WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans seeking to become North Carolina’s first Black governor Mark Robinson He denounces government safety net spending as “welfare and victimhood” that has trapped generations of black people in “dependence” and poverty.
But the lieutenant governor Political rise It wouldn’t have been possible without it.
For the past decade, Robinson’s family has relied on income from Balanced Nutrition, a nonprofit founded by his wife, Yolanda Hill. North Carolina The group, which is funded entirely by taxpayers, has collected roughly $7 million in government funds since 2017 and paid at least $830,000 in salaries to Hill, Robinson and other members of their families, tax returns and state documents show.
The income provided Robinson’s family with some stability after decades of hardship that included multiple bankruptcies, foreclosures, and a misdemeanor for writing a bad check (later dropped). Robinson says the financial turnaround the organization brought about also helped him rise through the ranks in North Carolina state government.
“Yolanda’s nonprofit paid her a salary that was enough to support us,” Robinson wrote in his 2022 memoir, noting that its growth gave him the freedom to quit his furniture-making job in 2018 and launch a career in populist conservative politics.
“I would give speeches or go to my wife’s office downtown to help her with her work,” he wrote about juggling his early political work with Balanced Nutrition, which records show paid him about $40,000 in 2018. “When I ran for office, I stopped doing that. … Now my son does it.”
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But with battleground state elections nearing the end of the day, the nonprofit that provided a vital lifeline to families has become a political liability after state officials launched a financial investigation into the organization in March, accusing it of years of financial irregularities, including more than $100,000 in unaccounted expenses.
The investigation adds to a difficult situation for Robinson, who has already attracted negative attention for a series of inflammatory comments, including calling former first lady Michelle Obama a “man” and using the word “filth” to describe gay and transgender people.
Robinson, who would oversee a state budget of more than $30 billion if elected governor, has denied any wrongdoing and blasted the investigation as politically motivated. His campaign declined to make him or his family available for interviews. But campaign spokesman Michael Lonergan defended Balanced Nutrition’s work, saying a routine audit found no “material weaknesses” in the group’s 2021 finances.
“Lt. Governor Robinson is proud of the work his wife has done to provide nutritious meals to poor children,” Lonergan said. “Democrats are weaponizing the bureaucracy against the families of their political opponents.”
Personal conflicts
Robinson’s frequent stories of struggle and redemption set him apart from Raleigh’s politicians and wealthy tycoons, and this compelling autobiography, combined with Robinson’s bold statements, have endeared him to Republicans. Donald Trumpendorsed Robinson at a rally in March. The presumptive Republican presidential candidate often calls Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
“I grew up poor,” Robinson likes to say, recounting his childhood as the son of an alcoholic father who died when he was in elementary school. “I lost my car, I lost my home,” he recalls, “I was forced to file bankruptcy,” and “I lost my job not once, but twice.”
“Like you, I don’t need politicians to tell me what to worry about,” he said, noting the “corrosive thoughts” he has about money issues.
In fact, from the 1990s through recent years, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Hill endured long periods of financial hardship that were more complicated than he typically tells voters.
The couple declared bankruptcy three times between 1998 and 2003 and did not file federal income taxes for five years until they were forced to do so during the bankruptcy proceedings.
They left a trail of disgruntled creditors, including the Girl Scouts, according to court documents, and a former landlord whose wife was dying of cancer after the Robinsons failed to pay $2,000 in rent, according to local news reports and a 2012 lawsuit document.
A bankruptcy judge dismissed the Robinsons’ 2003 bankruptcy filing after they failed to make payments to creditors as agreed upon in court. The bankruptcy filing ended with Robinson and Hill paying about $9,000 of the roughly $71,000 they negotiated in bankruptcy court.
Lonergan said the bankruptcy is “old news” and that it just proves Robinson “has lived through the hardships of many North Carolinians.”
A nonprofit that provides meals to children
Ms. Hill founded her nonprofit in 2015 and soon won approval to run a joint state-federal program that pays child care centers to feed low-income children, and which requires detailed records of operations and expenses.
State officials found problems with Balanced Nutrition’s documentation starting in 2020 and were on the verge of placing the organization on the Department of Health and Human Services’ “severely deficiency” list. A major problem was insufficient documentation, missing menus, work schedules, pre-approvals for some expenses and verification of income eligibility for children receiving assistance, according to government emails obtained by The Associated Press.
