(The Center Square) – Stalled recovery in Hurricane Helene is blamed on “stifling bureaucracy utterly lacking in common sense and resourcefulness,” say seven Republican members of the North Carolina House of Representatives in a statement directed at first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.
This is week 73 of recovery from the storm that caused an estimated $60 billion to $80 billion in damage, killed 108 in the state, and has become a political football on the 2026 midterm campaign trail.
“While the North Carolina General Assembly has appropriated a historic amount of funds to help western North Carolinians rebuild private roads and bridges, Governor Stein has presided over a stifling bureaucracy utterly lacking in common sense and resourcefulness,” the group of seven said. “Overly complex bridge and road designs have slowed projects to an unacceptable pace and dramatically increased the costs of repairs and replacements. We are working to remove these barriers so western North Carolina can recover more quickly and more households can receive state funds.”
Reps. Karl Gillespie of Macon County, Dudley Greene of Avery County, Mark Pless of Haywood County, Mike Clampitt of Swain County, Jake Johnson of Polk County, Jennifer Balkcom of Henderson County and Ray Pickett of Watauga County authored the statement.
Progress is both incredible and crawling at a snail’s pace. Residents, their homes and the communities have overcome challenges. At the same time, more work is to be done in what is easily estimated as an overall minimum five-year recovery for the state’s worst natural disaster.
Stein on his sixth day in office last year decided he would not continue the embattled and financially plagued North Carolina Office of Resiliency and Recovery established by Roy Cooper, then a governor and now a U.S. Senate candidate. That office was to assist in recovery from Hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Florence (2018), two major storms that were part of four in 47 months striking the southeastern part of the state.
Rather, he issued relief in executive orders that was expected to accelerate temporary housing; help with roads and bridges; create the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, to be known in short as GROW NC; create an advisory committee for GROW NC; and authorized 16 additional hours of community service leave for state employees willing to volunteer on organized storm-related efforts.
Thursday marked Day 234 without the General Assembly implementing the two-year state budget. Despite the law saying it happens on July 1, legislators are mainly haggling over reduction of income taxes and state employee raise amounts.
The lawmakers want to refill what has been taken from the rainy day fund, also known as the Savings Reserve in the General Fund. As of June 30, the close of the fiscal year 2025, the balance was $3.62 billion. The goal will be to add $1.104 billion in addition to more funding for Helene recovery.
In the interim, two pieces of legislation were signed by Stein in 2025 to spur relief.
The Disaster Recovery Act of 2025 – Part II pushes total relief from the Legislature above $2.1 billion in five different packages.
This package in the last week of June had $75 million for construction and reimbursement of privately owned roads and bridges; $70 million for local government capital repairs; and $64.3 million for repair and construction of damaged schools.
There was $51.5 million allocated for local government cash-flow loan program, with no interest; $25 million to help farmers with infrastructure losses; $25 million to upgrade and enhance regional airports to support disaster responses; $18 million for fire stations and rescue squads in western North Carolina; and $15 million for a Selectsite fund to help economic development.
Within the legislation known as Disaster Recovery Act of 2025 – Part 1, the first bill Stein signed as governor in March, was $200 million to Helene-specific crop-loss and farm restoration; $120 million for rebuilding and repairing homes; and $100 million for repairing private roads and bridges.
There was also appropriation for small business infrastructure grants; debris removal; volunteer organizations deemed essential; volunteer fire departments; learning recovery for students; and travel and tourism marketing.
