Rural counties in Western NC struggle with funding in Helene’s aftermath

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    ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — In the nearly six months since Helene, it’s not just Asheville and Buncombe County struggling to get the funding necessary to rebuild.

Rural, surrounding areas are also worried about their budgets. This comes as much of the relief aid that’s been passed has not yet made its way to the mountains.

In Madison County, almost every single business is still closed. In fact, several are now gone, all washed away in the storm.

While crews are working and trucks are rolling in, the money is not.

“There’s a little bit of despair, we hear a lot of work going on in Madison County right now as we’re rebuilding, but it’s rebuilding out of people’s pockets versus from the federal government helping,” said Madison County Manager Rod Honeycutt.

Honeycutt estimates the county suffered about $80 Million in damages, which includes the historic courthouse, whose first floor was covered in mud and water and now requires an expensive renovation.

“I don’t want to say we’re in the hole, but we’re in a holding pattern because we can’t move forward,” Honeycutt said. “We are waiting on federal and state to make a decision on what will get funded.”

He estimates the county needs about $200 Million to get back on track, which totals about six times their annual budget.

So far, Madison County has only gotten about $1.6 Million in loans, with that money not coming through until earlier this month.

“Right now, the team put control measures in place we stopped capital spending we stopped what would be day-to-day normal operations we cut back,” he said.

News 13 also checked in with Haywood County.

County Manager Bryant Morehead says their area didn’t get as hard by Helene, but is still recovering from Tropical Storm Fred and the loss of Canton’s paper mill.

“Psychologically, I’m more prepared, this is a project I’m going to be working on for five to six years,” said Morehead.

He says the good news is that Haywood County has a healthy fund balance and after September and October, their sales tax is back to normal.

“From a cashflow standpoint we’re in pretty good shape,” he said.

But, he’s still worried about the future.

“There will have to be some cuts, we can’t do it all on fund balance,” said Morehead.

In Rutherford County, all eyes are on Lake Lure and Chimney Rock.

Even though their budgets are separate from the county’s, County Manager Steve Garrison says the tourism dollars those areas bring in impacts everyone.

“Not only sales tax but ad velorem property tax as well and how much do we have to shift to figure out what the tax base is going to look like to ensure we have significant funds,” said Garrison.

He’s also hoping Helene will highlight what he sees as a big challenge for rural areas, that most tourism dollars can only be spent on marketing, not capital projects.

“I think especially for rural counties, that formula change is a critical component to help us have those critical funds that we can control to help us be more resilient,” he said.

News 13 has learned that the $100 Million in loans for local governments is starting to trickle in, with Buncombe County saying they just received $8.5 Million, matching the loans for towns, cities, and counties for Helene relief as they ranged from about half a million to eight and a half million.

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