The emails also pointed to another problem: $134,729.23 in expenses last year weren’t listed on documents Hill filed with the state as part of his annual required paperwork. Hill moved to shut down the nonprofit in April amid increased scrutiny from state regulators, but the email exchanges suggested state officials were pursuing “some kind of personal or political vendetta.”
But a series of pay raises Hill gave himself, approved by the Balanced Nutrition Committee, which included his family, are clearly documented.
The group got off to an inauspicious start, but by 2022, its budget exceeded $1.7 million, according to tax returns. By 2023, Hill was making $150,000 per year, according to state documents. Part of her raise coincided with Balanced Nutrition receiving additional federal pandemic relief money, including a $150,000 grant in 2023 made possible through the American Rescue Plan that the president signed into law. Joe BidenAccording to Balanced Nutrition’s revised budget filed with the state, Hill submitted paperwork granting him a $10,000 salary increase on the same day he disclosed receiving the grant.
Hill also received a $28,000 pay raise in 2020, which coincided with the company receiving a roughly $57,000 federal loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, which was intended to help businesses struggling with revenue losses during the pandemic. The loan, which was later forgiven, was previously reported by North Carolina news site The Assembly. Balanced Nutrition also received $45,000 in Minority Women’s Business Grant funding through 2022-2023, according to state documents.
The records also show the couple’s son will receive a $5,600 annual raise for part-time work in 2023, and their daughter will receive an $83,000 raise that year. The Robinsons’ children, both adults, did not respond to requests for comment.
As previously reported by The Daily Haymaker, a conservative North Carolina website, Robinson himself appears to have received payments through the nonprofit in 2018. He was due to receive $42,000, according to state records, but the organization didn’t report the payment to him on its tax returns that year, and Robinson didn’t report the income from the organization on financial disclosure forms he filed as a candidate for lieutenant governor.
As Balanced Nutrition grew, Robinson ran for statewide office as a staunch fiscal conservative who criticized government as too big and too expensive, especially with liberals in power.
“The Democrats are the party of welfare benefits and dependency. The Republicans are the party of freedom and opportunity,” Robinson wrote in his memoir.
In 2021, after Hill took up her statewide position and now draws a public employee salary of $157,000 a year, Balanced Nutrition stopped reporting specific compensation information for Robinson’s family on its annual tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service requires such figures to be submitted. But the filings list Hill and her son as earning zero, a figure that contradicts figures the nonprofit has provided to the state.
The campaign noted that in a separate routine audit for the 2021 calendar year, an independent firm “did not find any deficiencies in (Balanced Nutrition’s) internal controls that would be considered a material weakness.”
Lonergan said this suggests that “Democrats are just moving the goalposts in the current polls.”
But the independent auditing firm noted that its audit is different from additional investigations by state agencies that award grants and closely evaluate how the money is being spent.
The Balanced Nutrition accounting fraud isn’t the only time Robinson’s finances have come under scrutiny since he first ran for office.
Robinson’s spending has come under scrutiny since the 2020 campaign. Some expenses have been the subject of a state ethics complaint that Robinson’s campaign says is still under litigation. Those expenses included $5,600 paid to Hill for “campaign apparel” and a rental car, and $2,375 paid to an outdoor equipment rental company on a popular lakeside resort just across the Virginia border. And the day after Christmas in 2019, Robinson withdrew $2,400 in cash from his campaign fund for an unspecified purpose, according to his campaign finance disclosure form.
North Carolina law prohibits campaign spending for personal or family benefit and unexplained cash withdrawals of more than $50. Lonergan said Robinson answered questions from state campaign finance regulators “almost three years ago” and has pressed the agency for a resolution, but has not received one. A spokesman for the agency said North Carolina law prohibits them from discussing inquiries about campaign finance complaints.
As the state moves forward with its investigation into Balanced Nutrition, there are signs the Robinsons are once again facing financial pressures.
Federal and state regulations prohibit the nonprofit from using public funds, its only source of income, to pay legal costs. Earlier this month, the couple took out a $96,000 line of credit using their home as collateral, according to public lending records.
In his 2022 book, Robinson is more candid about his shortcomings than usual for a bombastic gubernatorial candidate: He wrote that he was looking for a candidate who “wouldn’t make mistakes.”
“I found nothing,” he declared.
He then turned his attention to one of his favorite targets: the federal government: “I’ll be honest with you, if you go to Washington, DC, you’ll find there are people out there who have done much worse,” he wrote.
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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
