Coronavirus: The rainy days are here. Give North Carolinians some of their money back.

For years, Republicans have boasted about building a rainy day fund with billions of dollars that North Carolinians could use in a crisis. We’ve long disagreed with lawmakers feeding that fund while starving critical programs across the state, but we can agree on one thing. The rainy days are here.

Now, two Republicans are proposing - with the apparent blessing of Senate leader Phil Berger - that lawmakers use some of the surplus to restart the N.C. economy in response to the damage being done by Covid-19.

“Supply chain interruptions and stock market volatility are generating concern from everyday citizens and small business owners about their economic future,” Sens. Ralph Hise and Ted Alexander wrote in an op-ed Wednesday for the Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer. “We should reassure them by announcing now a broad stimulus package that would, in effect, send one-time cash to North Carolinians using the substantial surplus we’ve accumulated.”

From there, details are scarce. We don’t know when the stimulus would begin, how much the senators have in mind or whether the payments would be tiered among different levels of wage earners. The op-ed was essentially a trial balloon, but importantly, Berger signaled his approval when his press office sent an email to supporters about the op-ed later in the day Wednesday.

That’s good. North Carolinians should be encouraged by the Hise and Alexander proposal. It acknowledges that to rev our state’s economic engine, money needs to flow from regular North Carolinians to businesses. It also acknowledges that there are different approaches to a stimulus, and Hise and Alexander seem to welcome the input that will inevitably come.

“We expect more conversations between different parties and across different branches of government in the coming weeks about the best path forward,” they wrote. “Policy proposals will evolve and, hopefully, improve during that time.from people in both parties.”

Let’s hope that’s true. N.C. Republicans and Democrats haven’t worked together well recently on big issues - as our 2019 state budget to nowhere demonstrates. If Republicans are sincere about this invitation to collaborate, Democrats and Gov. Roy Cooper should respond in kind.

Certainly, there will be important questions to resolve, most critically how that money will be divided. Will it be a equal flat payment to each taxpaying North Carolinian? Will the payment be tiered with high wage earners getting a bit less, as some U.S. senators are pushing for with a national stimulus? Will children get any money?

We believe a state stimulus should prioritize those hit hardest financially by the coronavirus crisis, especially those who have lost their jobs or had hours reduced. Hise and Alexander don’t disagree, and they suggest that the one-time cash payment might be accompanied with legislation expanding unemployment benefits. Even with such a pairing, the payment might be most effective in a tiered structure, with less going to the affluent who already have money to spend.

We also can’t say this loudly enough: Republicans should finally consider Medicaid expansion, which would relieve a health and financial burden on hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians.

Lawmakers can sort through those approaches when they come back to Raleigh this spring. For now, they should applaud Hise’s and Alexander’s proposal instead of fighting over it. COVID-19 already is devastating local workers, businesses and economies across the state. The rainy days are here. The crisis is frighteningly real. North Carolina should use every asset it has to fight it.

This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 11:49 AM.