August 4, 2025 • 33 mins
Applications are now open for the third round of interest-free cashflow loans aimed at communities recovering from Hurricane Helene. State Auditor’s office transparency improves with a new internal budget dashboard. August brings increased tropical activity, and the state treasurer highlights early success in the OpenAI pilot program. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials are urging North Carolina’s top court to uphold a conviction based on a vehicle search initiated by smell.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
It's five oh five and welcome into a Monday edition
of The Carolina Journal News Hour, Newstock eleven, ten ninety
nine three WBT. I'm Nicked Craig, A good morning to you.
Hurricane Helene affected the state of North Carolina some ten
months ago in local municipalities once again this morning affected
by Hurricane Helen have another chance to apply for assistance
(00:32):
through the Helene cash Flow Loan Program. North Carolina State
Treasurer Brad Bryner announced late last week that the third
round of fifty one point five million dollars in funding
is now ready to be distributed. That's thanks to the
passage of the Disaster Recovery Act of twenty twenty five,
Part two, which was signed into law in late June.
(00:54):
June twenty seventh to be exact, the state Treasurer's office
is the one responsible for administration that loan program, with
the Treasurer saying in a press release quote, this is
money they otherwise would have to wait for an extended
period of time to get from the federal government. The
cash flow loan program has been very successful since its
(01:14):
implementation just a few short months ago. Communities in need
now have nearly one hundred million dollars in hand and
are already it is already being used in their recovery work.
The second round of loans used the remaining thirty four
million dollars from more than one hundred million dollars that
the General Assembly enacted in the back in December of
(01:38):
last year. As that legislation passed just before the turn
of the calendar. More than seventy three million dollars were
distributed in February in the first round of those interest
free loans. A total of ninety seven million dollars have
been doled out to local municipalities over the past six months.
(01:59):
One of the biggest receipt zipients Maggie Valley Heywood County,
receiving over two hundred and sixteen thousand dollars. We talked
about Maggie Valley last week, as that town has a
long road ahead. Initial damage assessments there estimated to be
more than four point seven million dollars. That's relevant as
the town's yearly budget is just five point two million dollars,
(02:22):
or almost their entire yearly budget. The mayor, Mike Eveland,
previously told The Carolina Journal that Maggie Valley's cash flow
situation is currently stable thanks to the state's help with
this with these low interest loans as they wait for
additional dollars from the federal government. Round two of Hollingan's
(02:42):
cash flow is being administered by the State Treasurer's office,
and those loans must be repaid within five years. As
with the first rounds of those loans, local governments willing
to participate have to complete and provide a whole bunch
of information to the state. The deadline for that is
August the fifteenth. We will continue to track Hurricane Helene
(03:05):
recovery and those efforts by many of those small mountain
towns and municipalities on our website, Carolina Journal dot com,
and of course right here on the Carolina Journal News
Hour it's now five oh eight, News Talk eleven, ten,
ninety nine to three WBT. If you talk to a
vast majority of voters, not only here in North Carolina,
(03:25):
but across the United States, they would probably say that
they wanted government to have more transparency in what it
was doing. One of the agencies responsible for transparency and
bringing information to light in North Carolina is the State
Auditor's Office that is now controlled by State Auditor Dave
Bullock after his election win in November of last year,
(03:45):
and the Auditor's Office has rolled out a new internal
dashboard so you can keep an eye on what's going
on in the Auditor's office. To walk us through some
of those details and tell us exactly what's going on here,
Teres Opeka Carolina Journal dot com joins us on the
News hour. Guess Teresa be accurate to say, now the
public can see what's going on in the Auditor's office.
That's a pretty substantial step from my vantage point.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Oh absolutely, absolutely, Thanks Nick for having me. So yeah.
I mean, you know, he's known or the Auditor's Office.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Is known as the watchdog watching over everything, watching the
spending of all stay agencies and institutions, and now they're
kind of flipping the script there with having the public
go ahead and watch what they're doing. So yeah, Auditor
Dave Bullock released this press release yesterday announcing this that
they are going to have a new budget dashboard.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
It's up and running on the website.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
In a bit to deliver better government transparency, he says,
you know, he wanted to have opening access to his
office spending and they're leading the charge to create a
more transparent government in North Carolina, and it makes it
easily accessible to the public.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
They can take a look at it.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
You know, he's been fighting for this since he got
into office, actually before he got in in to office,
is what he said. There's plenty of details when it
comes to this, but yeah, it's he's basically they're shining
a line on their own office. Which is remarkable, right
because well, we even have like the General Assembly who
want to do in Beck, did what close up the records?
(05:15):
You quitn't look up records now that they can maybe
possibly destroy them. So this is like the exact opposite.
So it is refreshing to see that for a state agency,
especially the one who watches over all the other state agencies.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Theresa you follow the Council of State. Very close to
the Council of State includes people like the State Auditor
and other cabinet level officials that many folks who are
voted on every four years here in North Carolina. Do
you think this move by State Auditor Dave Bollock to say, hey,
you know, we're not just going to go around investigating
all of these towns and municipalities, but now you're going
to be able to go and look and see what
(05:49):
we're doing. I think he's maybe trying to force the
hand of some of these other state agencies to maybe
say it stopped, and now here's your opportunity, here's your
time to offer some of the similar level of transparency
to the public as well.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
He might be.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I think it's a great idea that he's you know,
taking charge of the initiative to do this. It's a
definite possibility, and I think you are seeing some agencies
take a little bit of attack and doing this. I
know Department of Labor, Luke Farley, he's been more active
than I can remember anybody in recent times being active
(06:28):
in that department, just as an example and saying what
they're doing and putting more press releases out.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Or going around and doing this and doing that. I
think Stage.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Treasurer Brad Reiner has been really forthcoming. He's been putting
out different videos and announcements and press releases.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I mean, we had Dale Folwell and do that as well.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
But I think you're seeing a new trend as far
as transparency is going, and I think Auditor Bullock is
definitely leading the way in that. So hopefully he will
rub off on even more and set a good example.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I mean, it seems to be a really good thing
he's doing.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Transparency obviously is the key cornerstone and the very important
part of this. But Teresa, you know, transparency is great,
but the information also has to be digestible. You know,
regular members of the public and even yourself and me.
