Storm relief needed
Published November 4, 2016
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, November 4, 2016.
The last time the legislature went into special session, it created a storm. The next time should be to clean up after one.
Or maybe two.
Gov. Pat McCrory says he’ll call lawmakers to Raleigh in early December. They’ll be a flock of lame ducks following the election, but action will be needed to make sure funds are provided to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Heavy rains and flooding devastated wide areas of eastern North Carolina.
When Democrats urged a quick legislative response last month, they were slammed.
“We are still very much in the midst of a disaster and to politicize this at this point and call for a special session when they know we don’t need one is really kind of shameless,” Andrew Heath, the state budget director, said then.
McCrory is the one making campaign ads touting his leadership after the storm, so it’s clear who’s making political hay. Legislators of both parties who were in office when Hurricane Floyd left similar damage in 1999 remember that a special session was needed then, too. They know key decisions can’t wait until Jan. 11, when the 2017 General Assembly is scheduled to convene.
The governor is waiting until December to gather more information. He’s appointed a committee to assess damages and recommend plans for addressing short-term and long-term needs. By the middle of this month, he wants to send a request to Washington for federal disaster assistance. Maybe Congress will pass a relief bill similar to what it provided after Superstorm Sandy in 2012, which ravaged much of the mid-Atlantic Seaboard, hitting New Jersey and New York City especially hard. Once it’s known what Congress does, North Carolina will have a better idea of where to fill in funding gaps.
Congress should be generous, although there’s always contention about disaster bills. North Carolina wasn’t affected by Sandy, so our state’s Republicans — Sen. Richard Burr and all the GOP House members — voted against Sandy relief funds. We’ll hope New York and New Jersey representatives have forgotten.
As the governor notes, North Carolina has put away $1.6 billion in a rainy day fund. This is prudent, and it reduces the need for as much federal aid as might be necessary otherwise. But the state faces tremendous long-term costs and major decisions. It needs to repair and rebuild schools, roads, water and sewer lines and other infrastructure. It needs to decide where and how it’s best to rebuild. Dams and levies must be strengthened or expanded. And, of course, many people need housing.
The legislature must consider the governor’s recommendations for tapping the reserve funds and directing money where it can meet current needs and help sustain long-term recovery. It also has to decide some smaller matters, such as forgiving required school days that were missed. Of course, that’s not a small matter to kids. Some were out of class for two weeks or so, more time than can be made up. In addition to forgiveness of the days lost, students should get a break from end-of-course tests.
The other business for a special session should be calming the storm whipped up when the legislature passed House Bill 2 in a one-day session March 23. The measure has resulted in an economic disaster — not of the magnitude dealt by the hurricane but damaging and growing worse. The state has lost business, trade shows, sports and entertainment events, jobs, tax revenue and national prestige.
The governor and legislators who enacted HB 2 have dug in to untenable positions because of the election. They’re afraid to back down. So a special session after the election is the time to do what they know they should. They should repeal HB 2 and allow the recovery to begin.
