CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Western North Carolina Democrats are blasting wide-ranging legislation passed this week that they describe as a power grab shrouded in a disaster relief package.

The disaster-relief portion of state Senate Bill 382 fails to meet the moment for storm battered Western North Carolinians who need immediate help to keep businesses afloat and keep paying rent, they say.

“This bill did, really, nothing for the relief efforts and to get money in the hands of people who need it in Western North Carolina,” Rep. Eric Ager, a Buncombe County Democrat, said during a Wednesday press conference at the General Assembly.

Titled “Disaster Relief 3/Budget/Various Law Changes,” the legislation sent $227 million from the state’s rainy day fund to its Helene fund, which was created in a past bill for recovery efforts.

Should the bill become law, it would bring the General Assembly’s total Helene relief spending to about $1.1 billion.

SB382 shifts the new money to the Helene fund, but does not specify what it will be spent on. In addition, the bill sends $25 million to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to clean debris out of streams; and makes $100 million in loans available for local governments.

Since Helene brought torrential rainfalls, devastating flooding and mudslides to the mountains on Sept. 27, Western North Carolina officials have pushed for grants for small businesses instead of loans and for housing protections.

The updated version of Senate Bill 382 provides neither.

What’s in SB 382?

Much of the bill focuses on taking power from Democrats who won election to Council of State seats earlier this month and giving it to Republicans. Negotiated by a small number of Republicans and released to the public only about 90 minutes before reaching the House floor, the 131-page bill, among other changes, would:

—Give incoming State Auditor Dave Boliek, a Republican, power to appoint members to the State Board of Elections, taking all appointments from the governor.

—Ban incoming Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, from taking any position on state laws in court that is inconsistent with one taken by the General Assembly.

—Prevent incoming State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green, a Democrat, from appealing decisions made by the N.C. Charter School Review Board.

Sen. Julie Mayfield, an Asheville Democrat, opposed the bill. Ideally, there would have been separate pieces of legislation, one focusing on relief and the other on the provisions shifting powers around, Mayfield said Wednesday before the vote.

“My view is that all of these changes move us even further down the road than we already are toward an authoritarian state. The General Assembly is pulling power into it and elevating itself as the center of power in North Carolina,” Mayfield said.

Tuesday evening, the House passed the legislation 63-46. Every Democrat in the chamber voted against the bill, as did the state’s three western-most Republicans: Rep. Mike Clampitt of Bryson City, Rep. Karl Gillespie of Macon County and Rep. Mark Pless of Haywood County.

Pless told Blue Ridge Public Radio that he asked for disaster relief to be removed from the bill’s title because he didn’t see how it benefited the storm-stricken region.

Wednesday, the Senate passed the bill 30-19.

The bill next goes to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk, where he can veto it, approve it or let it pass without his signature.

During Wednesday’s debate, Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican, lashed out against criticism of the legislature’s funding for Helene.

Before Tuesday’s bill, the GOP-led legislature had passed two relief packages totaling about $877 million for Helene recovery with the second bill providing about $50 million in loans.

Those funds, Hise said, are best used filling in where the federal government can’t or won’t help with the recovery. For instance, matching transportation repairs could take about $2 billion alone.

“We are going to have to walk the straightest of lines to make sure that we maximize every dollar that we can put into this,” Hise said, during the Senate floor debate.

Defending the bill

Rep. Destin Hall, the newly elected Speaker of the House, told reporters Tuesday that lawmakers had not separated Helene measures from other provisions because the state had already “done that with about a billion dollars in Helene relief.”

“We want to do this in a way that we’re certainly going to give the funding they need, but we want to make sure the funding is actually going to putting people back in their homes, to rebuilding businesses,” Hall said.

Hise said additional relief funding in December would depend on Congressional actions. If federal funding were provided through an appropriation rather than a continuing resolution — or a temporary spending bill — state lawmakers “would have time before the Christmas break to respond to that,” he said.

But, he said that federal funding tends to move slowly, and with the continuing resolution deadline set for Dec. 20, it is more likely that the state will address additional funding needs in January.

Republican lawmakers maintain more relief is coming.

Originally, the General Assembly was supposed to return on December 11. But an adjournment resolution passed Wednesday brings the General Assembly back for votes on December 2.

‘It will not be enough’

Considering the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, Mayfield, the Asheville Democrat said, that resolution does not inspire confidence that a substantive relief package is coming.

“I’m not sure how much is going to get done, how much time there is to really pull together a meaningful package that would contain the relief that we need,” Mayfield said.

Cooper proposed an initial $3.9 billion relief package in late October, while his Office of State Budget and Management estimates Helene’s damage in Western North Carolina at $53 billion.

Ager, the Buncombe Democrat, also stressed the importance of expediency. While the state would not be able to fund all the needs and would have to rely on future federal dollars, the state’s rainy day fund should be used more, Ager said.

“Speed matters, and getting that money out quickly is really important to the recovery,” Ager said.

Multiple business owners spoke at Wednesday’s press conference on the hardships they or others they knew were experiencing due to lacking grants and aid.

Joseph Hackett, founder of Black Wall Street AVL, highlighted the lasting impacts of urban renewal in Asheville’s East Riverside area, which saw the loss of thousands of homes and multiple businesses. “The neighborhood built back up and became something Western North Carolina could be proud of,” said Hackett, who also owns The Grind Coffee Shop in the River Arts District, heavily damaged by the storm.

Helene, “washed away everything,” and “and the people are rebuilding. But they cannot do it without the participation and the support of those that have power and influence,” he said. Many businesses are struggling to rebuild, particularly those without flood insurance or the documentation needed for Small Business Administration loans, he said.

The SBA announced in mid-October it had exhausted funds for its disaster loan program. Until Congress appropriates more funding, the SBA is pausing new loan offers, though its application portal is open.

It will be difficult for many of those small businesses to pay back loans, Ager said, because of the reality of losing revenue from the month of October, which is akin to losing three to six months of annual revenue for many of them.

“Without the month of October and the money that that provides, it’s really hard to see a clear cash flow model in the next couple of months,” Ager said.

Also needed is either an eviction moratorium or rental assistance, said Mayfield. Asheville risks losing its service economy workforce, many of whom haven’t worked since Helene hit and now face eviction, potentially forcing them to leave the area, Mayfield said.

“When they are gone, they are gone. Asheville is not like Raleigh or Charlotte where if you lose this apartment you can go get another one over here. That is not the way our city works,” Mayfield said.

Aisha Adams, founder of the Aisha Adams Media Group, which supports small businesses and nonprofits, spoke about her experience moving from being on welfare to business ownership, saying “I moved to Western North Carolina. I own a business. I paid cash for my son to go to college, and now the rain has come and wiped out my business.”

“I don’t want to pull myself up by the bootstraps. I want the people who have been elected to do their jobs or be held accountable,” she said.

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