You look at some of these reports from from whether
it's the Auditor's office in the past or other state agencies,
and your eyes just gloss over. It's a seventy page
(07:25):
PDF with information all over the place. Yeah, it's great
that it's out there, but it's incredibly hard to digest
this information. So, yes, the transparency is important, but making
it actually available and readily usable by the public, I
think is also a key step in that.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, where you hearing me talk about my writing a
story the other day, taking time to break things down,
make it, you know, actually readable for the public and
for yourself. You're absolutely correct, And the dashboard is it's
really nice how.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
They have it set up.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
They have all the different revenue sources, expenses spending by
vendor for state fiscal year twenty twenty five, They've got
it all broken down it's easily readable, digestible, you can
really understand it.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Did a really nice job on it. So you're right.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
It's not sifting through seventy pages of what is this
and what does this mean? And oh god, I'm getting
a headache from reading it all. No, you're right, and
it's geared toward the public and public access.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Now, this dashboard, obviously it's new as it's looking at
the spending within the State Auditor's Office. But these dashboards
have been something that they Bowlick and his team have
been pretty diligent with since the early days in his office.
They've got a couple of these dashboards out right now
tracking similar spending. I know one of the big ones
is Hurricane Helen. These have been pretty impactful from everything
that I've been able to follow.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Oh yeah, yeah again transparency rights.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
He led the way in this as far as I
haven't seen anything like this before. Didn't have Hurricane Helene before,
But we haven't really had any different dashboards as far
as State Auditor's office.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
They mentioned the weather.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
One heyes, is the NC Financial Snapshot dashboard. It's from
the Office of the State Controllers n see cash watch report.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Basically, how much money the state has.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
It's how much is in reserve, how much is available,
things of that nature. But the bigger one, of course,
you said, Helene recovery dashboard, and you know that's showing
you how many people were housed households seeking assistance, all
the different expenditures when it comes to what's being spent
as far as the budget, and also taking a look
at GROW and see that was the agency set up
(09:33):
by Governor Josh Stein to separate from Encore, which has
done a really horrible job. Let's be honest with Eastern
and North Carolina under hurricanes Matthew and Florence. He set
that up as one of his first actions in office
when he took office in January. So there's a grow
in Sea tab that shows you know, how many millions
(09:55):
of dollars in payroll expenditures and actual operational expenditures they have.
You can click through all of them. Again, everything is
easily readable, digestible. You understand what's there. So since your
kudos to Auditor Bullet for putting this all together not
only on his office, but all of the other dashboards
(10:16):
including Hurricane Helen.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, these are great and again really digestible by the public.
We've got links to not only this new dashboard looking
at the auditor's office itself, but some of these other
dashboards those are linked in our story this morning over
at Carolina Journal dot com. We appreciate the update. Tereso
Peka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's
(10:40):
twenty one minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the
Carolina Journal News Hour. News Stock eleven, ten ninety nine
three WBT. I'm Nick Craig. A good Monday morning to you. Well.
As we head deeper into the month of August, there
are multiple areas to watch in the tropics this morning,
as we get in towards what is typically known as
the peak, get closer, i should say, to what is
(11:02):
typically the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. Over the weekend,
Tropical Storm Dexter formed in the Atlantic. However, it is
a couple hundred miles off of the North Carolina coast
and is heading towards portions of Europe, so not expected
to pose a much of a whole lot of threat
to anywhere on the Eastern seaboard, so not much going
(11:22):
on there, But that storm has officially formed and is
being tracked by the National Hurricane Center out of Miami, Florida.
This morning. However, there are two additional areas that are
now being tracked by the Atlantic by the National Hurricane Center.
I should say one of them is expected to pop
off of the Florida coast and has a thirty percent
(11:43):
chance of development over the second day. The other is
a low coming off of Africa that is typically where
storms do form that could pose a risk. Two areas
of the state of North and South Carolina that has
a fifty percent development chance over the next seven days.
We will, of course keep an eye on what is
expected to be a slightly above average twenty twenty five
(12:06):
Atlantic hurricane season. We'll keep you up to date on
our website, Carolina Journal dot com and of course right
here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Turning our attention
to some statewide news this morning at North Carolina State
Treasurer Brad Briner has released the results of a twelve
week pilot program between his office and open ai, which
(12:31):
was released on Friday. Of course, open ai the organization
behind the ever popular chat GPT product. This announcement was
a first agree to in the month of March with
the State Treasurer saying in a press release or a
press conference, I should say on Friday as a reminder,
we embarked on this partnership with a bright red line attached,
(12:54):
and that was to use it within parts of our department.
We did not touch personal or private data. We had
three specific areas where we thought this would help the
major goals of freeing up our team's time to do
what they describe as higher value work. The first was
to accelerate the analysis of financial statements and improve our accuracy.
(13:17):
The second was to summarize regulations and automate routine communications,
and third was to spot inconsistencies in a variety of
data sets. Unclaimed Properties and State and local governments were
the two divisions within the department to use open AI products,
with the State Treasurer saying that the program had very
(13:40):
good results telling reporters quote what we've learned first, and
perhaps most unsurprisingly, is that this technology saves a material
amount of time. We estimate, thanks to our friends at
North Carolina Central University, which conducted the evaluation, that it
improved the productivity of our employees by about ten percent
(14:03):
in the early phases of the trial. That last piece
is important because The second thing we learned is that
the program kept improving, and it would have continued to
improve had the twelve week trial not ended, so we
did not get to maximize productivity in the twelve weeks
which we did this. And then third, we were able
to orient our people towards more complex and human centered interactions,
(14:27):
which are inherently more productive and satisfying. Brad Brener added
that artificial intelligence is an incredibly powerful tool that is
increasingly being used by many, as well as those within
the state government, noting that state government still needs to
lean into it and respect that bright red line for privacy,
(14:48):
telling reporters this technology is all about empowering up public
servants to do an even better job serving our citizens,
not about replacing them, said quote. We look forward to
continuing to find ways to implement AI and other technologies
in our work here to ensure that we serve the
(15:09):
people of North Carolina even better every day. Doctor Grady,
the founding director of North Carolina Essential University's Institute for
Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research, said that the forty eight
page report that was conducted by NCUU shows that the
employees using chat GPT expressed relief, enthusiasm, and delight. Over
(15:35):
seventy one percent had a very positive sentiment when using
chat GPT, while only seven percent of employees that were
using this under that twelve week trial had what were
described as a neutral feeling on the program. Employees began
saving fifteen to thirty minutes in the beginning of the
initial survey, with the time going up to thirty to
(15:58):
sixty minutes a day at the end of the twelve
week period. There were four user types within this pilot program.
