NC Gov. Stein signs Helene recovery package passed in session’s final hours
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein signed the latest Helene bill Friday, a day after Republican lawmakers in North Carolina’s House and Senate reached an agreement on a plan to further fund Western North Carolina recovery efforts.
The plan passed both the House and Senate unanimously on Thursday in what’s expected to be the legislature’s last day in session for weeks.
Lawmakers then sent the bill to Stein, who signed it at Chimney Rock State Park at a ceremony to celebrate the reopening of the park after Helene caused damage that made the park inaccessible.
While there, Stein also announced a new tourism initiative aimed at bringing visitors back to Western North Carolina.
Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican who represents many of the mountain counties hardest-hit by the storm, said on Thursday the bill sets aside $700 million for a Helene reserve fund and spends $500 million from that fund.
He said it also shifts nearly $300 million within the state Department of Transportation’s budget to be used for Helene recovery efforts.
It also appropriates $695 million in federal disaster funding for water and sewer projects related to Helene.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Hise said, but “I see nothing but support from this body.”
Sen. Julie Mayfield, an Asheville Democrat, thanked Hise and other lawmakers for “bringing this together here on our last day.”
Questions over money for colleges
Rep. Karl Gillespie, a Franklin Republican, said the bill is “a comprehensive response in our continued efforts to address Helene.”
He said the bill was aimed at addressing the “most immediate needs. We’re certainly not addressing all the needs. There will be more to work on later.”
Rep. Lindsey Prather, a Candler Democrat, backed the bill but questioned how funding decisions for colleges and universities affected by Helene were made, saying it “does look like the two institutions that receive the most damage are receiving the least amount of money.”
Western Carolina University and Appalachian State University each receive $2 million. Another $2 million is split between UNC-Asheville and the North Carolina Arboretum, both in Buncombe County.
Buncombe County, which leans heavily Democratic, was one of the hardest-hit counties in the storm.
Prather also highlighted how another Buncombe County school, Swannanoa’s Warren Wilson College, is receiving no money under the bill.
“It certainly feels like the institutions in Buncombe, which, as a whole, received the most amount of damage, are being carved out of this bill,” she said. “I hope that this isn’t politicization of recovery.”
Gillespie replied that nothing in the bill is “funded at 100%.”
“Rest assured that we pay absolutely no attention” to locations but to “needs,” he said.
The bill includes:
$25 million for crop loss
$15 million for streamflow rehabilitation
$15 million for wildfire assets and preparedness
$10 million for a dam safety grant fund
$3 million for landslide hazard mapping
$8 million for school infrastructure grants
Over $200 million to the North Carolina Emergency Management office, including $75 million for repairing private roads and bridges.
$70 million to continue covering the state match for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
$18 million for grants to volunteer organizations involved in repair and reconstruction projects.
$70 million for a local governmental grant program.
$10 million for the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western NC
$18 million for grants to fire departments and rescue squads for repairs and wildlife preparedness.
Just over $51 million for cash-flow loans to local governments
To date, lawmakers have approved about $1.6 billion in state aid for recovery efforts through multiple bills.
Helene caused an estimated $60 billion in damage, according to state officials.
No small business grants
The House and Senate previously had two competing recovery packages. A key difference was a $60 million grant program for small businesses, included in the House bill but removed from the Senate’s version.
Small business owners and Democrats have been pushing for such grants. But they were not included in the compromise bill.
Senate leader Phil Berger said after the vote that “we have consistently said that small business grants were not something that we would consider to be appropriate. We’ve not done small business grants for the east. We just didn’t feel like it was something that we needed to do at this point.”
“I don’t think anybody should be surprised on that. We felt it was important for us to pass something more before we left. We’ve said that all along. These were the things that we were able to agree on.”
Asked about the failure to include the grants, House Speaker Destin Hall said: “that’s a question for the Senate.”
“I think it’s pretty well known on our side at this point, we would like to see such a program,” he said.
“We’re going to continue to try to push for some small business relief. It’s something on our side that we’d like to see done but that’s something that the Senate is not interested in doing at this point,” he said.
Minority Leader Sydney Batch said using history “as an excuse to say that we can’t take action now, when so many of the small businesses are shuttering their doors — will never be able to reopen, and they actually are an economic driver — I just think is unfair.”
Prather spoke to reporters after the House session, joined by House Minority Leader Robert Reives and other Western North Carolina House Democrats.
“We are the three Democrats in Western North Carolina in the House, in the county that was impacted hardest, and none of us were included on those conversations,” Prather said. “It’s really unfortunate.”
“We represent the same number of people that every other House member represents in this chamber. And the fact that our people were not heard on this issue is — it’s unconscionable,” she said.
When the Senate unveiled its own Helene package on Monday, Hise said the grants were excluded due to a state constitutional ban on private emoluments, or private gain.
He said that the state cannot give funds to private individuals or businesses without receiving something in return. Hise had said he planned to introduce a constitutional amendment this week to create an exemption from the private emolument clause. This would need voter approval. He said the proposal would put the measure on the primary election ballot.
Mayfield questioned during floor debate on the Senate bill why a private railroad company could receive state funds and not other businesses.
The compromise bill includes $2 million for Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.
Blue Ridge Southern Railroad also receives $2 million in the bill.
Rep. Brian Turner, an Asheville Democrat, questioned the lack of grants for small businesses in the bill on Thursday, saying that “whether you like it or not, Asheville and Buncombe County is the economic engine of Western North Carolina.”
“When we talk about, ‘there’s more to come’ — obviously — not in the next two weeks, maybe not in the next two months,” he said
“For most of the small businesses that were impacted by the storm, it will come too late,” he said.
The Senate also financed its package by pulling from various reserve funds and shifting transportation funding. The House, meanwhile, proposed reclaiming $500 million from NCInnovation, a nonprofit created to help turn UNC System ideas into businesses.
The compromise bill does not take funding from NCInnovation. It pulls from various reserves and claws backs unused funds.
The House proposed to spend $464 million. The Senate proposal would have moved more than $2.5 billion to the recovery effort. Of that, $464 million came from state funds.
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 12:21 PM.
