North Carolina's largest cities will continue receiving state money for street paving projects — at least for now.
Senate Republicans have tried twice this year to cut off so-called Powell Bill money going to the state's seven large cities, saying they'd save $50 million a year.
Senate Republicans said the money should instead support Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina. So, earlier this week after budget negotiations stalled, senators slipped the cuts into a Helene relief bill both chambers hoped to pass by the end of the day Thursday.
The cuts were negotiated out behind closed doors, and revealed around noon Thursday. Both chambers passed the legislation within two hours.
House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, told reporters the Senate's version of the bill "waded too deeply into transportation policy" and it was "not really necessary to have those [provisions] in the Helene bill."
Since 1951, communities have gotten help from the state government to maintain their roads through the Powell Bill.
The idea was a win for the League of Municipalities, according to state librarians. The league argued that local roads may not be part of the state highway system, but they're still valuable state infrastructure.
Powell Bill spending has since swelled to nearly $186 million annually. According to the Department of Transportation, most goes to resurfacing over 20,000 miles of municipal streets. It can also be used to fill in potholes, build bike paths and sidewalks, maintain bridges and salt roads before snow.
The change would have affected cities with populations greater than 150,000 people. Those are are Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville and Cary.
Many of those governments pushed back earlier this year, when they were crafting their own budgets under the looming threat.
"Things that get defunded in Raleigh in one cycle often find themselves being defunded for a much longer time than we originally anticipated," Winston-Salem's budget director Scott Tesh told the City Council in May.
Sen. Val Applewhite, D-Cumberland, told N.C. Newsroom the cuts being removed from the final bill was "amazing news for the city of Fayetteville."
"The volume of traffic that comes to our county because of Fort Bragg — and we're proud of that, right? — but there is an impact to our streets," Applewhite said.
Gov. Josh Stein signed the Helene bill into law Friday during a trip to the newly reopened Chimney Rock State Park.