The biggest were sporadic users who used it occasionally. The
next largest percentage were super users, those individuals were able
to integrate chat GPT from multiple different workflows, with the
(16:20):
third being consistent users who used it for repeatable tasks,
and the last, finally were non users individuals that did
not use the program very much at all. A reporter
asked if OpenAI could help out with automated functions in
the state's Division of Motor Vehicle. Briner joked that he
wasn't sure if it could if he had the ability
to touch the DMV question, but later answered the question
(16:44):
by saying that there was no question that the power
of technology for anything that deals with data could see
a tremendous amount of growth and productivity and could improve
the operations. Like any other agency, including potentially that of
DMV will, open AI isn't perfect and does make mistakes,
according to doctor Grady. He said that everyone has to
(17:08):
do their due diligence when using the technology, as well
as making sure that things are factual and not relying
on chat, GBT or any other AI project to do
one hundred percent of their job. Briner said that the
trial was set to officially end this morning on Monday,
and that they have been having a lot of conversations
(17:28):
about what some of those next steps are, but are
unsure as they don't know what the price point will
be for the continuation of the program. He told reporters
on Friday, quote, there's real value to this tool. It is,
of course, not the only tool in the artificial intelligent space,
so we're going to run some other trials and think
about other solutions as well. But obviously we're extremely impressed
(17:52):
with what we saw with open AI specifically, and you'll
be hearing from us again sometime in the coming months.
This trial again was announced back in March of this
year at no cost to the State of North Carolina
or the State Treasurer's office. This was a partnership that
OpenAI agreed to do essentially for free. In this twelve
week trial. You can read additional details, including checking out
(18:16):
that full forty eight page report by North Carolina Central
University over on our website. This morning, Carolina Journal dot
com the headline treasurers reports positive results for OpenAI pilot program.
It's five thirty six. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal
(18:38):
News our News Talk eleven ten ninety nine to three WBT.
As we now sit in the first month, or the
first week, i should say, of the month of August,
all eyes are going to be on the state of
North Carolina, as it has been made official on both
the Democrat and Republican side. Two major candidates running for
an open North Carolina United States Senate see that election
(19:02):
heading to the state of North Carolina next November. One
week ago, former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper announced his official
campaign launch on his social on a variety of his
social media platforms, and late in the day on Thursday,
chairman of the Republican National Committee and former NCGOP chairman
Michael Watley made his official announcement in Gastonia. Many individuals
(19:26):
that follow up politics very closely have speculated that this
United States Senate race is likely to be the most
expensive in US history, and what remains to be seen
this morning is how quickly this campaign will materialize on
both the Democrat and Republican side. Text messages, emails, and
(19:46):
social media jabs have already been going out from both
campaigns as we continue to track this very high stakes race.
We'll continue with our coverage of this election all the
way through November of next year over on our website,
Carolina Journal dot com, and of course, as we get
new polling details, big statements and comments from both of
(20:06):
these candidates, will continue to bring them to you right
here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's now
five thirty seven, News Talk eleven ten ninety nine to
three WBT. We're looking into a very interesting legal battle
that could have major implications for law enforcement practices across
North Carolina. At the center of this case, whether police
(20:27):
can rely on the smell of marijuana combined with a
so called cover scent like cologne has probable cause for
a vehicle search. To walk us through this very interesting
legal challenge, This morning, Mitch Koki from the John Locke
Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch,
this is an interesting situation unfolding across North Carolina.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
It really is. In this dates back nick to the
time when North Carolina made hemp legal, and so one
of the things that has cropped up since then is
that those who advocate for clients who've been charged based
on marijuana sense have said, look, hemp smells the same
as marijuana. So if there is a search of a
(21:08):
vehicle that's based or a residence based on the odor
of marijuana that law enforcement detects before conducting this search,
that that is unconstitutional because they may be violating people's
rights who didn't have anything to do with marijuana. They
just had they were around hemp. And so the courts
(21:30):
in North Carolina have struck down this argument that the
odor of marijuana can no longer be used as a
basis for probable cause for a search. But this latest
case that comes out of Greensboro has an interesting twist
because the officers in this case stopped a car and
then searched the car because not only did they detect
(21:53):
the odor of marijuana, but they also detected a very
strong scent of cologne, or at least one officer described
it as a strong fruity smell. And so the cologne
combined with the marijuana, they said the cologne was a
cover scent. And so, as this case has gone through
the courts, the defendant, who was eventually charged with a
(22:15):
gun crime the search said that wait a minute, my
Fourth Amendment rights were violated because they had this odor,
which could have been hemp, not marijuana, legal hemp and
the legal cologne. The officers put those two things together
and came up with what the lawyers in this case
described as an unconstitutional double odor rule. Now, the courts,
(22:40):
so far at the trial court level and the State
Court of Appeals in a unanimous decision, struck this down,
saying no, the officers proceeded in the proper way. They
looked at what they call the totality of the circumstances
before deciding to engage in the search. And because of that,
what was revealed than the search was able to be
(23:01):
used in court. And that's why after they found this
defendant his name was Tyron Dobson, after they found a
gun on him, in charge it with a gun crime,
that is able to stand. What's interesting is that though
the state Court of Appeals ruled unanimously against Dobson, the
state Supreme Court has agreed to take the case and
(23:21):
agreed earlier this year to take it up. And the
latest development is that the statewide groups that deal with
district attorneys, sheriffs in North Carolina, and chiefs of police
all filed a joint brief this week supporting the law
enforcement stance in this case, saying that, look, this is
(23:42):
not a case of some sort of unconstitutional violation of
Forth Amendment rights. The officers in this case were engaging
in common sense law enforcement. They smelled marijuana, They smelled
this cologne which could have been a cover set that
those two actors, combined with everything else that their law
(24:02):
enforcement training prepares them for, said that this is a
vehicle that needs to be searched, and of course after
they had the search, they found additional drugs and they
found the gun on this suspect, Dobson, who eventually was
charged and convicted. So it'll be very interesting to see
what the State Supreme Court does with this case. Now,
(24:24):
the State Supreme Court didn't need to take the case
because there was a unanimous decision from the Court of Appeals.
