By Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan for the Raleigh News & Observer

Good morning and welcome to the Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, our Capitol bureau chief. 

Thursdays are known as “Legislative Friday” because most weeks, that’s the day that the General Assembly finishes its work for the week. And this Thursday included a hearing on hurricane recovery.

‘This state has pissed away the taxpayers’ money’

Two officials in Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s administration fielded questions from members of the Republican-led legislative committee known as Gov Ops about rebuilding homes in Western North Carolina after Helene, and what accountability measures are in place to avoid a repeat of the long rebuilding delays for Eastern North Carolina during former Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration. 

Gov Ops is short for the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, and on Thursday, the commission’s Subcommittee on Hurricane Response and Recovery met to hear from Stephanie McGarrah, the deputy commerce secretary for community revitalization, and Jonathan Krebs, GROW NC’s Western NC recovery adviser. 

Rep. Brenden Jones, a Tabor City Republican who chairs the panel, said optimism was dwindling as the hearing went on, right after lawmakers learned there is no physical GROW NC office yet in Western North Carolina, and wouldn’t be for months.

Krebs listed these lessons learned from the Eastern North Carolina recovery office’s problems:

• Needed better accounting and financial controls
• Offered too many housing options
• Lacked partnerships with local governments
• Inconsistent, unclear decisions
• Lack of clear communications and expectations

Most of the discussion about GROW NC, the state agency in Stein’s administration overseeing Helene recovery, centered around making sure that federal funding is there as people apply to have their homes rebuilt, and on a deadline. House Bill 47, now under consideration, would provide some funding the state can use now for home rebuilding.

Sen. Tim Moffitt, a Henderson County Republican who represents one of the Helene-ravaged areas, said he doesn’t trust the federal government or the state government when it comes to recovery. 

“I think a lot of federal bureaucracy has demonstrated over time a gross level of incompetence and absorbed a lot of tax dollars that could be repurposed to solutions in our state,” Moffitt said.

Krebs said rebuilding houses isn’t fast enough, and that no matter what they do, someone is still going to be the last house built. 

Moffitt said lawmakers need to go after regulatory obstacles at the federal level to “rebuild vital parts of our communities.”

Jones wants less red tape and plans for spending money, and more actually spending money.

“This state has pissed away the taxpayers’ money, and we’re not going to do that again,” Jones told Krebs and McGarrah, saying lawmakers want to see houses built now. “You’re inheriting a hornet’s nest. You didn’t do it, but you’ve got to fix it.”

Krebs told lawmakers that GROW NC needs help with heirship properties, which would allow them to fix a house instead of “getting wrapped around who owns the house” in the same family. He said changes could speed recovery here, as laws have done in other states.

Krebs also said other states have laws requiring recovery contractors to be on standby before storms occur.

Another subcommittee chair, Sen. Brent Jackson, said they’ll give GROW NC the tools they need to be successful.

You can read more about the fourth and latest round of Helene legislation in this story by Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi.

The next Gov Ops meeting about Helene will be in June. Jackson said the committee needs updates between now and then, too.

The preceding article originally appeared on March 7, 2025 at the Raleigh News & Observer’s website and is made available here for educational purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Any views or opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Carolina Leadership Coalition. Photo above by Mike Stewart of the Associated Press as appearing in the Colorado Public Radio News: Homes are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Chimney Rock Village