RALEIGH — According to a press release from Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Eden), the state agency responsible for helping natural disaster victims needs more money in order to operate.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) has “informed legislative leaders it requires an additional 27% of its budget to continue operations,” per Berger’s press release. The dollar figure attached to that 27% is $175 million.
Berger’s release calls the ask a “financial catastrophe” that is a “direct result of top-down mismanagement from the agency.”
“For years, Gov. Cooper has shrugged off what has become the most botched long-term hurricane response in the country. It’s a stain on our state and it keeps me up at night thinking about what may come as we start to recover from Hurricane Helene,” said Hurricane Response and Recovery Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Sampson).
“There are no magic words that can get victims of Hurricane Florence back in a home, and no amount of money that will root out the incompetence at the NCORR,” Jackson said. “There needs to be changes in leadership.”
The press release said some 1,600 citizens impacted by Hurricane Florence, which devastated eastern areas of the state in 2018, are still not in a permanent home. Berger’s press release also noted legislative hurricane subcommittee hearings held in 2022 on NCORR’s issues in getting hurricane victims back in homes.
“NCORR leaders have repeatedly tried to cover up their failures at the expense of hurricane victims,” said Berger. “Their attempts to hide problems rather than own up to their incompetence has resulted in a continuing disaster for hurricane victims. Now, Gov. Cooper is asking for an additional $175 million with little to no time to evaluate the request.
“It’s past time for Gov. Cooper to take accountability for his six years of mismanagement and financial carelessness.”
Berger also foreshadowed hearings to come, stating he “looks forward to GovOps getting to the bottom of this astounding failure.”
The news of NCORR’s funding issue comes as legislative leaders are about to return to Raleigh to address more Hurricane Helene funding measures and on the same day Cooper held a press conference outlining a proposal for $3.9 billion in Hurricane Helene recovery funds.
The $175 million in additional NCORR funding needs are on pages 98-99 of the proposal, along with a request for $200 million for “remaining” Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence needs.
“Initial damage estimates are $53 billion, roughly three times Hurricane Florence estimates in 2018 and the largest in state history,” Cooper’s press statement on the proposed funding package says.
According to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, as of Oct. 23 there are 96 confirmed fatalities in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene.
Topline items in the $3.9 billion proposal include:
- $650 million for business economic losses and physical damage including nonprofit organizations under which Cooper calls for a “revival of the pandemic-era Business Recovery Grant Program.”
- $650 million to address physical damage to residential structures and cost of housing assistance.
- $594 million for government and recovery operations
- $578 million to address the physical damage and cleanup of energy, water, waste clean-up, telecommunications, dams and other infrastructure.
- $282 million for a wide array of educational needs including capital needs and emergency flexible spending.
- $252 million for the Dept. of Health and Human Services; food banks, child care, mental health, Medicaid, D-Snap math, and more.
- $55 million to address physical damage and state revenue implications of the transportation infrastructure damage affecting “5,000 miles” of roads.
- $55 million to address physical damage and state revenue implications of the transportation infrastructure damage.
The proposal lists tribal and federal lands needs as “to be determined.”
Presentation slides from Cooper’s press conference are available here.