But the state Supreme Court has decided to review this issue,
and now all of these big law enforcement groups for
the das, the sheriffs, and the police chiefs are all saying, look,
you should allow this search and the conviction that came
out of it to stand.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Before we get into some more pertinent details about this
case itself, I want to go back to what you
just mentioned there at the end, a unanimous court of
appeals had already ruled on this. Mitch reading the tea leaves,
why do you think the Supreme Court would take something
like this up? Is there anything that you can gather
in that.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Well. One clue that you might get is from the
way that the Supreme Court decided to handle this case.
When the appeal was made to the Supreme Court, the
lawyers basically said, here are two options for why the
state Supreme Court might take the case. The first option
was the idea that smelling marijuana means you could be
(25:22):
smelling hemp, which is legal, and so that has to
be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court rejected that, and I think
partly that's because the courts in North Carolina have already
dealt with this issue. I don't believe that it's gone
to the State Supreme Court yet, but the Court of
Appeals has on multiple occasions said that this is not
a reason to throw out a search. But the second
(25:44):
item that was put forward was this notion that the
courts have sanctioned an unconstitutional double odor rule. And I
think that's something that at least for a majority of
the State Supreme Court, of the number of justices they
need to decide they're going to hear the case, was
something that they wanted to address whether this idea of
(26:06):
having the marijuana smell and the colonne smell together came
up with some sort of new double odor rule that
would be unconstitutional. I think they decided that they're going
to take that up, either to say that no, you
can't use these two things in concert with each other
as the only factors to have a law enforcement search,
(26:27):
or on the other hand, they decided that let's just
settle this for good and say that the marijuana smell
is still good and having the colonne smell along with
it is not going to be something that's going to
distract from this other factor. My guess is the State
Supreme Court really just wanted to say, let's settle this
(26:49):
once and for all, or at least as once and
for all as any court cases can be settled, and
this was a good case for them to do that.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And looking at these two scenarios you lay out, Probable
cause obviously is a very important part of law enforcement,
and this would have an impact across the entire state
of North Carolina. Mitch, you can imagine a situation if
the Supreme Court comes down on this and says, oh,
that additional odor of a heavy cologne or some other
smell throws out probable cause, that would put law enforcement
(27:19):
probably a pretty tricky and tough situation.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Yeah, I really could, and I think that's one of
the reasons why those various law enforcement groups, with the das,
the sheriffs, and the police chiefs wanted to weigh in
on this case. Basically, their argument is these law enforcement
officers are using their training and using common sense to
decide when to search a vehicle. An officer smells marijuana,
(27:44):
that in and of itself is a good basis for
a search, and courts have said that they also smell
the cologne. That's something that can be used to try
to cover up marijuana sentence. So that's another reason that
would factor in to a law enforcement decision that a
particular vehicle or a particular residence is liable for a search. Now,
(28:08):
of course, it is important to want to protect Fourth
Amendment rights.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
You don't want.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Law enforcement just to decide I'm going to search anyone
I want for any reason. There needs to be a good,
legitimate probable cause, and I think this case has at
least the potential to set some good guidelines on what
is appropriate and what is inappropriate when law enforcement wants
to search a vehicle or residence without having a warrant.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
We've got a lot more interesting details on that case
this morning. You can read those over on our website,
Carolina Journal dot com. We appreciate the update. Mitchkoki from
the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal
News Hour. It's five point fifty three. Welcome back to
the Carolina Journal News Hour, Newstock eleven, ten EBT. Don't
(29:01):
forget if you miss any of our program Monday morning
or weekday mornings, I should say a five to six
right here on WBT. You can check out our Carolina
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anywhere you get your shows. Just search for the Carolina
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you'll get a new program delivered each and every weekday morning.
(29:23):
You can also watch the show live and listen to
it after the fact on our Carolina Journal YouTube channel.
Turning our attention to some statewide news this morning, the
local local municipalities affected by Hurricane Helen more than ten
months ago have yet another chance over the next week
or so to apply for assistance through the Helen Cash
(29:45):
Flow Loan Program. North Carolina State Treasurer Brad Briner made
the announcement on Thursday of last week that the third
round of more than fifty one and a half million
dollars in funding is now ready to be sent out
to local communities affected. This is all thanks to the
passage of the Disaster Recovery Act of twenty twenty five,
(30:05):
Part two, which was signed into law back on June
the twenty seventh. The State Treasurer's office administers the cash
loan program, with State Treasurer Brad Bryner saying, quote, this
is money they otherwise would have to wait for an
extended period of time to get from the federal government,
noting that quote, The cash flow loan program has been
(30:27):
very successful since its implementation just a few short months ago.
Communities now have nearly one hundred million dollars in hand
and it is already being used in their recovery work.
The second round of the loan program used remaining a
thirty four point four million dollars under Senate Bill three
eighty two that was the Disaster Recovery Act of twenty
(30:50):
twenty four, which became law in December of last year,
just before the turn of the calendar, and was sent
out to those municipalities in the month of More than
seventy three million dollars were also sent to participating municipalities
in February in the first round of these interest free loans.
A total of ninety seven million dollars has been loaned
(31:13):
in the past six months. Many of those recipients we
have been covering as we continue to track recovery and
relief efforts in the western half of North Carolina. Last week,
we talked about Maggie Valley that's in Heywood County and
the more than two hundred thousand dollars that they have
received from the state government again at zero interest, and
(31:35):
that has been incredibly helpful. As the initial damage assessments
of Maggie Valley post Hurricane Helene are expected to cost
somewhere in the ballpark of four point seven million dollars.
That is a pretty significant amount of money when you
look at the town of Maggie Valley, their yearly budget
is only five point two million dollars. Most of the
(31:57):
initial damage was sewer related and damn image to parks
near the Jonathan Creek. Several creeks in the small town
overflowed into the valley, causing a major damage that required cleanup,
which also accounts for those initial damage costs of four
point seven million dollars. The mayor of Maggie Valley, Mike Eveland,
(32:18):
told The Carolina Journal previously that Maggie Valley's cash flow
situation is currently stable and that's in large part thanks
to the state's financial assistance, noting that the town received
a low interest loan from the Department of Environmental Quality
as well for more than two and a half million dollars,
which also needs to be repaid over the next five years.
(32:41):
As with the first two rounds, local governments willing to participate,
do need to complete a pretty significant amount of paperwork
to get those low interest loans from the State of
North Carolina. The deadline for this third round of funding
is August the fifteenth, as we continue to track recovery
and release efforts across western North Carolina. So that's going
(33:03):
to do it. For a Monday edition of The Carolina
Journal News Hour WBT News is next, followed by Good
Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning five to
six right here on Newstalk eleven, ten and ninety nine
three WBT
It's five oh five and welcome into a Monday edition
of The Carolina Journal News Hour, Newstock eleven, ten ninety
nine three WBT. I'm Nicked Craig, A good morning to you.
