrtle and Berger are both Rockingham County Republicans. Read more about it in my story.
– Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan
POLL: Sen. Thom Tillis approval low
North Carolinians disapprove of Sen. Thom Tillis and support Democrat Allison Riggs in her battle to retain her seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, according to a new poll by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling.
Tillis’ approval rating sits at 25% — with 46% disapproving and 29% unsure. In a hypothetical race against former Gov. Roy Cooper for his seat, the Republican lags behind Democrat Cooper by 4 percentage points, just barely outside the poll’s 3.8% margin of error.
Meanwhile, Gov. Josh Stein polled at an approval rating of 42% with 23% disapproving and 35% unsure
Opinions on both President Donald Trump and Elon Musk remain mixed, with Trump receiving 48% approval from North Carolinians. When asked about Musk, 45% of respondents viewed him favorably, compared to 51% who viewed him unfavorably.
Pollsters also evaluated North Carolinians’ attitudes toward the fate of a seat on the state Supreme Court, still being battled out by Riggs and challenger Jefferson Griffin.
Riggs is favored by a 24-point margin as being the rightful winner of the election, while 59% of respondents oppose 65,000 votes being thrown out in regard to the contested race.
— Caitlyn Yaede
UNC SYSTEM SCHOOLS ‘SCREENING,’ ‘SCRUBBING’ CONTENT AMID DEI ORDERS
Some UNC System schools are monitoring content like course titles and descriptions for terms that might promote diversity, equity and inclusion, Korie Dean reports.
Faculty at Eastern Carolina University report university-wide “screening” of curriculum, including for keywords like “women’s rights,” “culture” and “justice.” Other campuses, like NC State University, removed references to DEI from official university documents and websites.
This comes after top UNC System attorney Andrew Tripp sent a memo last month instructing campus leadership to remove DEI-related courses as a graduation requirement — in compliance with the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI.
Chair of the UNC System Faculty Assembly Wade Maki confirmed “scrubbing” was happening across the system.
For ECU’s interim provost Chris Buddo, university funding could be jeopardized if DEI-related curriculum is left intact. Meanwhile, “anxiety” and “panic” are described by faculty whose courses have been flagged.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE WORKING ON
Although President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education — fulfilling a campaign promise — the agency’s fate will likely be up to Congress. Sixty Senate votes will likely be necessary to shutter the agency’s doors and allocate its funding and programming to states — a measure requiring unlikely bipartisan cooperation. National political correspondent David Catanese has more.
Former Rep. Dan Bishop made his second appearance in front of a Senate committee earlier this week regarding his nomination to be deputy director of budget in the Office of Management and Budget. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state accused Bishop of “picking and choosing” which parts of the Constitution he would abide by. Danielle Battaglia has the details on Bishop’s testimony, including his claims that the 2020 election was rigged and support for the Department of Government Efficiency.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park fired around 25 employees in February as part of Trump administration efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce. The institute has been a tenant in RTP since the 1960s and is one of the National Institutes of Health’s only centers located outside greater Washington. Now NIEHS, with fewer than 700 employees, is fearful of future cuts, Brian Gordon reports.
Today’s newsletter was by Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan and Caitlyn Yaede. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol.
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