Hurricane Florence nears the east coast of the United States on Sept. 12. (Photo credit: NOAA Satellites)

On October 8, the North Carolina General Assembly took less than a day to earmark close to $400 million in Hurricane Florence disaster recovery funding. Lawmakers also shifted another $450 million into a disaster recovery fund with a promise to use it in the near future for additional Florence recovery efforts.

The legislature’s action came swiftly in a bipartisan vote that legislative leaders hailed as historically fast and generous.

That it was done quickly is beyond debate.

Whether the legislation is sufficient to address disaster victims’ immediate needs, or the long-term challenges storms like Hurricanes Florence and Michael pose to the state, is another matter.

For starters, let’s remember that initial estimates put the total damage caused by Florence at more than Hurricanes Floyd and Matthew combined. And that roughly one million households – or 26 percent of all North Carolina households – have been affected by the storm.

We should also keep in mind that scientists are now confident that the unprecedented havoc Florence wreaked is the new normal, as the reality of climate change asserts itself in increasingly dangerous weather patterns across our state.

Given the size of Florence’s impact and the risk of future storms, it’s no wonder that in his recovery plan, Gov. Roy Cooper identified more than $3.7 billion in unmet needs after private and federal disaster recovery is accounted for. Cooper recommended investing $1.5 billion to address this need – including the initial down payment of $750 million he asked lawmakers to appropriate.

On paper, lawmakers’ $800 million disaster appropriation appears to go above and beyond Cooper’s request. In fact, their investment is much more modest – $400 million, most of which is matching funds necessary to draw down federal assistance. The remaining $400 million is set aside in the new state disaster fund that is not available for recovery until and unless the General Assembly votes to spend it. Nor is the legislature required to do so – it can simply leave the funding where it is or vote to use it for non-disaster needs.

Republican leaders insist that they will open up the state’s coffers as the state’s disaster needs become clearer. They reasonably point out that the state is still assessing Florence’s full impact and that they will be back in Raleigh for yet another special session right after the November elections.

Here’s hoping they keep their word. With so many hurting from Florence and with so much to do to prevent similar catastrophes, we would have preferred a bolder approach. The need to provide additional housing assistance for Florence victims, for example, is immediate and will not diminish in coming weeks.

Slightly less pressing but just as obvious is the need to make North Carolina stronger and safer before the next storm. It is long since time to move hog farms out of eastern North Carolina flood zones. The state should also move quickly to help people who live in flood zones – many of whom are on limited incomes – to find safe homes away from rivers and streams that flooded during Matthew and flooded again during Florence.

Gov. Cooper’s recovery plan included immediate investment in these efforts and others that would make North Carolina safer, cleaner and more sustainable. Sadly, the disaster aid bill approved earlier this month does little to make the state more prepared for the next storm.

And What About Western NC?

While Western North Carolina was largely spared by this season’s storms, they should encourage those of us who live here to consider the lessons they pose for our region. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that many of us were threatened by wildfires, flooding and mudslides that destroyed too many homes and took too many lives.

For starters, this year’s storms urge us to consider how we can make our communities safer and more resilient. The General Assembly’s investment in landslide mapping for WNC counties is a good example of the kind of preparation we need. The fact that approval of this funding came two years after Hurricane Matthew – and in the same month that landslides destroyed at least 30 homes and left five people dead here – only demonstrates how much we need to speed up our work on preparedness and safety.

Particular attention is needed in those areas of Western North Carolina where preserved open space meets human development. It’s along these borders, for example, that wildfires pose the greatest danger to people and property. Preparing for bigger storms also requires that we review our stormwater systems and reassess our assumptions about flood risk to make sure we are prepared for worse storm events to occur much more frequently.

And really, once and for all, let’s end the ridiculous debates about whether climate change is “real.” This tedious argument does nothing to help us as a state and is an insult to the many thousands of North Carolinians who lost their homes and loved ones this fall.

The sad reality is that Florence and Michael are just the latest in a series of wake up calls that too many of our leaders have slept through for too long. We owe it to those hurt by these storms to wake up and prepare, now, for the next ones.