Hurricane Helene affected the state of North Carolina some ten
months ago in local municipalities once again this morning affected
by Hurricane Helen have another chance to apply for assistance
(00:32):
through the Helene cash Flow Loan Program. North Carolina State
Treasurer Brad Bryner announced late last week that the third
round of fifty one point five million dollars in funding
is now ready to be distributed. That's thanks to the
passage of the Disaster Recovery Act of twenty twenty five,
Part two, which was signed into law in late June.
(00:54):
June twenty seventh to be exact, the state Treasurer's office
is the one responsible for administration that loan program, with
the Treasurer saying in a press release quote, this is
money they otherwise would have to wait for an extended
period of time to get from the federal government. The
cash flow loan program has been very successful since its
(01:14):
implementation just a few short months ago. Communities in need
now have nearly one hundred million dollars in hand and
are already it is already being used in their recovery work.
The second round of loans used the remaining thirty four
million dollars from more than one hundred million dollars that
the General Assembly enacted in the back in December of
(01:38):
last year. As that legislation passed just before the turn
of the calendar. More than seventy three million dollars were
distributed in February in the first round of those interest
free loans. A total of ninety seven million dollars have
been doled out to local municipalities over the past six months.
(01:59):
One of the biggest receipt zipients Maggie Valley Heywood County,
receiving over two hundred and sixteen thousand dollars. We talked
about Maggie Valley last week, as that town has a
long road ahead. Initial damage assessments there estimated to be
more than four point seven million dollars. That's relevant as
the town's yearly budget is just five point two million dollars,
(02:22):
or almost their entire yearly budget. The mayor, Mike Eveland,
previously told The Carolina Journal that Maggie Valley's cash flow
situation is currently stable thanks to the state's help with
this with these low interest loans as they wait for
additional dollars from the federal government. Round two of Hollingan's
(02:42):
cash flow is being administered by the State Treasurer's office,
and those loans must be repaid within five years. As
with the first rounds of those loans, local governments willing
to participate have to complete and provide a whole bunch
of information to the state. The deadline for that is
August the fifteenth. We will continue to track Hurricane Helene
(03:05):
recovery and those efforts by many of those small mountain
towns and municipalities on our website, Carolina Journal dot com,
and of course right here on the Carolina Journal News
Hour it's now five oh eight, News Talk eleven, ten,
ninety nine to three WBT. If you talk to a
vast majority of voters, not only here in North Carolina,
(03:25):
but across the United States, they would probably say that
they wanted government to have more transparency in what it
was doing. One of the agencies responsible for transparency and
bringing information to light in North Carolina is the State
Auditor's Office that is now controlled by State Auditor Dave
Bullock after his election win in November of last year,
(03:45):
and the Auditor's Office has rolled out a new internal
dashboard so you can keep an eye on what's going
on in the Auditor's office. To walk us through some
of those details and tell us exactly what's going on here,
Teres Opeka Carolina Journal dot com joins us on the
News hour. Guess Teresa be accurate to say, now the
public can see what's going on in the Auditor's office.
That's a pretty substantial step from my vantage point.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Oh absolutely, absolutely, Thanks Nick for having me. So yeah.
I mean, you know, he's known or the Auditor's Office.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Is known as the watchdog watching over everything, watching the
spending of all stay agencies and institutions, and now they're
kind of flipping the script there with having the public
go ahead and watch what they're doing. So yeah, Auditor
Dave Bullock released this press release yesterday announcing this that
they are going to have a new budget dashboard.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
It's up and running on the website.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
In a bit to deliver better government transparency, he says,
you know, he wanted to have opening access to his
office spending and they're leading the charge to create a
more transparent government in North Carolina, and it makes it
easily accessible to the public.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
They can take a look at it.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
You know, he's been fighting for this since he got
into office, actually before he got in in to office,
is what he said. There's plenty of details when it
comes to this, but yeah, it's he's basically they're shining
a line on their own office. Which is remarkable, right
because well, we even have like the General Assembly who
want to do in Beck, did what close up the records?
(05:15):
You quitn't look up records now that they can maybe
possibly destroy them. So this is like the exact opposite.
So it is refreshing to see that for a state agency,
especially the one who watches over all the other state agencies.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Theresa you follow the Council of State. Very close to
the Council of State includes people like the State Auditor
and other cabinet level officials that many folks who are
voted on every four years here in North Carolina. Do
you think this move by State Auditor Dave Bollock to say, hey,
you know, we're not just going to go around investigating
all of these towns and municipalities, but now you're going
to be able to go and look and see what
(05:49):
we're doing. I think he's maybe trying to force the
hand of some of these other state agencies to maybe
say it stopped, and now here's your opportunity, here's your
time to offer some of the similar level of transparency
to the public as well.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
He might be.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I think it's a great idea that he's you know,
taking charge of the initiative to do this. It's a
definite possibility, and I think you are seeing some agencies
take a little bit of attack and doing this. I
know Department of Labor, Luke Farley, he's been more active
than I can remember anybody in recent times being active
(06:28):
in that department, just as an example and saying what
they're doing and putting more press releases out.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Or going around and doing this and doing that. I
think Stage.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Treasurer Brad Reiner has been really forthcoming. He's been putting
out different videos and announcements and press releases.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I mean, we had Dale Folwell and do that as well.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
But I think you're seeing a new trend as far
as transparency is going, and I think Auditor Bullock is
definitely leading the way in that. So hopefully he will
rub off on even more and set a good example.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I mean, it seems to be a really good thing
he's doing.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Transparency obviously is the key cornerstone and the very important
part of this. But Teresa, you know, transparency is great,
but the information also has to be digestible. You know,
regular members of the public and even yourself and me.
