The General Assembly has passed a third round of Hurricane Helene relief funding totaling $252 million.

The first two rounds of relief funding by the legislature totaled approximately $922 million. The latest round of funds brings the total commitment to $1.1 billion.

Senate Bill 382’s $252 million in spending includes $220 million to be transferred from the state’s Savings Reserve to the Helene relief fund. There is also around $100 million for local government loans in areas and $100 million in loans for water and wastewater repair projects.

The Helene-related spending includes a number of items, including compensation for education employees for instructional days missed during the hurricane and extension of various waivers on licensing, housing, care facilities, and it also pauses the adoption of the 2024 Building Code for six months to stop regulatory changes from hampering recovery efforts.

The bill takes $50 million from the Office of State Budget and Management’s (OSBM) Disaster Relief Reserve to the Office of Recovery and Resiliency to cover that agency’s recently announced budget gap. The funds will support homeowner recovery projects under the Rebuild NC program for the 2024-25 fiscal year. Per the bill, OSBM will be required to monitor NCORR’s spending and operations. Additionally, the state auditor will conduct financial and performance audits of NCORR by July 1, 2025, and report back to the legislature.

Some of the key spending items include:

  • $25 million for debris removal uses
  • $33.75 million for childcare stabilization grant extensions for the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Child Development and Early Education
  • $125 million from the Transportation Emergency Reserve for repair and reconstruction of transportation infrastructure in the affected areas
  • $574,578 in recurring funds to adjust funds provided state university institutions, as determined by the UNC enrollment funding model for changes in resident student credit hours.
  • $7,837,646 for UNC enrollment loss mitigation. Broken down that includes $1,364,971 East Carolina University, $1.5 million for the University of North Carolina at Asheville, over $19,000 for University of North Carolina at Greensboro, more than $3.7 million for the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and over $1.251 million for Winston-Salem State University.

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