Cooper calls for more Helene aid as NC lawmakers prepare to return to Raleigh

State lawmakers plan to return to session next week to overturn Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that would massively expand state spending on private school vouchers. They might also consider new Helene relief aid for western North Carolina. Cooper thinks those two issues should be connected.

Cooper said Wednesday that he thinks legislative leaders' priorities are backwards: The Republican-led House and Senate should allow his veto of the voucher bill to stand, he said, so that the chambers can shift those hundreds of millions of dollars toward Helene aid instead.

Last month, Cooper, a Democrat, announced that the state had estimated damage from Helene at $53 billion. Noting that the federal government and insurance companies were also expected to cover some of that, he proposed North Carolina spend about $3.9 billion on relief aid. Lawmakers instead passed a $604 million relief bill, which Cooper signed into law while calling for more. Combined with an earlier $273 million in relief approved in the immediate aftermath of the storm, the state has now spent $877 million on Helene aid — more than $3 billion short of what Cooper has proposed.

“I would be advocating for immediate funding from the state legislature for recovery, not hundreds of millions of dollars for private school vouchers for the wealthy,” Cooper said told reporters Wednesday following an announcement of $1 million for public schools to help fund field trips, including some set aside for western North Carolina.

And while the voucher debate has largely broken down along partisan lines, with Republicans supporting the idea and Democrats opposing it, Cooper suggested that the state legislators from western North Carolina — almost all of whom are Republicans — might now have some reservations about moving forward with voucher expansion given the need for Helene funding.

“I would encourage those western North Carolina legislators to talk to the leadership and say, ‘Let's not bring up this private school voucher bill right now, because you're going to cement these vouchers for the wealthiest among us into the future, and it's going to be very difficult to come up with the billions of dollars that are going to be needed for western North Carolina,’” Cooper said.

Fact check: Trump falsely claims Cooper blocked Helene aid to western NC

Cooper said on Wednesday he didn't know how much extra money lawmakers might discuss adding to Helene aid efforts when they return to Raleigh next week, indicating that legislative leaders have excluded his office from those talks. “We'll see,” Cooper said. “We haven't heard a lot about what they are going to do.”

Spokespeople for House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger didn’t respond to requests for comment Wednesday on how much aid, if any, they plan to discuss approving when they return to Raleigh next week. Private school vouchers have been popular among many North Carolina parents who want a variety of educational choices for their children, and the program has been a top priority of Republican lawmakers.

Kevin Reese, a community organizer in the Madison County town of Hot Springs who’s been active in post-Helene recovery efforts, told WRAL his area still needs a lot of help.

“It’s a pretty gargantuan task to just rebuild a whole town,” he said. “Our entire commercial district is gone.”

Last week, WRAL reported that a main reason Democrats appear to have broken the GOP’s veto-proof supermajority at the legislature in this year’s elections — a shift that would take effect in January — is because Democratic state Rep. Lindsay Prather, D-Buncombe, won reelection even though GOP lawmakers redrew her district to heavily favor a Republican candidate instead.

In an interview, Prather attributed her surprise win to her efforts helping locals in the aftermath of Helene.

She said that Republican leadership should be mindful of that going forward. They need to approve more money, she said, and the small business relief aid needs to come in the form of grants, not loans — another issue that has divided Democrats and Republicans so far.

“The two bills that we have passed in Raleigh have not done nearly enough for folks,” she said. “We need more rental assistance. And we need grants for small businesses, not loans. So many of the small businesses in western North Carolina still have loans left over from the Covid era. They cannot take on more debt.”

WRAL reporter Eric Miller contributed reporting.