You look at some of these reports from from whether
it's the Auditor's office in the past or other state agencies,
and your eyes just gloss over. It's a seventy page
(07:25):
PDF with information all over the place. Yeah, it's great
that it's out there, but it's incredibly hard to digest
this information. So, yes, the transparency is important, but making
it actually available and readily usable by the public, I
think is also a key step in that.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, where you hearing me talk about my writing a
story the other day, taking time to break things down,
make it, you know, actually readable for the public and
for yourself. You're absolutely correct, And the dashboard is it's
really nice how.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
They have it set up.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
They have all the different revenue sources, expenses spending by
vendor for state fiscal year twenty twenty five, They've got
it all broken down it's easily readable, digestible, you can
really understand it.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Did a really nice job on it. So you're right.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
It's not sifting through seventy pages of what is this
and what does this mean? And oh god, I'm getting
a headache from reading it all. No, you're right, and
it's geared toward the public and public access.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Now, this dashboard, obviously it's new as it's looking at
the spending within the State Auditor's Office. But these dashboards
have been something that they Bowlick and his team have
been pretty diligent with since the early days in his office.
They've got a couple of these dashboards out right now
tracking similar spending. I know one of the big ones
is Hurricane Helen. These have been pretty impactful from everything
that I've been able to follow.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Oh yeah, yeah again transparency rights.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
He led the way in this as far as I
haven't seen anything like this before. Didn't have Hurricane Helene before,
But we haven't really had any different dashboards as far
as State Auditor's office.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
They mentioned the weather.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
One heyes, is the NC Financial Snapshot dashboard. It's from
the Office of the State Controllers n see cash watch report.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Basically, how much money the state has.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
It's how much is in reserve, how much is available,
things of that nature. But the bigger one, of course,
you said, Helene recovery dashboard, and you know that's showing
you how many people were housed households seeking assistance, all
the different expenditures when it comes to what's being spent
as far as the budget, and also taking a look
at GROW and see that was the agency set up
(09:33):
by Governor Josh Stein to separate from Encore, which has
done a really horrible job. Let's be honest with Eastern
and North Carolina under hurricanes Matthew and Florence. He set
that up as one of his first actions in office
when he took office in January. So there's a grow
in Sea tab that shows you know, how many millions
(09:55):
of dollars in payroll expenditures and actual operational expenditures they have.
You can click through all of them. Again, everything is
easily readable, digestible. You understand what's there. So since your
kudos to Auditor Bullet for putting this all together not
only on his office, but all of the other dashboards
(10:16):
including Hurricane Helen.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, these are great and again really digestible by the public.
We've got links to not only this new dashboard looking
at the auditor's office itself, but some of these other
dashboards those are linked in our story this morning over
at Carolina Journal dot com. We appreciate the update. Tereso
Peka joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's
(10:40):
twenty one minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the
Carolina Journal News Hour. News Stock eleven, ten ninety nine
three WBT. I'm Nick Craig. A good Monday morning to you. Well.
As we head deeper into the month of August, there
are multiple areas to watch in the tropics this morning,
as we get in towards what is typically known as
the peak, get closer, i should say, to what is
(11:02):
typically the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. Over the weekend,
Tropical Storm Dexter formed in the Atlantic. However, it is
a couple hundred miles off of the North Carolina coast
and is heading towards portions of Europe, so not expected
to pose a much of a whole lot of threat
to anywhere on the Eastern seaboard, so not much going
(11:22):
on there, But that storm has officially formed and is
being tracked by the National Hurricane Center out of Miami, Florida.
This morning. However, there are two additional areas that are
now being tracked by the Atlantic by the National Hurricane Center.
I should say one of them is expected to pop
off of the Florida coast and has a thirty percent
(11:43):
chance of development over the second day. The other is
a low coming off of Africa that is typically where
storms do form that could pose a risk. Two areas
of the state of North and South Carolina that has
a fifty percent development chance over the next seven days.
We will, of course keep an eye on what is
expected to be a slightly above average twenty twenty five
(12:06):
Atlantic hurricane season. We'll keep you up to date on
our website, Carolina Journal dot com and of course right
here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Turning our attention
to some statewide news this morning at North Carolina State
Treasurer Brad Briner has released the results of a twelve
week pilot program between his office and open ai, which
(12:31):
was released on Friday. Of course, open ai the organization
behind the ever popular chat GPT product. This announcement was
a first agree to in the month of March with
the State Treasurer saying in a press release or a
press conference, I should say on Friday as a reminder,
we embarked on this partnership with a bright red line attached,
(12:54):
and that was to use it within parts of our department.
We did not touch personal or private data. We had
three specific areas where we thought this would help the
major goals of freeing up our team's time to do
what they describe as higher value work. The first was
to accelerate the analysis of financial statements and improve our accuracy.
(13:17):
The second was to summarize regulations and automate routine communications,
and third was to spot inconsistencies in a variety of
data sets. Unclaimed Properties and State and local governments were
the two divisions within the department to use open AI products,
with the State Treasurer saying that the program had very
(13:40):
good results telling reporters quote what we've learned first, and
perhaps most unsurprisingly, is that this technology saves a material
amount of time. We estimate, thanks to our friends at
North Carolina Central University, which conducted the evaluation, that it
improved the productivity of our employees by about ten percent
(14:03):
in the early phases of the trial. That last piece
is important because The second thing we learned is that
the program kept improving, and it would have continued to
improve had the twelve week trial not ended, so we
did not get to maximize productivity in the twelve weeks
which we did this. And then third, we were able
to orient our people towards more complex and human centered interactions,
(14:27):
which are inherently more productive and satisfying. Brad Brener added
that artificial intelligence is an incredibly powerful tool that is
increasingly being used by many, as well as those within
the state government, noting that state government still needs to
lean into it and respect that bright red line for privacy,
(14:48):
telling reporters this technology is all about empowering up public
servants to do an even better job serving our citizens,
not about replacing them, said quote. We look forward to
continuing to find ways to implement AI and other technologies
in our work here to ensure that we serve the
(15:09):
people of North Carolina even better every day. Doctor Grady,
the founding director of North Carolina Essential University's Institute for
Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research, said that the forty eight
page report that was conducted by NCUU shows that the
employees using chat GPT expressed relief, enthusiasm, and delight. Over
(15:35):
seventy one percent had a very positive sentiment when using
chat GPT, while only seven percent of employees that were
using this under that twelve week trial had what were
described as a neutral feeling on the program. Employees began
saving fifteen to thirty minutes in the beginning of the
initial survey, with the time going up to thirty to
(15:58):
sixty minutes a day at the end of the twelve
week period. There were four user types within this pilot program.
