Gov. Cooper: 2018 was a tough year for North Carolina

RALEIGH, NC (WWAY) — From holding Chemours accountable for dumping GenX in the Cape Fear River to recovering from Hurricane Florence, it’s been quite a year for North Carolina.

WWAY’s Jeff Rivenbark went to Raleigh to sit down with Gov. Roy Cooper to get his reaction on some of big stories making headlines this year.

From gingerbread houses to beautifully-decorated trees, the North Carolina Executive Mansion is decked out for the holidays.

The governor sat down with us to share his thoughts about a number of issues that have impacted the state this year.

High on the list was holding Chemours accountable for polluting the Cape Fear River.

Cooper says the Department of Environmental Quality needs additional inspectors to better enforce pollution laws.

“They have had significant cuts over the last few years,” he said. “I hope that with the new General Assembly to be more balances, there will be significant help for people to do testing, for scientists, for those who can inspect so that proper regulation can occur.”

Another concern high on the governor’s list? Working for more resources to help struggling homeowners and business owners trying to recover from Hurricane Florence.

“There’s been already 83 million distributed by state and federal government to New Hanover County and surrounding counties significant dollars and over a billion dollars distributed statewide to people, but there’s a lot more to do,” Cooper said. “I have asked for over 6 billion in federal assistance from Congress, we have asked for $1.5 billion from the General Assembly, businesses have stepped up, volunteers have stepped up, we have to conquer this problem.”

We also asked about allegations of voter fraud in the state’s 9th Congressional District to which Cooper said he finds very disturbing.

“When looking at these allegations that have occurred there is a potential that a lot of people’s votes did not count or were misrepresented in some way,” he said. “The Board of Elections has the authority to investigate and they should and if these allegations are proven true, they absolutely should order another election.”

Cooper says 2018 was a tough year for the state, but he’s determined to work with state lawmakers to try to tackle these issues and more in the year ahead.

We also asked Cooper about a number of other tropics including more support of educators and funding to renourish local beaches damaged during Florence. Jeff Rivenbark will have more from the governor in the days ahead.