Legislators are working on a new bill to help western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene.
House leaders are proposing spending over $450 million.
The bill was filed Wednesday morning, two days after Democratic Gov. Josh Stein urged the General Assembly to devote a fresh $891 million.
"We need to commit to the people of Western North Carolina that the state is with them over the long haul," Stein said Monday at a press conference in Rutherfordton.
Though the bill is a fraction of what the governor requested, it does include a longtime Stein-ask: small business disaster grants. Eligible businesses could receive up to $75,000, the bill text says. The speaker's office initially said the cap would be $100,000.
Republican House Speaker Destin Hall said businesses must prove they lost money by comparing revenue post-storm to .
"With limited resources, we want to make sure if we're going to send those dollars to a private business to try to make them whole, that we're sending it to a business that actually did have a loss," Hall told reporters late Wednesday.
"It's also been something that we were open to," he continued. "The discussions that we've always had was just, how do we measure it? How do we figure out who really needs to get these dollars and get them to them in an efficient way, while also making sure that we're not simply sending checks out the door?"
State estimates put total damages from the storm around $60 billion. The storm caused at least 107 deaths in the state, with another five people still missing.
The bill text notes that the storm left debris that has fueled wildfires, and complicated firefighters ability to contain them.
The bill, if ed, would bring total spending to $1.85 billion, according to House Republicans.
The House budget unveiled this week didn't contain much related to Hurricane Helene because the Disaster Recovery Act of 2025 - Part II, as this bill is named, was in the works.
Senate leaders, meanwhile, included $700 million for Helene relief in their budget proposal. At the time, Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Spruce Pine, said the legislature would likely spend more on Helene relief separate from the budget.
Hall's office said the western North Carolina delegation spent several months on the legislation.
Earlier this session, the General Assembly contributed $524 million in a March relief package.
Here's what's in the new House bill:
- $70 million to match critical federal recovery programs.
- $60 million to give grants to eligible small business
- $50 million for local governments' capital needs
- $30 million to rebuild private roads and bridges
- $30 million for debris removal, including agricultural debris
- $25 million to help rebuild destroyed schools and $8 million for damaged schools
- $25 million for airport infrastructure improvements
- $25 million to repair farm infrastructure, including fences, barns, greenhouses and farm roads
- $20 million for flood mitigation grants that will help rebuild at-risk infrastructure
- $20 million to volunteer organizations
- $18 million to provide $50,000 grants to fire and EMS stations
- $15 million to help the Forest Service fight wildfires
The Committee on Emergency Management and Disaster Recovery will take up the bill Wednesday afternoon.
