Merritt gives demerits to naughty nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations that receive state money but then do not disclose to the state auditor how they spent it are featured on a new noncompliance list on the state auditor's Web site.

The most recent list shows that roughly 450 nonprofits had not provided at least one of two required reports. One report shows how they spent the state money; the other describes the nonprofits' activities.

Chris Mears, a spokesman for State Auditor Les Merritt, said some of those nonprofits had produced the required reports, but they had only given them to the state agency that funded them. They did not realize that the law required them to also give copies to the auditor.

That law will change next year so that nonprofits have to provide the reports only to the funding agencies. The auditor's office will then have to go to the agencies for the reports.

Merritt created the noncompliance list as part of the state's efforts to increase accountability from nonprofits in the wake of a scandal involving a nonprofit started by former U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance.

Ballance had secured $2.3 million in state money for the John A. Hyman Memorial Youth Foundation, an anti-drug and alcohol group, during his tenure as a state lawmaker. But some of that money ended up going to Ballance's law firm and his family.

Ballance is now serving four years in a federal prison after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge.

The noncompliance list can be found at www.ncauditor.net.

Ruling on Black affects DA

A state judge's decision that House Speaker Jim Black received $6,800 in illegal contributions from a political action committee could have ramifications on Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby's criminal investigation into the campaign checks that Black passed on to former Rep. Michael Decker.

Willoughby has not decided to file criminal charges in the case, but if he does, Black's attorneys won't be able to say that a state judge found the practice of passing campaign checks with the payee lines blank to be legal.

Superior Court Judge James Spencer Jr., instead, agreed with the finding by the State Board of Elections that the N.C. State Optometric Society Political Action Committee needed to report receiving the incomplete checks from its members and then report them as contributions to Black.

"His interpretation of the law is the same as ours, and that's if you give money to someone, they have a duty to keep records and report it," Willoughby said.

Black testified in an election board hearing in February that he passed three incomplete checks from optometrists totalling $4,200 to Decker's campaign.

Easley takes the heat off

While it's still pretty balmy around here, the heat wave has come to an end, and so has Gov. Mike Easley's directive that state buildings raise their thermostats by a couple degrees to save energy during peak power demand.

Easley on Tuesday said that building temperatures can return to their normal settings of 76 to 78 degrees.

"First and foremost, I want to thank all of those in state government, and all North Carolinians who helped to curtail power consumption during the heat wave," Easley said. "Taken together, these individual actions made a major contribution toward managing the overall load on the state's electric utilities and avoiding a power emergency."

Nice birthday for Etheridge

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Democrat, raised more than $110,000 from the home town folks in Lillington last week.

Etheridge held his annual birthday fundraiser at Central Harnett County High School. More than 250 people attended.

Etheridge is being challenged by Republican Dan Mansell of Johnston County.