On October 24th, The General Assembly convened in Raleigh to pass the second Hurricane Helene relief bill, Senate Bill 743 . The House and Senate passed the legislation unanimously, and it will become effective when Governor Cooper signs it into law. On October 23rd, Governor Cooper released a Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment , which included his recovery recommendations.
The Governor's assessment included a proposed $3.9 billion in appropriations and included long-term recovery and resiliency initiatives. Senate Bill 743 appropriated a total of $644 million, with $604 million appropriated from the state’s Savings Reserve and $40 million will from the Office of State Budget and Management Disaster Relief Reserve.
The first relief bill, which became law on October 10th, appropriated $273 million from the State's Savings Reserve. The $644 million in appropriations includes: Additional nonrecurring state matching funds will be sent to NCEM to draw down additional federal funding assistance. $50M nonrecurring to NCEM to be disbursed to local governments and state agencies for "unmet needs not covered by insurance or available federal aid.
" $100M for local government cash flow loans to be administered by the Local Government Commission. An additional $5.5M to NCLM, NCACC, and the COGs for added technical assistance resources for local governments to be used to assist with federal financial aid applications, technical support for planning and permitting, and technical supp.
