Tax cuts, amendments, and disaster recovery: Helene after two years

Recovery efforts after a climate disaster can extend for years. Rebuilding homes and infrastructure so that disaster survivors can recover fully and with dignity requires significant tax dollars and a sustained, coordinated, collective effort. 

Yet what we have seen in North Carolina since Hurricane Helene in 2024 is a failure to invest resources at the scale that is needed. The meager response from the federal government has left extensive critical needs unmet. Instead of rallying public resources to the recovery effort, state lawmakers have continued to enact tax cuts and to push revenue-limiting constraints that prevent the state and local governments from generating the revenue required to rebuild. Ideology has been prioritized over human need and well-being.

Repairs for significant damage caused by Helene remains unfunded after 2 years; federal government provided meager assistance 

It has been two years since Hurricane Helene devastated Western NC, the deadliest hurricane in the contiguous US since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the costliest storm that has ever hit North Carolina. With FEMA’s direct housing assistance closing out in October, this two-year milestone provides a time to take stock of the recovery efforts.

All told, Helene caused an estimated $60 billion in damage, with the three largest categories of damage being infrastructure and natural resources ($17.3 billion), economy ($15.9 billion), and housing ($15.4 billion).

To date, NC has seen approximately $16.2 billion invested in Helene recovery from state and federal sources, meaning that nearly three-quarters of the total damage caused by Helene remains unfunded two years later.

 

One of the most striking aspects of the recovery effort is just how little money has come from the federal government.

To date, the federal government has provided about $11 billion in recovery funding, or about 18 percent of the total damage caused by Hurricane Helene. However, when compared with other major storms in recent US history, Helene has received the least amount of federal funding.  

Even if Governor Stein’s June 2026 federal funding request for $10.2 billion were approved in full, the total combined federal funding would still only cover about 35 percent of the entire Helene damage estimate. 

NC’s proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot will make future recoveries more difficult if voters approve them 

With climate disasters becoming more frequent and severe, and an increasingly negligent federal government, one would think that state lawmakers would take seriously the need to protect our revenue streams.  

Instead, lawmakers have continued their decade-plus tax slashing spree and are working to make it more difficult to raise revenue in the future via a pair of constitutional amendments that voters will see on the ballot this November — a new cap on the income tax rate that would limit state government’s ability to raise revenue, and a property tax levy limit that would hamper local governments’ ability to raise revenue.

Capping the income tax rate will provide less state revenue to fund the priorities of North Carolinians 

In May 2026, the NC General Assembly passed a bill to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that, if approved by voters, would place a 3.5 percent cap on the income tax rate. This would mean that individuals and corporations cannot be taxed on their income by the state at a rate higher than 3.5 percent.  

If approved by voters, it would have no immediate effect on how much people are paying in taxes. The personal income tax rate will already go to 3.49 percent in 2027, and the corporate income tax rate is already at 2 percent and will be eliminated completely by 2030 unless legislators reverse course.  

However, this amendment would make it more difficult to ensure that corporations and the ultrawealthy pay their fair share to dedicate the level of resources needed for effective state disaster recovery. This is especially concerning as income tax revenue makes up a majority of all state revenue, and there aren’t any real equitable alternatives for the state to raise the money at the scale it would need other than through income taxes. 

Property tax levy limit will disproportionately hurt counties recently impacted by major climate disasters 

In addition to the income tax amendment, the NC General Assembly passed a bill to put another constitutional amendment on the ballot: a property tax levy limit. Whereas the income-tax cap amendment would limit the ability of the state to raise revenue, the property tax amendment would limit the ability of local governments to raise revenue. 

This is not a direct limit on property tax rates but a “levy limit” on the annual growth in the total property tax revenue that local governments collect. The language in the amendment is vague and leaves it up to the state legislature to decide the exact limit. But the bottom line is that the amendment would restrict the ability of local governments to raise revenue through property taxes; it would provide huge handouts to large corporations; and it would not actually address the property tax burdens faced by individual households.  

A recent analysis from NC Housing Coalition investigated the impact on local government revenue under a 2 percent property tax levy limit — one of the hypothetical examples presented to the NC House Select Committee on Property Tax Relief and Reform during the 2026 legislative session.  

The NC Housing Coalition report finds that a 2 percent levy limit would have cost local governments across the state more than $950 million in critical funding if it had been in effect during the last property tax revaluations in NC.  

While NC homeowners would have saved, on average, $84 in their property tax bills, large corporations like data center developers would have avoided up to $1.7 million in property taxes per site. Across the state, Duke Energy would have paid $10 million less in property taxes.  

Of the 24 counties that would have faced double-digit reductions in property tax revenue, all but two counties were impacted and received federal disaster declarations from hurricanes Matthew (2016), Florence (2018), and/or Helene (2024).

Conclusion 

When a major disaster hits NC, disaster survivors should not have to take on life-altering debt and face uncertainty about whether they will ever recover. North Carolinians should feel confident that there are systems in place to provide all survivors with relief and to ensure that their communities can move forward and thrive.  

Creating these systems requires public investment and funding at sufficient scale. If NC lawmakers continue to push for tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-wealthy, as well as revenue-limiting constraints, they would make recovery from a climate disaster impossible. Our leaders must take seriously the costs that their choices create for the well-being of North Carolinians and commit to policies that help ensure that every community is made whole following a disaster. The choices we make about our revenue system today will determine what resources are available when the next disaster hits.