It's time now for a fact-check of North Carolina politics. In December, Republican state lawmakers enacted a Hurricane Helene relief bill that also stripped powers from incoming Gov. Josh Stein and other offices won by Democrats in the November election.
Before leaving office, then-Gov. Roy Cooper said this about the legislation while speaking on MSNBC: "And then they actually took money away from western North Carolina by removing a power of the governor that I just used to enhance unemployment benefits for employees who had lost their jobs as a result of this storm."
Marshall Terry: I'm joined now by Paul Specht of WRAL. All right, let's back up. What is this bill that Republicans enacted through veto override?
Paul Specht: State lawmakers have enacted a number of hurricane relief bills. The one that Roy Cooper was talking about was sort of a Trojan horse for some other things. This one in particular stripped powers away from offices that were won by Democrats in the November elections — and that includes the governor, the attorney general, and a couple other offices. And, so, that's why Cooper and other Democrats were sort of up in arms about this.
Terry: So, Cooper made this claim that the bill took money out of western North Carolina — and he made similar claims on social media. What did he mean?
Specht: Well, he's talking about a part of the bill that eliminates a power of the governor to enhance unemployment benefits. On Oct. 16, using his power under the state of emergency, he boosted unemployment checks from $350 per week to $600 per week, and extended eligibility from 12 weeks to 26 weeks.
He's previously allowed to do that under the state's Emergency Management Act. Now, Republicans have said they never believed that he had that power. They used this bill to clarify and say the governor can no longer just boost unemployment checks at will during a state of emergency.
Terry: Now, just to be clear, these enhanced unemployment benefits don't just apply to people in western North Carolina, right? Is that part of the reason Republicans wanted to strip this power?
Specht: That's right. It applies to anyone who's unemployed. You do not have to prove that your employment was affected by Helene or any natural disaster. And we have some numbers here. We can see that after Helene did hit the number of people who were filing for these unemployment claims and receiving benefits from the state went from 18,000 in September to 27,000 in October, and then 31,000 by the end of the calendar year.
Terry: All right. So these enhanced unemployment benefits are set to expire March 1. Is there any chance that there'll be extended beyond that?
Specht: Gov. Josh Stein hasn't said what he'll do. But Cooper — before he left office, when we contacted him about this Fact Check — he said look at all the other states of emergencies for other natural disasters, it hasn't even been six months since Helene. He said states of emergency for Hurricane Florence, for instance, lasted 15 months. And part of the reason for that is when a state has a state of emergency, it can continue drawing down federal help.
Terry: So how did you rate this claim?
Specht: We rated this claim "half true," and here's why: that March 1 date is important. Cooper has a point. Yes, after March 1, the governor will not be able to give these enhanced benefits. But the way Cooper phrased it in his interviews with MSNBC and with WRAL, and other outlets, made it seem like Republican legislators clawed back some of the money.
He said they took money out of western North Carolina — and that's not right. The program of enhanced benefits will run out when it's already scheduled to — on March 1. So anyone who's receiving benefits up until that point will continue to receive them, those bigger unemployment checks. But after that, they will no longer get them.