The biggest were sporadic users who used it occasionally. The
next largest percentage were super users, those individuals were able
to integrate chat GPT from multiple different workflows, with the
(16:20):
third being consistent users who used it for repeatable tasks,
and the last, finally were non users individuals that did
not use the program very much at all. A reporter
asked if OpenAI could help out with automated functions in
the state's Division of Motor Vehicle. Briner joked that he
wasn't sure if it could if he had the ability
to touch the DMV question, but later answered the question
(16:44):
by saying that there was no question that the power
of technology for anything that deals with data could see
a tremendous amount of growth and productivity and could improve
the operations. Like any other agency, including potentially that of
DMV will, open AI isn't perfect and does make mistakes,
according to doctor Grady. He said that everyone has to
(17:08):
do their due diligence when using the technology, as well
as making sure that things are factual and not relying
on chat, GBT or any other AI project to do
one hundred percent of their job. Briner said that the
trial was set to officially end this morning on Monday,
and that they have been having a lot of conversations
(17:28):
about what some of those next steps are, but are
unsure as they don't know what the price point will
be for the continuation of the program. He told reporters
on Friday, quote, there's real value to this tool. It is,
of course, not the only tool in the artificial intelligent space,
so we're going to run some other trials and think
about other solutions as well. But obviously we're extremely impressed
(17:52):
with what we saw with open AI specifically, and you'll
be hearing from us again sometime in the coming months.
This trial again was announced back in March of this
year at no cost to the State of North Carolina
or the State Treasurer's office. This was a partnership that
OpenAI agreed to do essentially for free. In this twelve
week trial. You can read additional details, including checking out
(18:16):
that full forty eight page report by North Carolina Central
University over on our website. This morning, Carolina Journal dot
com the headline treasurers reports positive results for OpenAI pilot program.
It's five thirty six. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal
(18:38):
News our News Talk eleven ten ninety nine to three WBT.
As we now sit in the first month, or the
first week, i should say, of the month of August,
all eyes are going to be on the state of
North Carolina, as it has been made official on both
the Democrat and Republican side. Two major candidates running for
an open North Carolina United States Senate see that election
(19:02):
heading to the state of North Carolina next November. One
week ago, former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper announced his official
campaign launch on his social on a variety of his
social media platforms, and late in the day on Thursday,
chairman of the Republican National Committee and former NCGOP chairman
Michael Watley made his official announcement in Gastonia. Many individuals
(19:26):
that follow up politics very closely have speculated that this
United States Senate race is likely to be the most
expensive in US history, and what remains to be seen
this morning is how quickly this campaign will materialize on
both the Democrat and Republican side. Text messages, emails, and
(19:46):
social media jabs have already been going out from both
campaigns as we continue to track this very high stakes race.
We'll continue with our coverage of this election all the
way through November of next year over on our website,
Carolina Journal dot com, and of course, as we get
new polling details, big statements and comments from both of
(20:06):
these candidates, will continue to bring them to you right
here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's now
five thirty seven, News Talk eleven ten ninety nine to
three WBT. We're looking into a very interesting legal battle
that could have major implications for law enforcement practices across
North Carolina. At the center of this case, whether police
(20:27):
can rely on the smell of marijuana combined with a
so called cover scent like cologne has probable cause for
a vehicle search. To walk us through this very interesting
legal challenge, This morning, Mitch Koki from the John Locke
Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch,
this is an interesting situation unfolding across North Carolina.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
It really is. In this dates back nick to the
time when North Carolina made hemp legal, and so one
of the things that has cropped up since then is
that those who advocate for clients who've been charged based
on marijuana sense have said, look, hemp smells the same
as marijuana. So if there is a search of a
(21:08):
vehicle that's based or a residence based on the odor
of marijuana that law enforcement detects before conducting this search,
that that is unconstitutional because they may be violating people's
rights who didn't have anything to do with marijuana. They
just had they were around hemp. And so the courts
(21:30):
in North Carolina have struck down this argument that the
odor of marijuana can no longer be used as a
basis for probable cause for a search. But this latest
case that comes out of Greensboro has an interesting twist
because the officers in this case stopped a car and
then searched the car because not only did they detect
(21:53):
the odor of marijuana, but they also detected a very
strong scent of cologne, or at least one officer described
it as a strong fruity smell. And so the cologne
combined with the marijuana, they said the cologne was a
cover scent. And so, as this case has gone through
the courts, the defendant, who was eventually charged with a
(22:15):
gun crime the search said that wait a minute, my
Fourth Amendment rights were violated because they had this odor,
which could have been hemp, not marijuana, legal hemp and
the legal cologne. The officers put those two things together
and came up with what the lawyers in this case
described as an unconstitutional double odor rule. Now, the courts,
(22:40):
so far at the trial court level and the State
Court of Appeals in a unanimous decision, struck this down,
saying no, the officers proceeded in the proper way. They
looked at what they call the totality of the circumstances
before deciding to engage in the search. And because of that,
what was revealed than the search was able to be
(23:01):
used in court. And that's why after they found this
defendant his name was Tyron Dobson, after they found a
gun on him, in charge it with a gun crime,
that is able to stand. What's interesting is that though
the state Court of Appeals ruled unanimously against Dobson, the
state Supreme Court has agreed to take the case and
(23:21):
agreed earlier this year to take it up. And the
latest development is that the statewide groups that deal with
district attorneys, sheriffs in North Carolina, and chiefs of police
all filed a joint brief this week supporting the law
enforcement stance in this case, saying that, look, this is
(23:42):
not a case of some sort of unconstitutional violation of
Forth Amendment rights. The officers in this case were engaging
in common sense law enforcement. They smelled marijuana, They smelled
this cologne which could have been a cover set that
those two actors, combined with everything else that their law
(24:02):
enforcement training prepares them for, said that this is a
vehicle that needs to be searched, and of course after
they had the search, they found additional drugs and they
found the gun on this suspect, Dobson, who eventually was
charged and convicted. So it'll be very interesting to see
what the State Supreme Court does with this case. Now,
(24:24):
the State Supreme Court didn't need to take the case
because there was a unanimous decision from the Court of Appeals.
But the state Supreme Court has decided to review this issue,
and now all of these big law enforcement groups for
the das, the sheriffs, and the police chiefs are all saying, look,
you should allow this search and the conviction that came
out of it to stand.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Before we get into some more pertinent details about this
case itself, I want to go back to what you
just mentioned there at the end, a unanimous court of
appeals had already ruled on this. Mitch reading the tea leaves,
why do you think the Supreme Court would take something
like this up? Is there anything that you can gather
in that.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Well. One clue that you might get is from the
way that the Supreme Court decided to handle this case.