Last week, in a blur of committee meetings and debates on the Senate and House floor, the legislature completed its most important task of the 2018 General Assembly session – approval of the $24 billion state budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The budget is now in the hands of Gov. Roy Cooper who is widely expected to veto it. With veto-proof majorities, the GOP House and Senate will undoubtedly override Cooper’s veto. So while the budget process still has several weeks to go before completion, what we saw last week in the budget is basically what we are going to get for FY2019.

As is often the case in the sausage-making of the General Assembly, one has to consider what the General Assembly included (or didn’t) in the budget as well as how it went about its work. It’s also important to step back from the details of the budget and consider it in a broader context.

In this report, we’ll try to do a little of all three.

(And for you policy wonks who want to look at the budget itself, it’s divided into two documents – a budget bill and a money report, which lists all various expenditures made in the budget.)

What’s In the Budget for The Environment?

From an environmental perspective – and in comparison to previous spending plans approved since the current GOP majorities took control of the legislature in 2011 – this latest spending plan had some positive elements.

For example, the new budget includes a substantial, $3.6 million investment in landslide mapping for WNC counties. This funding has been a MountainTrue legislative priority for several years out of concern for public safety. We also support the mapping because it allows local communities and individuals to make informed decisions about development. It’s a sad irony that several people were killed in landslides in the region the same week the legislature approved this funding, leading to press reports exploring whether the fatalities might have been avoided if the legislature had not cut the program in 2011.

Many thanks to Rep. Chuck McGrady, who led the effort to fund the mapping this year, and who opposed the 2011 cuts as a freshman legislator.

MountainTrue is also pleased that the legislature chose to maintain or expand funding for the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, as well as trust funds that support state parks and farmland preservation. While these trust funds have not returned to their pre-recession funding levels, we are grateful that funding is increasing, even if slowly.

From the Every Little Bit Helps File, we also note that the legislature provided $225,000 to protect the state’s hemlock trees from invasive insects and $20,000 for a study of whirling disease, which threatens the state’s trout industry.  The whirling disease funding was a legislative priority for MountainTrue, and we thank Sen. Deanna Ballard of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell and Watauga counties for getting and keeping that funding in the budget.

We are more ambivalent, however, about the General Assembly’s response to the clean water issues raised by GenX contamination in the Cape Fear River. While the legislature made very modest investments in the NC Department of Environmental Quality, the funding remains far short of the resources the Department needs to respond to GenX, as well as other water quality issues across the state.

The changes lawmakers made to the package of GenX appropriations and policies in the budget at the request of industrial polluters are also problematic. Even the General Assembly’s effort to get ahead of the emerging contaminant issue is a mixed bag. While lawmakers provided $5 million for statewide testing of drinking water supplies, they made those investments outside DEQ where they are best located and limited the testing to a narrow collection of compounds instead of testing for all “emerging contaminants.”

(To read MountainTrue’s GenX analysis, click here.)

A Behind Closed Doors Budget Process

That brings us to the how of the budget – the process lawmakers used to draft and vote on how to spend taxpayers’ money.

Unfortunately, for the average citizen and many legislators, there was no budget “process” this year. Lawmakers began meeting behind closed doors weeks before the session started on May 16. Last week, they released the spending plan and presented it at committee meetings, where amendments were not accepted. Then, legislative leaders put the bill on the Senate and House floors for one, yes-or-no, take-it-or-leave-it vote in each chamber – again without allowing any amendments or changes to the bill.

For the first time since at least the 1970s, the majorities in both the House and Senate approved the state’s spending plan without allowing any public comment on the bill or any amendment by any legislator, regardless of party. It was a breathtaking and disturbing display of raw political power that should leave all North Carolinians – whatever their political affiliation – concerned about their government’s commitment to basic democratic values.

The Bigger Picture

When considering the budget approved last week, it is important to think about the choices that lawmakers have made that impact how much money they have to spend on the environment and other critical needs.  More specifically, since 2013, the General Assembly has approved roughly $3 billion in tax cuts, which have created a sense of scarcity in the General Assembly, where budget writers regularly report the difficulty they face in addressing the state’s pressing needs. The result is a budget process – and a budget – that unnecessarily pits education spending and salary increases for state employees, for example, against investments in clean water and clean air.

In our view, these are false choices, imposed on all of us by legislative leaders who are unwilling to have a broader debate about the state’s needs and how to meet them – or, this year, any debate at all.