When the appeal was made to the Supreme Court, the
lawyers basically said, here are two options for why the
state Supreme Court might take the case. The first option
was the idea that smelling marijuana means you could be
(25:22):
smelling hemp, which is legal, and so that has to
be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court rejected that, and I think
partly that's because the courts in North Carolina have already
dealt with this issue. I don't believe that it's gone
to the State Supreme Court yet, but the Court of
Appeals has on multiple occasions said that this is not
a reason to throw out a search. But the second
(25:44):
item that was put forward was this notion that the
courts have sanctioned an unconstitutional double odor rule. And I
think that's something that at least for a majority of
the State Supreme Court, of the number of justices they
need to decide they're going to hear the case, was
something that they wanted to address whether this idea of
(26:06):
having the marijuana smell and the colonne smell together came
up with some sort of new double odor rule that
would be unconstitutional. I think they decided that they're going
to take that up, either to say that no, you
can't use these two things in concert with each other
as the only factors to have a law enforcement search,
(26:27):
or on the other hand, they decided that let's just
settle this for good and say that the marijuana smell
is still good and having the colonne smell along with
it is not going to be something that's going to
distract from this other factor. My guess is the State
Supreme Court really just wanted to say, let's settle this
(26:49):
once and for all, or at least as once and
for all as any court cases can be settled, and
this was a good case for them to do that.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And looking at these two scenarios you lay out, Probable
cause obviously is a very important part of law enforcement,
and this would have an impact across the entire state
of North Carolina. Mitch, you can imagine a situation if
the Supreme Court comes down on this and says, oh,
that additional odor of a heavy cologne or some other
smell throws out probable cause, that would put law enforcement
(27:19):
probably a pretty tricky and tough situation.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Yeah, I really could, and I think that's one of
the reasons why those various law enforcement groups, with the das,
the sheriffs, and the police chiefs wanted to weigh in
on this case. Basically, their argument is these law enforcement
officers are using their training and using common sense to
decide when to search a vehicle. An officer smells marijuana,
(27:44):
that in and of itself is a good basis for
a search, and courts have said that they also smell
the cologne. That's something that can be used to try
to cover up marijuana sentence. So that's another reason that
would factor in to a law enforcement decision that a
particular vehicle or a particular residence is liable for a search. Now,
(28:08):
of course, it is important to want to protect Fourth
Amendment rights.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
You don't want.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Law enforcement just to decide I'm going to search anyone
I want for any reason. There needs to be a good,
legitimate probable cause, and I think this case has at
least the potential to set some good guidelines on what
is appropriate and what is inappropriate when law enforcement wants
to search a vehicle or residence without having a warrant.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
We've got a lot more interesting details on that case
this morning. You can read those over on our website,
Carolina Journal dot com. We appreciate the update. Mitchkoki from
the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal
News Hour. It's five point fifty three. Welcome back to
the Carolina Journal News Hour, Newstock eleven, ten EBT. Don't
(29:01):
forget if you miss any of our program Monday morning
or weekday mornings, I should say a five to six
right here on WBT. You can check out our Carolina
Journal News Hour podcast. It's available in Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
anywhere you get your shows. Just search for the Carolina
Journal News Hour, tap that subscribe or follow button, and
you'll get a new program delivered each and every weekday morning.
(29:23):
You can also watch the show live and listen to
it after the fact on our Carolina Journal YouTube channel.
Turning our attention to some statewide news this morning, the
local local municipalities affected by Hurricane Helen more than ten
months ago have yet another chance over the next week
or so to apply for assistance through the Helen Cash
(29:45):
Flow Loan Program. North Carolina State Treasurer Brad Briner made
the announcement on Thursday of last week that the third
round of more than fifty one and a half million
dollars in funding is now ready to be sent out
to local communities affected. This is all thanks to the
passage of the Disaster Recovery Act of twenty twenty five,
(30:05):
Part two, which was signed into law back on June
the twenty seventh. The State Treasurer's office administers the cash
loan program, with State Treasurer Brad Bryner saying, quote, this
is money they otherwise would have to wait for an
extended period of time to get from the federal government,
noting that quote, The cash flow loan program has been
(30:27):
very successful since its implementation just a few short months ago.
Communities now have nearly one hundred million dollars in hand
and it is already being used in their recovery work.
The second round of the loan program used remaining a
thirty four point four million dollars under Senate Bill three
eighty two that was the Disaster Recovery Act of twenty
(30:50):
twenty four, which became law in December of last year,
just before the turn of the calendar, and was sent
out to those municipalities in the month of More than
seventy three million dollars were also sent to participating municipalities
in February in the first round of these interest free loans.
A total of ninety seven million dollars has been loaned
(31:13):
in the past six months. Many of those recipients we
have been covering as we continue to track recovery and
relief efforts in the western half of North Carolina. Last week,
we talked about Maggie Valley that's in Heywood County and
the more than two hundred thousand dollars that they have
received from the state government again at zero interest, and
(31:35):
that has been incredibly helpful. As the initial damage assessments
of Maggie Valley post Hurricane Helene are expected to cost
somewhere in the ballpark of four point seven million dollars.
That is a pretty significant amount of money when you
look at the town of Maggie Valley, their yearly budget
is only five point two million dollars. Most of the
(31:57):
initial damage was sewer related and damn image to parks
near the Jonathan Creek. Several creeks in the small town
overflowed into the valley, causing a major damage that required cleanup,
which also accounts for those initial damage costs of four
point seven million dollars. The mayor of Maggie Valley, Mike Eveland,
(32:18):
told The Carolina Journal previously that Maggie Valley's cash flow
situation is currently stable and that's in large part thanks
to the state's financial assistance, noting that the town received
a low interest loan from the Department of Environmental Quality
as well for more than two and a half million dollars,
which also needs to be repaid over the next five years.
(32:41):
As with the first two rounds, local governments willing to participate,
do need to complete a pretty significant amount of paperwork
to get those low interest loans from the State of
North Carolina. The deadline for this third round of funding
is August the fifteenth, as we continue to track recovery
and release efforts across western North Carolina. So that's going
(33:03):
to do it. For a Monday edition of The Carolina
Journal News Hour WBT News is next, followed by Good
Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning five to
six right here on Newstalk eleven, ten and ninety nine
three WBT
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